Florida HOA Clothesline and Energy Device Rights

Section 163.04 of the Florida Statutes, first enacted in 1980 and last amended in 2008, protects three things together: solar collectors, clotheslines, and other energy devices based on renewable resources. Subsection (1) forbids any city or county ordinance that prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting these devices. Subsection (2) extends the same ban to private deed restrictions, covenants, declarations, and similar binding agreements recorded by homeowner associations and condominium documents: none of them may prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting a clothesline, a solar collector, or another renewable-resource device from being installed on a building on the lot.

The statute does draw one line between the two technologies. Where a deed restriction gives an HOA or condominium association the power to approve, forbid, control, or direct alteration of property, that entity may still determine the specific rooftop location of a solar collector, but only within an orientation to the south or within 45 degrees east or west of due south, and only if the restriction does not impair the collector's effective operation. That siting authority is written to reach solar collectors by name; the statute gives associations no matching authority to dictate where on the property a clothesline goes, so a rule confining a clothesline to an unusable corner of the yard exceeds the location control the law authorizes.

Subsection (3) makes the right enforceable in court: whichever party prevails in litigation arising under section 163.04 is entitled to costs and reasonable attorney's fees, shifting the financial risk of a challenge onto an association that loses. Subsection (4) states the legislative intent of protecting public health, safety, and welfare by keeping renewable-resource ownership affordable, then carves out one exception: the section does not apply to patio railings in condominiums, cooperatives, or apartments, so clothing hung over a balcony rail is not automatically protected the way a yard clothesline is.

Section 163.04 does not create a fine or a state enforcement agency. A resident whose HOA enforces a restriction banning or effectively banning a clothesline or renewable energy device can sue to have the restriction declared unenforceable and obtain an injunction against its enforcement. Because subsection (3) awards costs and reasonable attorney's fees to whichever side prevails, an association that loses a challenge bears the resident's legal costs, and a resident who loses bears the association's.