West Virginia HOA Solar Rights

Section 1 — Overview: Solar rights for HOAs in West Virginia

West Virginia limits an association's ability to prohibit solar energy systems. Under W. Va. Code § 36-4-19, any covenant, restriction, or condition in a housing association governing document executed or recorded after the statute's effective date that effectively prohibits or restricts the installation or use of a solar energy system is void and unenforceable, subject to defined exceptions.¹ This is a restriction-override (solar-access) provision, and it shouldn't be confused with a voluntary solar easement statute, which would let one owner acquire a recorded right to sunlight across a neighbor's parcel; West Virginia has no separate solar easement statute of that kind. Utility-side net metering is set separately by W. Va. Code § 24-2F-8 and administered through the West Virginia Public Service Commission, governing the customer-utility relationship rather than an association's authority over installations.² The corporate and governance framework for community associations comes from the West Virginia Common Interest Ownership Act (WVCIOA), a comprehensive statute based on the 1982 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, with the older Unit Property Act applying to certain pre-1986 condominiums.³ Nationally, this places West Virginia among the states that limit association solar restrictions, though its member-vote carve-out makes it more permissive to associations than the strongest-protection states. The sections below set out the statutory framework, the operational rules, and recent activity.

Section 2 — The statutory framework

2A. The solar-access provision (W. Va. Code § 36-4-19)

West Virginia does limit declaration-based solar prohibitions. W. Va. Code § 36-4-19, titled "Solar energy covenants unenforceable; penalty," states that it is state policy "to promote and encourage the residential and commercial use of solar energy systems," and provides that any covenant, restriction, or condition in a housing association governing document "executed or recorded after the effective date of this section that effectively prohibits or restricts the installation or use of a solar energy system is void and unenforceable."¹ The section was added by House Bill 2740 in the 2012 Regular Session, sponsored by Delegates Manypenny, Doyle, Mahan, Guthrie, Canterbury, Iaquinta, Barker, Hartman, Brown, and Hatfield; the bill passed March 10, 2012 and took effect ninety days from passage.⁴ Because WVCIOA is based on the 1982 UCIOA, which contained no solar protection, this override stands as a separate, later enactment in Chapter 36, Article 4, Covenants, not part of WVCIOA. The standard turns on whether a restriction is "reasonable": the statute defines a "reasonable restriction" as one that doesn't "effectually result in a prohibition of their use by eliminating the system's energy conservation benefits or economic practicality," and it expressly doesn't reach restrictions for historical preservation, architectural significance, or religious or cultural importance.¹ The statute preserves state and local land use, health, and safety standards, and it doesn't preclude associations from restricting installations in common areas and common structures. Net metering and the Public Service Commission stay separate: they govern the utility-customer relationship, not association authority.

2B. The WVCIOA framework

The West Virginia Common Interest Ownership Act, W. Va. Code § 36B-1-101 et seq., stands as the comprehensive statute governing common interest communities — condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives — created on or after July 1, 1986.³ It is based on the 1982 UCIOA, not the 2008 revision that some other states adopted. A defined set of WVCIOA provisions applies retroactively to communities created before July 1, 1986. Under W. Va. Code § 36B-1-204, sections including 1-105, 1-106, 1-107, 2-103, 2-104, 2-121, portions of 3-102, covering powers of the unit owners' association, 3-111, 3-116, 3-118, 4-109, and 4-117 apply to preexisting common interest communities, but only as to events and circumstances occurring after the effective date.⁵ Condominiums created before July 1, 1986 that aren't otherwise brought under WVCIOA remain governed by the older Unit Property Act, W. Va. Code § 36A-1-1 et seq.⁶ The association's powers, including the power to adopt and enforce rules and to conduct architectural review, derive from W. Va. Code § 36B-3-102 and the declaration.⁷ On the corporate side, most West Virginia associations organize as nonprofit corporations under the West Virginia Nonprofit Corporation Act, W. Va. Code § 31E-1-101 et seq.⁸ All citations here are West Virginia Code citations.

2C. The easement distinction, governing documents, and order of precedence

West Virginia has no separate voluntary solar easement statute. A solar easement statute, of the type found in some other states, would let a property owner acquire, by voluntary written and recorded agreement, a right of access to sunlight across a neighboring parcel; it wouldn't give a unit owner a right to install solar over an association's objection, and it wouldn't void declaration-based solar restrictions. West Virginia's protection instead comes from the restriction-override in § 36-4-19, a solar-access provision, not an easement mechanism. The order of precedence runs straightforward: for governing documents executed or recorded after the statute's 2012 effective date, § 36-4-19 controls over conflicting declaration provisions and renders offending restrictions void and unenforceable.¹ Where a restriction isn't covered by the override — for example, a reasonable restriction, a common-area limitation, or a restriction reinstated by a member vote — WVCIOA read together with the declaration controls, subject to general doctrines such as the statutory obligation of good faith. Architectural and design review retains a residual role: an association may review a solar proposal and impose reasonable conditions, so long as those conditions don't eliminate the system's energy conservation benefits or economic practicality.

Section 3 — What a West Virginia association can and cannot do regarding solar

A. Approval and design review

An association may require that a solar installation go through architectural or design review under its declaration and W. Va. Code § 36B-3-102, and may impose reasonable conditions on size, placement, and appearance.⁷ This basis, drawn from WVCIOA and the declaration as constrained by § 36-4-19, applies to WVCIOA communities; review authority runs permissive, but any condition that effectively prohibits solar is void.¹

B. Permissible and impermissible restrictions

An association cannot enforce a covenant, restriction, or condition in a governing document executed or recorded after the 2012 effective date that effectively prohibits or restricts a solar energy system, because § 36-4-19 makes such provisions void and unenforceable.¹ An association may impose reasonable restrictions, those that don't eliminate the system's energy conservation benefits or economic practicality, may restrict installations in common areas and common structures, and may, "by vote of its members, establish or remove a restriction that prohibits or restricts the installation or use of a solar energy system."¹ This restriction-override statute stays mandatory as to the void-and-unenforceable rule.

C. Governing-document and disclosure considerations

Solar rules appear in the declaration, bylaws, and rules, and get amended through the amendment procedures in the declaration and WVCIOA; a member vote can also establish or remove a solar restriction under § 36-4-19.¹ WVCIOA imposes resale disclosure obligations through the resale provisions applicable to units, including § 4-109, which apply to both new and, per § 36B-1-204, preexisting communities.⁵ This mandatory WVCIOA and declaration requirement applies where the resale provisions reach. West Virginia doesn't license community association managers; real estate brokerage activity is licensed by the West Virginia Real Estate Commission.⁹

D. Dispute resolution and remedies

Disputes over solar authority get litigated in a West Virginia Circuit Court at the trial level. Since the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia opened on July 1, 2022, most civil appeals go first to that court, with further discretionary review by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.¹⁰ Before July 1, 2022, West Virginia had no intermediate appellate court and appeals went directly to the Supreme Court of Appeals.¹¹ WVCIOA provides for attorney's fees in certain enforcement actions under § 4-117, which applies to both new and preexisting communities per § 36B-1-204.⁵ Section 36-4-19 itself provides that offending restrictions are void and unenforceable; the codified text doesn't set out a separate monetary penalty despite the section's title.¹

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted or pending in the past 24 months creates or amends a provision affecting West Virginia HOA solar authority. The operative statute, § 36-4-19, dates from 2012. A 2025 measure addressing housing association covenants, Senate Bill 805, lead sponsor Sen. Patricia Rucker, would have added W. Va. Code § 36-4-20 voiding covenants that restrict personal gardens and the ownership of up to four chickens, but not roosters; it advanced only to committee and didn't pass, and it didn't concern solar.¹² It gets noted here only to distinguish it from solar authority.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published opinion from the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia or the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in the past 36 months interprets or applies § 36-4-19 or otherwise addresses association authority as applied to solar. No West Virginia appellate opinion construing the statute was located.

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal to expand or replace solar protection for West Virginia HOAs turned up.

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

Solar-rights regimes fall into three broad categories: strong-protection states whose statutes void or limit association solar restrictions, such as California, Civ. Code § 714; Florida, Fla. Stat. § 163.04; Arizona, A.R.S. § 33-1816; Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-30-168; Nevada; and Texas, Prop. Code § 202.010; solar-easement-only states, which enable voluntary sunlight easements but don't override associations; and no-protection states, where the declaration fully controls. West Virginia belongs in the first category: § 36-4-19 voids qualifying restrictions and permits only reasonable ones, though its member-vote carve-out and its application only to documents recorded after 2012 make it more association-friendly than California or Florida. Being a UCIOA state based on the 1982 model doesn't by itself add solar protection; West Virginia's protection is the separate § 36-4-19. For multi-state operators, West Virginia should be treated as a limiting state where post-2012 solar bans are unenforceable but reasonable design review survives. Legislative momentum on HOA solar specifically has stayed static since 2012.

HOA Weekly's West Virginia Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the West Virginia courts act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, extends to rooftop solar, so West Virginia's state law controls here.

Footnotes

1. W. Va. Code § 36-4-19 (Solar energy covenants unenforceable; penalty) ↩
2. W. Va. Code § 24-2F-8 (net metering; customer-generator participation) ↩
3. W. Va. Code § 36B-1-101 (West Virginia Common Interest Ownership Act, short title) ↩
4. West Virginia Legislature, HB 2740 (2012 Regular Session) bill history and text ↩
5. W. Va. Code § 36B-1-204 (Applicability to preexisting common interest communities) ↩
6. W. Va. Code § 36A-1-1 (Unit Property Act, short title) ↩
7. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-102 (Powers of unit owners' association) ↩
8. W. Va. Code § 31E-1-101 (West Virginia Nonprofit Corporation Act) ↩
9. West Virginia Real Estate Commission ↩
10. W. Va. Code § 51-11-3 (West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals; court created) ↩
11. West Virginia Judiciary, Intermediate Court of Appeals (opened July 1, 2022) ↩
12. West Virginia Legislature, SB 805 (2025 Regular Session) text ↩