Louisiana Bans Unreasonable Solar Restrictions but Keeps HOA Approval Rights Intact

R.S. 9:1255 was enacted by Acts 2010, No. 274, and it has not been amended since. It sits in Title 9 among the ancillaries on immovables, not inside the Louisiana Planned Community Act, so it binds any restricting party: a homeowners association, a condominium association, a lessor, a developer, or a neighbor asserting a servitude. The phrase in subsection B is "no person or entity," which is why the section reaches beyond community associations.

The definition in subsection A is the most generous part of the statute. A solar collector is any device or combination of elements which relies on sunlight as an energy source. That language is not limited to photovoltaic panels. A solar water heating loop, a solar attic fan, a passive solar air heater, and a ground-mounted array all fit. Louisiana did not attach a size cap, an orientation requirement, a roof-plane restriction, or a percentage-of-efficiency test to the definition, and it did not carve out ground mounts.

Subsection C is where most Louisiana disputes are actually decided, and it is the reason this statute is weaker than the covenant-voiding solar-access laws in other states. It provides that R.S. 9:1255 does not supersede zoning restrictions, servitudes as provided by Civil Code Article 697 et seq., or building restrictions as provided by Civil Code Article 775 et seq., which require approval prior to the installation or use of solar collectors. Civil Code Article 775 defines building restrictions as charges imposed by the owner of an immovable in pursuance of a general plan governing building standards, specified uses, and improvements. A recorded subdivision declaration that requires architectural committee approval for any exterior alteration is exactly that. So the association keeps the approval gate. What it loses is the ability to say no for no reason, because the denial itself must not be an unreasonable restriction on the right to install or use the collector.

Since January 1, 2025, when Acts 2024, No. 158 rewrote the Louisiana Planned Community Act, a Louisiana board has a second obligation on top of R.S. 9:1255. R.S. 9:1141.37(C) requires the board of directors to establish procedures for the enforcement of design standards and for approval of construction applications, including a reasonable time within which the board of directors shall act after an application is submitted and the consequences of its failure to act. Louisiana did not set that deadline by statute, but it forced every planned community association to publish one and to state what happens if the board misses it. Ask for the association's written approval procedure before you submit; a board that has never adopted one is out of compliance with R.S. 9:1141.37(C).

An owner who already has panels is well protected against a later rule change. R.S. 9:1141.14(C)(6) permits an association to adopt more burdensome construction, design criteria, and aesthetic standards by two-thirds vote, but subparagraph (a) states that no such standard shall impose a duty on a lot owner to act affirmatively or to remove or renovate any existing improvement. Subparagraph (b) limits the reach of the new standard to new exterior renovations, repairs, or reconstructions that increase the value of the improvements on the lot by more than forty percent. A solar array installed and approved in 2023 cannot be made to come down by an aesthetic amendment adopted in 2026.

Subsection D is the outright exclusion. R.S. 9:1255 does not apply at all to property or areas identified as historic districts, historical preservations, or landmarks by a historic preservation district commission, a landmarks commission, or the planning or zoning commission of a governing authority. Inside such a district the local commission's rules govern the visibility, placement, and sometimes the outright permissibility of panels, and the state solar protection provides no argument against them.

One Louisiana requirement sits outside the association fight and catches homeowners by surprise. R.S. 51:2156.3(A) requires a Solar Energy Equipment license to install solar energy equipment or systems for which the project value is ten thousand dollars or more, and subsection B requires the applicant to hold a Building Construction, Electrical, Mechanical, or Residential Construction major license classification. Subsection C separately requires an Electrical license to connect the wiring or hookups for any photovoltaic system at that project value, and subsection D requires a Mechanical license to connect piping or equipment for a solar thermal system. Subsection E aims the section at businesses selling, leasing, installing, servicing, or monitoring the equipment and states that nothing in it imposes civil or criminal liability on homeowners. An association reviewing your application may reasonably ask for the installer's license number, and a below-threshold job is the only one a homeowner can lawfully have done by an unlicensed installer.

S. 9:1255 contains no penalty, no fine, and no fee-shifting clause, so enforcement runs through the ordinary remedies attached to the restriction being challenged. Where the obstacle is a recorded building restriction, Civil Code Article 779 allows building restrictions to be enforced by mandatory and prohibitory injunctions without regard to the limitations of Code of Civil Procedure Article 3601, and the same injunctive route is what an owner uses to attack an unreasonable application of one. Civil Code Article 783 provides that doubt as to the existence, validity, or extent of building restrictions is resolved in favor of the unrestricted use of the immovable, which is the homeowner's strongest interpretive tool when a declaration is silent about solar equipment and the board reads a general aesthetics clause to cover it.

Two counterweights matter. S. 3(E) directs that the existence, validity, or extent of a building restriction affecting association property shall be liberally construed to give effect to its purpose and intent. S. S. S. 9:1146(B)(1) before filing a sworn detailed statement of privilege.