The North Carolina legislature has recently enacted N.C.G.S. §22B-20, effective October 1, 2007, which has a limited effect on a homeowners association’s authority to regulate placement of solar panels on single family dwellings. The intent of the statute, generally, is to encourage the use of solar resources and to discourage homeowners associations from making the installation of solar technologies so cost prohibitive as to effectively discourage homeowners from using this alternate form of energy. The new law applies only to detached single-family residences - there are no restrictions on how a townhome or condominium association can regulate the installation of solar panels (including disallowing same). Generally speaking, a homeowners association may prohibit solar panels completely if they are visible on the house’s facade or slope of roof that is facing any area open to common or public access. The new law also provides that if not visible from the street of common areas, the homeowners association may still regulate the location and screening of the solar panels, as long as reasonable use of the solar panels can be made.

Community Association Practice Group

The Court of Appeals has recently ruled that the application of the Planned Community Act, specifically, the fining provisions in G.S. §47F-3-107.1, can be constitutionally applied to pre-1999 communities, and such application is not a violation of the contracts clause of the constitution. In the case of Reidy v. Whitehart Association, 648 S.E.2d 265 (N.C. App. 2007), a homeowner brought suit against his homeowners association contending that the fines imposed by the association on the homeowner for the homeowner’s failure to follow the architectural approval process, was an unconstitutional violation of the contracts clause and a deprivation of the homeowners procedural and substantive due process rights. The Court of Appeals rejected all the homeowners’ arguments and affirmed the trial court’s order granting injunctive relief to the association and imposing fines of $25 per day against the homeowner.

Community Association Practice

On 17 July 2007 the North Carolina Court of Appeals handed down two decisions dealing with the interpretation of single family use restrictions found in community restrictive covenants.

In the case of Danaher v. Joffee and Winding Ridge Homeowners Association v. Joffe, the Court of Appeals held that certain university students encouraged to live together by their baseball coach were not a single familyfor purposes of the restrictive covenants governing the community. The restrictive covenants of the community in the Joffe cases provided, in part, no building shall be erected, altered, placed or permitted to remain on any lot other than one single family residence and its customarily accessory buildings and uses. (more…)