Where each item came from

Leasing and home business. S.305, An act relating to housing and land use, introduced January 23, 2026 by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale with four co-sponsors, carried a “Prohibited Uses Disallowed” section voiding covenants that effectively prohibit or unreasonably restrict leasing a unit for residential purposes, and covenants that do the same to operating a family child care home as defined in 33 V.S.A. § 3511. It was referred to committee and received no hearing at all. The same package was in S.328 as introduced and was removed in committee.

Vegetable gardens. H.537, sponsored by Rep. Martin LaLonde, would have added a section voiding covenants against gardens in areas designated for an owner's exclusive use, with a 60-day deemed approval, a $1,000 civil penalty for an intentional violation, and an express list of restrictions an association could keep. It passed the House on March 20, 2026 on a voice vote, was referred to Senate Economic Development on March 25, got one committee date on March 31, and died.²

Accessory dwelling units. Vermont already voids some ADU covenants — 27 V.S.A. § 545(a) invalidates deed restrictions “added after March 1, 2021” that prohibit development allowed under 24 V.S.A. § 4412(1)(E). The date is the whole problem: a declaration recorded before March 2021 is untouched, and virtually every Vermont condominium declaration predates it. Item (3) is the proposal to close that gap.

Why “conventional financing” is the operative phrase

The study does not ask whether these overrides are good policy. It asks what they would cost in financeability. A Vermont condominium whose declaration is overridden to permit leasing may cross investor-concentration thresholds that secondary-market purchasers apply to project eligibility, and a project that loses eligibility loses the mortgage products most of its buyers use.

That is a question the association industry has been making since the bills appeared, and putting it into the statute as the study's framing is a signal about which way the drafting staff has been pointed.

What the report cannot do

It is a report. It creates no rights, binds no association, and changes no covenant. The 2027–2028 biennium is a clean slate: every 2026 bill is dead, and anything built on this report starts as a new bill with a new number.

Nor does the report cover everything associations might expect. Reserve funding is not on the list. Insurance is not on the list. Board governance, records, fines and elections are not on the list. Neither is EV charging, which was settled by Act 168 in the same session.

What to watch next

Two dates. November 15, 2026, when the report is due to the two committees. And the opening of the 2027 session in January, when the bills built on it — if any — get numbers. The Office of Legislative Counsel is also told to identify “external partners with knowledge and expertise in common interest communities across the State”, so who is named in the report's acknowledgements will say a good deal about whose framing it adopted.