Lee's Summit, MO Solar Energy: HOA Restrictions (2026)

State law, not city ordinance, controls this in Lee's Summit: RSMo § 442.404.3(1) provides that no deed restriction, covenant, or similar binding agreement running with the land can limit or prohibit, or have the effect of limiting or prohibiting, the installation of a solar panel or solar collector on the rooftop of any property or structure. The statute defines "solar panel or solar collector" broadly in subsection 1(3) to cover any device that collects and converts solar energy into electricity or thermal energy, including photovoltaic cells or panels and solar thermal systems, so both electric and solar-hot-water setups are covered equally.

HOAs in Lee's Summit subdivisions are not stripped of all authority. Subsection 3(2) lets an association adopt reasonable rules regarding the placement of solar panels or collectors, but only to the extent those rules do not prevent the installation of the device, impair the functioning of the device, restrict the use of the device, or adversely affect the cost or efficiency of the device. A rule that pushes panels to a shaded or north-facing roof plane, for example, would fail that test if it cuts output. Subsection 3(3) narrows the whole protection to rooftops that are owned, controlled, and maintained by the owner of the individual property or structure, so shared or common-area roofs in condo or cooperative arrangements sit outside this particular guarantee.

The protection is not brand new: it traces to a 2018 enactment (H.B. 1887) and was most recently amended by H.B. 2062 in 2024, effective August 28, 2024. The Missouri Supreme Court has since confirmed the rule bites on old paperwork too. In Eikmeier v. Granite Springs Home Owners Association, the court held that the prohibition on covenants and deed restrictions limiting solar panel installation reaches covenants that existed before the statute's effective date, so a homeowner cannot be blocked by a decades-old recorded covenant that predates the law.