Texas HOA Architectural Review

Texas does not regulate architectural review with one comprehensive statute the way California does with its Davis-Stirling Act. Instead, the state layers a targeted set of Property Code chapters on top of each community's recorded declaration. So the first defensible move in any approve-or-deny decision is a simple one: figure out what kind of association you are dealing with, and confirm which chapter applies.

Quick Reference

1. How Architectural Review Works in Texas

Architectural control in Texas starts with the community's recorded declaration — the CC&Rs. That document authorizes the board, and in many communities a separate architectural review authority, to review and approve exterior improvements.¹ Statute does not create the power to review. It channels how a board must exercise that power. So apply the order of precedence in this sequence: the governing statute first, then the declaration, then the bylaws, and finally the recorded rules and architectural guidelines.

Texas takes a targeted approach rather than a comprehensive one, and three chapters of the Property Code carry most of the weight. Chapter 209, the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, governs residential homeowners' associations.² Chapter 82, the Texas Uniform Condominium Act, governs condominiums whose declaration was recorded on or after January 1, 1994 — and older condominiums fall under Chapter 81, though some Chapter 82 sections reach back to cover them.³ Chapter 202 supplies the rules for construing and enforcing restrictive covenants, and it houses the statutory carve-outs: solar, roofing, flags, signs, and more.⁴

Classification comes first, then, because it controls everything downstream. Chapter 209 does not apply to a condominium as defined by § 81.002 or § 82.003 (§ 209.003(d)).² A condominium association that runs its architectural review under Chapter 209's committee rules is simply applying the wrong statute.

If you want a defensible decision, follow the workflow. First, confirm the association type and the controlling chapter. Second, locate the specific authority and standard in the declaration and the guidelines. Third, apply the statutory notice, timing, and carve-out overlays. And fourth, document that the decision rests on recorded standards, applied consistently. The rest of this page separates what Texas statute requires from what the declaration supplies — and that distinction is what determines whether a denial survives a challenge.

2. The Legal Framework

2A. Source and Scope of Architectural Authority

The authority to review and approve improvements is contractual before it is statutory. It flows from the recorded declaration, which nearly always designates an architectural review committee — the statute calls it an "architectural review authority" — and spells out what the association may regulate: materials, setbacks, height, color, fencing, landscaping, and the like. Chapter 202 confirms and channels that authority. Under § 202.004(a), a court presumes an association's exercise of discretionary authority over a restrictive covenant to be reasonable, unless it finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the association acted in an arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory way.⁴

The two-statute split is the core structural feature. Chapter 209 — the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, which the Legislature added in 2001 and made effective January 1, 2002 — governs residential HOAs, meaning mandatory-membership subdivisions subject to assessment-authorizing declarations (§ 209.003(a)–(c)).² Chapter 82, the Texas Uniform Condominium Act, governs condominiums whose declaration was recorded on or after January 1, 1994; § 82.002 lists the specific sections that also reach condominiums recorded before that date, and Chapter 81, the older Texas Condominium Act, governs the rest.³ This next point matters: Chapter 209 does not apply to a condominium (§ 209.003(d)), so a Chapter 82 condominium follows its own chapter and its declaration — not § 209.00505's committee mechanics.¹

Chapter 202 sits across both. It governs how courts construe restrictive covenants (§ 202.003) and how associations enforce them (§ 202.004), and it supplies the statutory carve-outs we discuss in 2C. Section 202.004(c) also authorizes civil damages of up to $200 for each day of a violation, which shapes an association's enforcement leverage.⁴

Here is the practical takeaway for a reviewer. The declaration defines what you may regulate and the standard you apply; the statute defines the procedure you must follow and the substantive limits you may not cross. A denial that rests on a specific recorded guideline, moves through the statutory process, and applies consistently across the community carries the § 202.004(a) presumption of reasonableness. A denial that rests on unwritten preference, or that treats comparable applications differently, invites the arbitrary-or-discriminatory finding that defeats that presumption.

2B. The Fining-and-Enforcement Due-Process Scheme

Chapter 209 imposes a rigorous notice-and-hearing sequence before an association may penalize an owner, and every deadline in it is exact. Under § 209.006, before an association may suspend an owner's right to use a common area, file suit (other than to collect an assessment or foreclose), charge an owner for property damage, levy a fine, or report a delinquency to a credit reporting service, it must send the owner written notice by certified mail. That notice must describe the violation or the damage, state any amount owed, and tell the owner three things: that the owner (A) is entitled to a reasonable period to cure a curable violation that does not threaten public health or safety; (B) may request a hearing under § 209.007 on or before the 30th day after the association mailed the notice; and (C) may have rights under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act while on active military duty. The statute also directs the association to send the notice "by verified mail to the owner at the owner's last known address" (§ 209.006(b)(4)) — a term that sits right alongside the subsection (a) "certified mail" instruction, and both appear in the enacted text. The cure right does not apply if the owner already received notice and an opportunity to cure a similar violation in the preceding six months (§ 209.006(d)).⁵

Under § 209.007, the association must hold the requested hearing no later than the 30th day after the board receives the request, and it must notify the owner of the date, time, and place at least 10 days beforehand. Either side may take one postponement of not more than 10 days, and the parties may agree to more; and if the association fails to deliver its required evidence packet on time, the owner gets an automatic 15-day postponement.⁶

Two limits trip people up. First, foreclosure and fines are not interchangeable. Section 209.009 bars an association from foreclosing an assessment lien when the debt consists solely of fines, or solely of attorney's fees tied to fines; foreclosure is a remedy for unpaid assessments, not for fines.⁷ Second, when a foreclosure of an assessment lien does happen, the owner — and certain lienholders — hold a statutory right of redemption for 180 days after the association mails notice of the sale (§ 209.011),⁸ and associations of more than 14 lots must offer guidelines for an alternative payment schedule (§ 209.0062).⁹ Conflating fine enforcement with assessment foreclosure is the single most common, and most expensive, enforcement error associations make in Texas.

2C. Statutory and Federal Limits on Architectural Authority

Chapter 202 pulls a defined list of items out of the reach of restrictive covenants. Each carve-out comes with conditions, and none of them is absolute. Verify every section number on its own, because the Legislature amends this cluster nearly every session.

• Solar energy devices — § 202.010. An association may not adopt or enforce a provision that prohibits or restricts a solar energy device; such a provision is void, because Texas protects solar. The association may still impose the conditions listed in § 202.010(d) — for a device that a court has found to threaten public health or safety or to violate the law; that sits on association or common property; that extends beyond the roofline; that does not conform to the roof's slope; that is not silver, bronze, or black in tone; that rises above the fence line; or that the owner installed without prior approval — and it may deny a device under the § 202.010(e) substantial-interference standard only through a written determination. During the development period for a development of fewer than 51 planned residential units, a declarant may restrict solar (§ 202.010(f)). H.B. 431 (2025) added solar roof tiles to the definition. Do not tell owners that Texas lets an HOA ban solar.¹⁰
• Roofing materials — § 202.011. An association may not prohibit shingles designed to resist wind and hail, to improve energy efficiency, or to generate solar power, as long as they meet the aesthetic and durability conditions.¹¹
• Flag display — § 202.012. The statute protects the U.S. flag, the Texas state flag, and official U.S. armed-forces flags, subject to reasonable rules on flagpole size, number, location, lighting, and condition — including at least one permitted flagpole up to 20 feet.¹²
• Political signs — § 202.009. The statute protects candidate and ballot-item signs on or after the 90th day before an election, subject to the enumerated content and attachment restrictions.¹³
• Religious items — § 202.018. The statute protects a religious item that an owner displays on the entry to the dwelling out of sincere religious belief, subject to conditions that include a combined 25-square-inch size limit.¹⁴
• Water conservation — §§ 202.007, 202.008. Section 202.007 protects composting, rain barrels and rainwater harvesting, efficient irrigation, and drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf, subject to reasonable plan review for aesthetic compatibility — and § 202.007(d-1) bars an association from unreasonably denying a plan. H.B. 517 (2025) added § 202.008, which bars fines for brown or discolored turf during a water restriction and for 60 days after it lifts.¹⁵
• Standby generators — § 202.019; swimming pool enclosures — § 202.022; security measures — § 202.023. Each of these protects the item while letting the association set reasonable placement and appearance rules; S.B. 711 (2025) refined how § 202.023 treats perimeter and front-line fencing.¹⁶

EV charging: Chapter 202 contains no dedicated electric-vehicle-charging carve-out for single-family HOAs, and Texas has not enacted a residential "right-to-charge" law. Treatment turns on the declaration and, for condominiums, on Chapter 82 governance. Do not assume a statutory EV right.

Federal overlays apply in Texas as they do everywhere, and they add to state law rather than replace it: the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, which permits reasonable safety restrictions; the FCC's OTARD rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, which covers antennas and satellite dishes one meter or less in exclusive-use areas;¹⁷ and the Fair Housing Act reasonable-modification right, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A), which an owner funds and which remains subject to reasonableness. We cover those federal frameworks in more detail separately.

3. Compliance Obligations

Each obligation below carries a label that tells you where it comes from. [STATUTORY] means Texas statute imposes it directly. [DECLARATION] means it arises from the community's governing documents, though statute may still regulate how the association exercises it. That distinction determines what a court will and will not enforce.

A. Adopting and Maintaining Architectural Standards

• [DECLARATION] Ground every reviewable standard — materials, height, setbacks, color, fencing — in the recorded declaration or in duly adopted guidelines. The authority to review improvements is a creature of the declaration, not of statute.
• [STATUTORY] File your dedicatory instruments, including the architectural guidelines, in the county real property records. An unfiled instrument is not enforceable, and you cannot collect on assessment authority you never filed (Ch. 202; § 202.006).¹⁸
• [STATUTORY] For an association of more than 40 lots that is not under declarant control, maintain an architectural review authority separate from the board (§ 209.00505(b)).¹
• [STATUTORY] Do not seat a board member, a board member's spouse, or anyone who lives in a board member's household on the architectural review authority (§ 209.00506, redesignated by S.B. 711, effective September 1, 2025).¹⁹
• [STATUTORY] Solicit candidates for the architectural review authority with at least 10 days' notice before you appoint or elect them (§ 209.00507).¹⁹

B. Reviewing and Deciding Applications

• [DECLARATION] Decide each application against the actual recorded guidelines and any response deadline the declaration specifies. If the documents treat silence as an approval or a denial, that term controls.
• [STATUTORY] Deliver a written denial of an application to construct improvements by certified mail, hand delivery, or electronic delivery (§ 209.00505(d)).¹
• [STATUTORY] In that denial, state the basis in reasonable detail and the changes, if any, the owner must make to win approval, and tell the owner about the right to request a hearing on or before the 30th day after you mailed the notice (§ 209.00505(d)).¹
• [STATUTORY] Hold the appeal hearing before the board within 30 days after the board receives the request, and notify the owner of the date, time, and place at least 10 days beforehand; the board may affirm, modify, or reverse the decision consistent with the declaration (§ 209.00505(e), (i)).¹
• [STATUTORY] Grant a requested postponement of not more than 10 days, and let either party make an audio recording (§ 209.00505(g), (h)).¹

C. Honoring Statutory and Federal Owner Protections

• [STATUTORY] Do not prohibit a protected solar energy device. Deny one only on a § 202.010(d) ground or through the § 202.010(e) written substantial-interference determination (§ 202.010).¹⁰
• [STATUTORY] Permit protected roofing materials, flags, political signs, religious items, water-conserving landscaping, generators, pool enclosures, and security measures, subject only to the specific conditions in §§ 202.007–202.012, 202.018, 202.019, 202.022, and 202.023.^{11,12,13,14,15,16}
• [STATUTORY] Do not fine an owner for brown or discolored turf during a water restriction or for 60 days after it lifts (§ 202.008).¹⁵
• [STATUTORY] Comply with the federal flag act, the FCC's OTARD rule (47 C.F.R. § 1.4000), and the Fair Housing Act reasonable-modification right (42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A)); each of these adds to Texas law rather than replacing it.¹⁷

D. Enforcement and Dispute Resolution

• [STATUTORY] Send the § 209.006 pre-enforcement notice before you suspend a right, charge for damage, levy a fine, sue, or report to a credit service; include the cure right, the 30-day hearing window, and the SCRA advisory (§ 209.006).⁵
• [STATUTORY] Give a curable violation a reasonable cure period unless the owner received similar notice within the preceding six months (§ 209.006(c)–(d)).⁵
• [STATUTORY] Hold the § 209.007 hearing within 30 days of the request, with 10 days' advance notice, and honor the postponement and evidence-packet rules (§ 209.007).⁶
• [STATUTORY] Do not foreclose an assessment lien composed solely of fines or fine-related attorney's fees; foreclosure is for assessments (§ 209.009).⁷
• [STATUTORY] Observe the 180-day right of redemption after an association foreclosure sale, and offer payment-plan guidelines for associations of more than 14 lots (§§ 209.011, 209.0062).^8,9
• [DECLARATION] Enforce consistently. Selective or abandoned enforcement is a defense and can waive the covenant, and inconsistency defeats the § 202.004(a) presumption of reasonableness.⁴

4. Reference Metadata and Audience Guidance

Page Metadata

Market Snapshot

Court Structure

Note: The Fifteenth Court of Appeals began hearing cases in September 2024, created by S.B. 1045 (88th Legislature, 2023). In Kelley v. Homminga, No. 25-9013 (Tex. Mar. 14, 2025) — a unanimous per curiam opinion the court decided alongside Devon Energy Production Co. v. Oliver, No. 25-9014 — the Supreme Court of Texas held: "We conclude S.B. 1045 is susceptible of only one reasonable construction: the Legislature did not intend the Fifteenth Court to hear every civil appeal within its statewide jurisdiction." Ordinary HOA appeals, then, remain in the geographic courts of appeals.²¹

Audience Use

1. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 209.00505, Architectural Review Authority ↩
2. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 209.003, Applicability of Chapter ↩
3. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 82.002, Applicability ↩
4. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 202.004, Enforcement of Restrictive Covenants ↩
5. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 209.006, Notice Required Before Enforcement Action ↩
6. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 209.007, Hearing Before Board; Alternative Dispute Resolution ↩
7. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 209.009, Foreclosure Sale Prohibited in Certain Circumstances ↩
8. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 209.011, Right of Redemption After Foreclosure ↩
9. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0062, Alternative Payment Schedule for Certain Assessments ↩
10. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 202.010, Regulation of Solar Energy Devices (as amended by H.B. 431, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025)) ↩
11. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 202.011, Regulation of Certain Roofing Materials ↩
12. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 202.012, Regulation of Flags and Flagpoles ↩
13. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 202.009, Regulation of Certain Political Signs ↩
14. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 202.018, Regulation of the Display of Certain Religious Items ↩
15. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code §§ 202.007, 202.008, Water-Conserving Measures and Discolored Turf (§ 202.008 added by H.B. 517, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025)) ↩
16. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code §§ 202.019, 202.022, 202.023, Standby Electric Generators; Swimming Pool Enclosures; Security Measures (§ 202.023 as amended by S.B. 711, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025)) ↩
17. Federal Communications Commission, Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 ↩
18. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code § 202.006, Public Records ↩
19. Texas Legislature, Tex. Prop. Code §§ 209.00506, 209.00507, Eligibility to Serve on Architectural Review Authority; Solicitation of Candidates (added/redesignated by S.B. 711, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025)) ↩
20. Foundation for Community Association Research, 2021–2022 U.S. National and State Statistical Review (released Nov. 1, 2022) ↩
21. Fifteenth Court of Appeals, Texas Judicial Branch; Kelley v. Homminga, No. 25-9013 (Tex. Mar. 14, 2025) ↩