Virginia HOA ADUs & Modifications
Section 1: Overview — ADUs and modifications in Virginia
Virginia recodified its community-association law into Title 55.1, Subtitle IV (Common Interest Communities), effective October 1, 2019, and it has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act.1 Within that title, the state runs member modifications through two statutes at once. The Property Owners' Association Act, or POAA, at Va. Code § 55.1-1800 et seq., governs planned-community homeowners associations.2 The Virginia Condominium Act, at § 55.1-1900 et seq., governs condominiums and horizontal property regimes created after July 1, 1974.3 And an older Virginia Horizontal Property Act, at § 55.1-2000 et seq., still governs the condominium projects established before that date.4 So the first move in any modification question is to pin down which statute applies.
The recorded declaration and any architectural guidelines adopted under it drive how an association reviews a modification and then approves or denies it. Two categories carry statutory owner protection. On solar, § 55.1-1820.1 says an association may not stop an owner from installing a solar energy collection device on the owner's own property unless the recorded declaration itself establishes that prohibition, though the association may still impose reasonable size, place, and manner restrictions.5 On electric-vehicle charging, § 55.1-1823.1 lets an owner install a station on property the owner owns, except to the extent the declaration provides otherwise.6
Whether an owner may build an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, is a municipal-zoning question. Virginia has no confirmed statewide statute that overrides association governing documents on ADUs; the local ordinance and the declaration both apply. Four federal frameworks bind every Virginia association no matter what state law says: the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, the FCC's OTARD rule for antennas and satellite dishes, the Fair Housing Act's reasonable-modification duty, and ADA Title III for common-area facilities that operate as public accommodations. The sections that follow lay out the statutory framework, the compliance obligations it creates, and the recent activity in the Legislature and the courts.
Section 2: The legal framework
2A. The three statutes and the regulator
The POAA reaches developments subject to a declaration first recorded after January 1, 1959, associations organized after that date, and subdivisions created under the Subdivided Land Sales Act; it does not reach condominiums, cooperatives, time-shares, or membership campgrounds.2 The Condominium Act supersedes the Horizontal Property Act, so no condominium has been created under the older Act on or after July 1, 1974, though that Act still governs the few pre-1974 regimes.3 All three chapters moved into Title 55.1 effective October 1, 2019, and older sources and cases still cite the former Title 55 sections — the POAA, for one, used to sit at § 55-508 et seq.1 Most associations are also Virginia nonstock corporations. Because the POAA, the Condominium Act, and the Horizontal Property Act use parallel but separately numbered provisions, the first analytical step is always to identify which one controls.
Virginia belongs to the minority of states that keep an active common-interest-community regulator. The Common Interest Community Board, or CICB, a policy board within the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, licenses community-association managers, certifies certain management-firm employees, takes in annual association reports, and administers condominium and time-share registrations.7 A separate Office of the Common Interest Community Ombudsman assists members, receives notices of final adverse decision, and oversees the complaint procedure that every association must adopt.8 The regulator's work centers on registration, manager licensing, and complaint-procedure oversight; it does not regulate architecture, and the Ombudsman handles violations of common-interest-community law, not alleged violations of an association's own governing documents.8 Manager licensing runs under § 54.1-2345 et seq.9
Architectural-review authority itself flows from the declaration, which Virginia courts treat as a contract and construe strictly in favor of the free use of property. In Sainani v. Belmont Glen Homeowners Ass'n, the Supreme Court of Virginia held that a board's rules must relate reasonably to, and stay within the scope of, the recorded covenants, and it rejected any implied power to impose aesthetic design controls.10 Before an association assesses a charge or suspends a privilege for a violation, § 55.1-1819 requires the declaration or duly adopted rules to authorize the charge, written notice and a reasonable chance to cure, at least 14 days' written notice of a hearing, and delivery of the result within seven days; charges may not exceed $50 for a single offense or $10 per day for a continuing one, capped at 90 days.11
2B. Solar, EV, and other categories
Solar anchors the analysis. Under § 55.1-1820.1(B), no association may prohibit an owner from installing a solar energy collection device on that owner's property unless the recorded declaration establishes the prohibition; a board-adopted rule or architectural guideline cannot ban solar outright. The association may still adopt reasonable restrictions on size, place, and manner of placement on individually owned property. A restriction counts as unreasonable if it raises installation cost by 5 percent over the initial proposal or cuts energy production by 10 percent, and the owner must document that with a report from an independent solar-panel design specialist who is NABCEP-certified and licensed in Virginia. The association may prohibit or restrict devices on common areas and common elements.5 The Condominium Act carries a materially identical provision at § 55.1-1951.1.12 This is a declaration-sensitive rule, not a blanket void: the default is no prohibition, but the recorded declaration may create one.
Electric-vehicle charging follows a related but distinct structure. Under § 55.1-1823.1, except to the extent the declaration or another recorded governing document provides otherwise, no association may stop a lot owner from installing an EV charging station for personal use on property the owner owns; reasonable restrictions on number, size, place, and manner are allowed, and the association may prohibit or restrict stations on common areas. The owner must indemnify the association and may have to carry insurance.6 The Condominium Act parallel, § 55.1-1962.1, applies within a unit or an appurtenant limited-common-element parking space and adds that a unit owners' association may bar installation where it is not technically feasible or reasonably practicable because of safety, structural, or engineering conditions.13
On flags, § 55.1-1820 tracks the federal Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 and bars an association from stopping an owner from displaying the United States flag on the owner's own property, subject to reasonable size, place, duration, and manner restrictions necessary to protect a substantial association interest, with common-area flags restrictable.14 Virginia has no HOA-specific statute on landscaping or water-conserving measures, so landscaping falls to the declaration and any guidelines adopted under it. The practical effect is plain: a modification request outside the solar, EV, and flag categories turns almost entirely on the declaration.
2C. ADUs and federal overlays
Virginia has no confirmed statewide statute that reaches association governing documents on accessory dwelling units. ADUs run on two layers: municipal and county zoning, which decides whether an ADU may be built at all and on what terms, and the recorded declaration, which controls within a common-interest community. Because Virginia is a Dillon Rule state, localities exercise only the zoning powers the General Assembly grants them, and ADU treatment varies widely by jurisdiction. Lawmakers have introduced legislation to require localities to permit ADUs by right in single-family zones, but it has not become law.15 So Virginia does not belong with the HOA-preemption states on ADUs. California voids any covenant or governing-document provision that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts an ADU on a single-family lot under Civil Code § 4751,16 and Colorado's HB 24-1152 renders conflicting HOA restrictions void as a matter of public policy.17
Four federal overlays bind every association, whatever Virginia law says. The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 protects display of the United States flag.18 The FCC's OTARD rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, limits restrictions on certain antennas and satellite dishes within an owner's exclusive-use area.19 The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3), requires an association to permit reasonable modifications for residents with disabilities, generally at the resident's expense.20 And ADA Title III can reach common-area facilities that qualify as public accommodations. These are federal protections; the Virginia flag statute is a separate state protection, and the antenna, disability-modification, and ADA protections do not come from Virginia statute.
Section 3: Compliance obligations created by the framework
A. Architectural review process obligations
Review authority and standards come from the declaration and any architectural guidelines adopted under it, and that holds for planned communities, post-1974 condominiums, and pre-1974 condominiums alike. Before it assesses a charge or suspends a privilege, the association must confirm the declaration or duly adopted rules authorize the charge, give written notice and a chance to cure, provide at least 14 days' notice of a hearing, and deliver the result within seven days, per § 55.1-1819, with the Condominium Act carrying a parallel rule.11 Every association must also adopt and use a complaint procedure that the Ombudsman oversees, and that applies to all association types.8 Decisions should go in writing and records should be kept, because a committee's process is reviewable in any enforcement litigation.
B. Modifications the association must permit
The association must permit solar on an owner's own property unless the recorded declaration establishes a prohibition, subject to reasonable size, place, and manner restrictions, under § 55.1-1820.1 (POAA) and § 55.1-1951.1 (Condominium Act).5,12 That is a declaration-sensitive protection, not a blanket right. The association must permit EV charging on an owner's own property except to the extent the declaration provides otherwise, subject to reasonable restrictions and a common-area prohibition, under § 55.1-1823.1 (POAA) and § 55.1-1962.1 (Condominium Act).6,13 The association must permit display of the United States flag under § 55.1-1820, which mirrors federal law.14 Federal overlays independently require the association to allow OTARD antennas and dishes, Fair Housing Act reasonable modifications at the resident's expense, and ADA-compliant access to common-area public accommodations, across all association types.19,20
C. ADU obligations and limits on HOA authority
No Virginia statute compels an association to permit an ADU against the terms of its declaration. Municipal and county zoning binds the locality and sets baseline permissibility, and the recorded declaration governs within the community, so an owner generally needs both local approval and declaration compliance.15
D. Enforcement, dispute resolution, and appeal obligations
Enforcement follows the POAA procedures in § 55.1-1819, and an association may enforce its rules by any method a private property owner could use, including injunctive relief, with court costs and reasonable attorney fees going to the prevailing party.11 Members may use the association complaint procedure and escalate a final adverse decision to the Ombudsman.8 Any additional procedure the declaration requires must be followed. Litigation runs through the General District Court for smaller civil matters and the Circuit Court, then to the Court of Appeals of Virginia and the Supreme Court of Virginia; civil appeals from the Circuit Court became appeals of right to the Court of Appeals effective January 1, 2022, and before that date most civil appeals went straight to the Supreme Court of Virginia.21
Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity
A. Recent bills
Two measures frame Virginia's recent legislative picture. One already passed, and it reorganized how communities disclose information at resale while leaving the solar rule itself untouched. The other stalled, and it would have opened single-family zones to accessory dwelling units. Here is where each stands.
HB 2235 / SB 1222 · 2023 Regular Session
These identical companion bills created the Virginia Resale Disclosure Act (§ 55.1-2307 et seq.), which consolidated resale disclosures for all common-interest communities and repealed the old POAA disclosure-packet and Condominium Act resale-certificate articles.[22] As part of that recodification, § 55.1-1820.1(B) changed only its cross-reference — from the former disclosure packet under § 55.1-1809 to the resale certificate issued under § 55.1-2309. The substantive solar rule stayed the same: the 5 percent cost and 10 percent production reasonableness test and the common-area carve-out were unchanged.[5]
| Property managers | Update resale packets and solar-disclosure language to reference the resale certificate under § 55.1-2309, not the repealed disclosure-packet sections. |
| HOA board members | The solar rule itself did not change; only the disclosure cross-reference moved into the new Resale Disclosure Act. |
| Community association attorneys | Cite current § 55.1-1820.1 and § 55.1-2309, and treat the 2023 change as conforming rather than substantive. |
| Homeowners | Solar restrictions must still appear in the recorded declaration to prohibit installation, and any restriction must be disclosed at resale. |
SB 304 · 2024 Session, continued to 2025
SB 304, patroned by Senator Saddam Salim, would have added Code § 15.2-2292.2 to require localities to include ADUs as a permitted accessory use in single-family residential zoning districts. It barred a special-use-permit requirement, capped the permit fee at $250 in the enrolled Senate version, and prohibited setback conditions greater than the primary dwelling's along with any consanguinity or affinity requirement between occupants, all with a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025. The Senate passed it 22-18 on February 9, 2024, but the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns continued it to 2025 with a substitute on February 23, 2024, so it did not become law; a 2025 successor, with a $100 fee cap, was reintroduced.[15]
| Property managers | No statewide ADU mandate reaches association documents; keep applying the declaration and the local ordinance. |
| HOA board members | The declaration still controls ADUs within the community; there is no state override to plan around. |
| Community association attorneys | Advise that ADU permissibility is a two-layer analysis of local zoning and the declaration, and monitor future sessions. |
| Homeowners | An ADU requires both local zoning approval and compliance with the declaration; a locality permit does not override covenants. |
A separate 2024 amendment to § 55.1-1805, and its Condominium Act parallel, answered the Burkholder decision below by clarifying that associations may levy assessments to pay their contractual or other legal obligations.23
B. Recent appellate rulings
Two Court of Appeals decisions set the current line — one on how narrowly a court reads an association's charging authority, the other on what it takes to qualify as a property owners' association in the first place.
Burkholder v. Palisades Park Owners Association, Inc.
In a published opinion by Judge Stuart A. Raphael, with Judge Clifford L. Athey, Jr., dissenting, the court held that under § 55.1-1805 an association "cannot 'make an assessment or impose a charge against a lot or a lot owner unless the charge is a fee for services provided or related to use of the common area,'" and may not fund lot-compliance inspections through assessments unless the declaration expressly authorizes the charge. The court reversed a circuit court judgment that had awarded Palisades $67,481.68 in attorney fees under § 55.1-1828, and it confirms that Virginia courts read association charging authority narrowly, demanding unmistakable clarity in the declaration.[24]
| Property managers | Confirm the declaration expressly authorizes any charge that funds inspections or services unrelated to the common area. |
| HOA board members | Do not assume general assessment authority covers compliance-inspection costs; check the declaration and the 2024 statutory fix. |
| Community association attorneys | Apply the "expressly authorized" standard and account for the 2024 amendment to § 55.1-1805 that addressed the ruling. |
| Homeowners | Charges not expressly authorized by the declaration and unrelated to common areas may be challengeable. |
Terrace View Property Owner's Association, Inc. v. Jannah
In an opinion by Judge Clifford L. Athey, Jr., joined by Judges Lisa M. Lorish and Frank K. Friedman, the court affirmed that an entity claiming property-owners-association status did not qualify as a POA. Although its declaration gave it "the right to establish and collect assessments," it imposed no corresponding duty to maintain the common area, and vague declaration language did not create an enforceable obligation to pay fees. The ruling drives home that association authority — including the authority behind modification enforcement — depends on qualifying documents.[25]
| Property managers | Verify that the community's documents actually establish a qualifying association before enforcing charges or covenants. |
| HOA board members | Assessment and enforcement power depends on documents that satisfy the statutory POA test, not on the label alone. |
| Community association attorneys | Confirm the two-prong POA test and enforceable covenant language before pursuing enforcement. |
| Homeowners | An association that does not legally qualify may lack authority to levy fees or enforce some covenants. |
C. Active legislative debates
ADU legislation stays active, with a 2025 successor to SB 304 seeking to require localities to permit ADUs by right in single-family zones.15 Solar and EV provisions are settled in their current form, so the near-term debate on modifications centers on ADU by-right zoning and periodic adjustments to the assessment, disclosure, and enforcement provisions.
Section 5: National positioning and related coverage
Virginia sits among the comprehensive two-statute states, and several features set it apart: a declaration-sensitive solar rule, a right-to-charge EV provision, an active common-interest-community regulator and ombudsman, and an appellate structure that gained civil appeals of right in 2022. On ADUs, Virginia is a municipal-zoning-plus-declaration jurisdiction, not an HOA-preemption state like California (Civil Code § 4751) or Colorado (HB 24-1152); its owner-protective posture concentrates in the solar rule, which is declaration-sensitive rather than a blanket void. For a multi-state operator, the Virginia takeaways run short: an association may not prohibit solar unless the recorded declaration does, EV charging is allowed on an owner's own property subject to the declaration, and most other modifications turn on the declaration and any architectural guidelines adopted under it.
HOA Weekly updates its Virginia ADUs and Modifications coverage quarterly, as the General Assembly and the Virginia courts act. The federal frameworks noted here — the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, the OTARD rule, the Fair Housing Act, and the ADA — apply to Virginia associations regardless of the state framework.
- Code of Virginia, Title 55.1 (Property and Conveyances), Subtitle IV (Common Interest Communities), effective October 1, 2019 ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-1800 et seq. (Property Owners' Association Act, Chapter 18); applicability at § 55.1-1801 ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-1900 et seq. (Virginia Condominium Act, Chapter 19); § 55.1-1901 supersession of the Horizontal Property Act ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-2000 et seq. (Horizontal Property Act, Chapter 20) ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-1820.1 (Installation of solar energy collection devices); history line 2023, cc. 387, 388 ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-1823.1 (Electric vehicle charging stations permitted) ↩
- Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, Common Interest Community Board ↩
- Virginia DPOR, Office of the Common Interest Community Ombudsman ↩
- Code of Virginia § 54.1-2345 et seq. (Common Interest Communities; Title 54.1, Chapter 23.3), including § 54.1-2348 (CICB) and manager licensing ↩
- Sainani v. Belmont Glen Homeowners Ass'n, 297 Va. 714 (2019), Supreme Court of Virginia ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-1819 (Adoption and enforcement of rules; notice, hearing, and charge limits) ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-1951.1 (Condominium Act; installation of solar energy collection devices) ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-1962.1 (Condominium Act; electric vehicle charging stations permitted) ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-1820 (Display of the flag of the United States) ↩
- Virginia LIS, SB 304 (2024, continued to 2025; proposed Code § 15.2-2292.2 on accessory dwelling units) ↩
- California Civil Code § 4751 (covenants prohibiting or unreasonably restricting ADUs void) ↩
- Colorado HB 24-1152 (Accessory Dwelling Units), signed May 13, 2024; codified at C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5 ↩
- Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-243 ↩
- FCC, Over-the-Air Reception Devices (OTARD) Rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 ↩
- Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3) (reasonable modifications) ↩
- Code of Virginia § 17.1-405 (Court of Appeals of Virginia civil appeals of right, effective January 1, 2022) ↩
- Virginia LIS, HB 2235 (2023, Resale Disclosure Act; identical to SB 1222; 2023 cc. 387, 388) ↩
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-1805 (Association charges), as amended 2024 ↩
- Burkholder v. Palisades Park Owners Ass'n, Inc., 76 Va. App. 577 (2023), Court of Appeals of Virginia, Record No. 0187-22-4 ↩
- Terrace View Property Owner's Ass'n, Inc. v. Jannah, Court of Appeals of Virginia (Feb. 3, 2026), Record No. 2007-24-3 ↩