Fort Collins, CO HOA Rules: CC&R Enforcement (2026)

Section 26-168(b) of the Municipal Code, titled "Inconsistent covenants, deed restrictions and other clauses disregarded," bars anyone from imposing or enforcing, or trying to enforce, "private covenants, conditions, restrictions, deed restrictions or clauses, or other agreements" that require a property to be maintained in a way inconsistent with Division 6's water-conservation requirements, which include the waste-of-water rules in Sec. 26-166 and any shortage-response order issued under Sec. 26-167. In practice, an HOA cannot compel a homeowner to keep turf green or irrigated in violation of a City watering restriction, and the City will disregard that covenant when deciding whether the homeowner complied with the Code. Section 26-168(a) separately places an affirmative duty on anyone with legal or actual control of a property, business or water account to keep it operating consistent with the water-conservation Division, so the City-code duty runs directly to the resident regardless of what the HOA's governing documents say.

The same override principle appears elsewhere in the Code for mobile home parks. Sec. 18-6(g) states no person may create, cause to be created, enforce or seek to enforce any restrictive covenant provision that has the effect of prohibiting clotheslines in a mobile home park, and Sec. 18-6(h) does the same for window-unit air conditioners and evaporative coolers. Both sections use the identical "create, cause to be created, enforce or seek to enforce" language as the water-covenant clause, showing a consistent City policy: private covenants yield to these specific City Code protections rather than the reverse. Outside these named subjects, the City Code does not generally adjudicate or enforce private HOA covenants; that remains a matter between the association and its members under the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-101 et seq., and civil courts.