What § 544 does once it applies

The protection is a prohibition on the covenant, not a permit for the owner. Subsection (a) provides that “No deed restrictions, covenants, or similar binding agreements running with the land shall prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources from being installed on buildings erected on the lots or parcels covered by the deed restrictions, covenants, or binding agreements.”

It then names the decision-maker directly: “A property owner may not be denied permission to install solar collectors or other energy devices based on renewable resources by any entity granted the power or right in any deed restriction, covenant, or similar binding agreement to approve, forbid, control, or direct alteration of property with respect to residential dwellings.” That phrase — any entity — captures an architectural review committee as squarely as it captures a board.

Subsection (b) is the enforcement: “In any litigation arising under the provisions of this section, the prevailing party shall be entitled to costs and reasonable attorney's fees.” The fee shift runs both ways.

The placement power the board keeps

Section 544(a) reserves one meaningful control: the reviewing entity “may determine the specific location where solar collectors may be installed on the roof within an orientation to the south or within 45° east or west of due south, provided that this determination does not impair the effective operation of the solar collectors.”

That is a roof provision. It does not obviously translate to a balcony, which is where plug-in devices go, and Act 149 did not add a balcony analogue. An association drafting rules for plug-in devices on railings is working without a statutory template.

No date limit — unlike Vermont's other covenant statute

This is the feature that distinguishes § 544 from 27 V.S.A. § 545, Vermont's housing-related covenant-voiding section. Section 545 voids only covenants “added after March 1, 2021” (for the accessory-dwelling-unit and small-lot protections) or “added after July 1, 2023” (for minimum-size and parking restrictions). A 1990 covenant is untouched by § 545.

Section 544 carries no such limitation. It is drafted as a flat prohibition and reaches declarations of any vintage. A Vermont condominium declaration recorded in 1978 is subject to it.

What else Act 149 did

Section 3 bars municipal bylaws from regulating plug-in photovoltaic devices and from prohibiting solar collectors, clotheslines or other renewable energy devices — the municipal parallel to § 544, which already existed at 24 V.S.A. § 2291a. Section 2 gives renters a ten-day-notice route to install a plug-in device, with landlord response rights, which reaches condominium units that are leased.

The bill moved easily. The Senate ordered third reading on a roll call of 29–0 on January 28, 2026 and passed it the next day; the House passed it in concurrence with a proposal of amendment on May 6, and three rounds of amendment followed before the Senate concurred on May 26.²

What to watch next

Section 544 still says nothing about ground-mounted arrays, which are not installed “on buildings”, and nothing about energy storage. Neither gap was addressed in 2026.