Country Living Association

Its true that home owners associations try to maintain a status quo. Thats sort of their job and they try to be good at it. They work from a set of bylaw and answer to the CC&R specifics that they, too, as home owners bought into. Today, there are beginning to be questions about when legitimate changes should be made.

One of the biggest examples of a war that is about to be waged on the HOA front is that of solar panels. Many people have applied to use them on their houses and have been denied by boards and with environmental and energy concerns reaching something of a fever pitch, this is not a situation that is going to go away. Whether solar panels are aesthetically pleasing or not isnt really the issue for those who want to install them, but that seems to be the only issue boards are considering. Of course, theyre going by the CC&Rs which can be very old.

Solar manufacturers and installers have tried to come up with ways to conceal the panels but that isnt alway possible and the manufacturing isnt geared toward a total cosmetic concealment. The panels dont work that way. Soon, this may not even be up to association boards. Lawmakers in Texas are considering a bill that would prevent associations in banning solar panels, and laws are already in place in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and California with others following.

There are going to be times when the CC&Rs need to be changed and the boards are going to have to comply by law. In many ways, HOAs do work well keeping the status quo but if there is a change so big that it cant be ignored, then they must also have the common sense to make a change.