Lakewood, CA Solar Energy: HOA Restrictions (2026)

Section 714(a) reaches the governing documents of a common interest development as those are defined in Civil Code Section 4150 or 6552, so it covers the recorded CC&Rs and the association rules that sit underneath them. If such a provision effectively prohibits or restricts installing or using a solar energy system, the statute makes it void and unenforceable on its own terms. A Lakewood owner does not have to persuade the board to amend the document first, because the statute strips the offending provision of force whether or not it is ever repealed. The word doing the work is "effectively." A rule that never uses the word solar can still fall, if what it does in practice is prohibit or restrict the system.

Subdivision (b) is the exception, and it is written as a test of effect rather than a test of the association's motives. Reasonable restrictions are those that do not significantly increase the cost of the system or significantly decrease its efficiency or specified performance, or that allow for an alternative system of comparable cost, efficiency, and energy conservation benefits. That gives an architectural committee two ways to survive review. It can show its condition does not significantly move cost or performance, or it can show it left the owner an alternative that is comparable on all three of cost, efficiency, and energy conservation benefits. A relocation demand that pushes the array somewhere significantly more expensive or significantly less productive does not meet either branch.

The statute also states the tie breaker. It is the policy of the state to promote and encourage the use of solar energy systems and to remove obstacles thereto, and subdivision (b) says the definition of reasonable follows from that policy. A close call between a Lakewood association's preference and an owner's proposed installation is read against the obstacle, not for it.