Minnesota Voids HOA Bans on U.S. and State Flags (Minn. Stat. § 500.215)

Subdivision 1(a) of section 500.215 is a voiding provision, not a permission slip. It says that any provision of a deed restriction, subdivision regulation, restrictive covenant, local ordinance, contract, rental agreement or regulation, or homeowners association document limiting the right to display the two named flags "is void and unenforceable." The association does not get to weigh the request, and a Minnesota city cannot fill the gap with its own sign ordinance, because local ordinances are on the list of instruments the statute strikes down.

The reach of "homeowners association document" is defined in subdivision 1(b) and is deliberately wide. It covers the declaration, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and rules and regulations of a common interest community as defined in section 515B.1-103(10), and it applies "regardless of whether the common interest community is subject to chapter 515B." That matters in Minnesota because the Common Interest Ownership Act took effect in 1994 and many older Twin Cities townhome and condominium projects are only partly governed by it. Subdivision 1(b)(2) then extends the same rule to a residential community that is not a common interest community at all, so a covenant-only subdivision with no association and no dues is still bound.

What the statute does not protect is just as important. It names the flag of the United States and the flag of the State of Minnesota, and nothing else. A service branch flag, a POW/MIA flag, a Gadsden flag, a college banner, or a seasonal decorative flag falls outside section 500.215 and back under the association's ordinary rulemaking power in section 515B.3-102(a)(1)(v), which expressly authorizes a Minnesota association to regulate the exterior appearance of the community "including, for example, balconies and patios, window treatments, and signs and other displays, regardless of whether inside a unit." A Minnesota board can therefore ban every flag but the two the legislature carved out.

The surviving restrictions are listed in subdivision 2. A limitation narrowly tailored to protect health or safety is preserved by subdivision 2(a). Subdivision 2(b) allows three specific limits: size, restricted to what is "customarily used on residential property"; location, restricted to a portion of the property the displaying person has exclusive use of; and illumination. Subdivision 2(c) preserves manner requirements, that the flag be displayed in a legal manner under Minnesota law, be in good condition and not altered or defaced, and not be affixed permanently to property maintained by others or in a way causing more than inconsequential damage, with the person causing damage liable for repair costs. Note what is missing: the statute sets no square footage, no flagpole height, and no maximum number of flags. Those are left to the association, measured against the vague standard of residential custom, which is why Minnesota flag disputes usually turn on whether a rule is a genuine size limit or a ban dressed as one.

The exclusive-use limit in subdivision 2(b)(2) is the operative one for condominium and townhome owners. A balcony or patio assigned to a unit is exclusive-use space, so a display there is protected. A shared building facade, a common lawn, or an association-maintained entry monument is not, and a board may keep flags off it entirely.

Subdivision 3 makes the section retroactive. It applies to every limitation described in subdivision 1 and not excepted in subdivision 2 "regardless of whether adopted before, on, or after August 1, 2005," the effective date of the enacting law, 2005 chapter 168. A 1978 covenant banning exterior display is void today without any need to amend the declaration. The same 2005 chapter added section 515B.3-102(d), which now provides that association powers "must comply with sections 500.215, 500.216, and 500.217," tying the flag right, the solar right, and the child-care right directly into the association powers section.

There is no Minnesota agency that licenses or polices homeowners associations, so section 500.215 is enforced by the resident in district court. If a board fines an owner or tenant under a covenant that section 500.215 voids, the covenant is unenforceable and the fine has no foundation. Any fine must in any event follow section 515B.3-102(a)(11), which permits reasonable fines only "after notice and an opportunity to be heard before the board or a committee appointed by it," and section 515B.3-102(c), which requires a dated written notice stating the amount and reason, identifying the specific section of the declaration, bylaws, rules, or regulations allegedly violated and the date of the levy, describing the owner's right to be heard, warning that unpaid fines are liens that could lead to foreclosure, and telling the owner that homeownership assistance is available from the Minnesota Homeownership Center. Section 515B.3-102(a)(11) also bars the association from charging or collecting attorney fees and costs from an owner who disputes a fine where the owner requests a hearing, a hearing is held, and the board does not then adopt a resolution levying the fine.

Fee shifting under subdivision 4 runs both directions. An owner or tenant denied the right and prevailing in enforcing it recovers reasonable attorney fees and expenses from the party who denied it. An association that prevails in enforcing a restriction that survives subdivision 2, a genuine size or exclusive-use rule, recovers its reasonable attorney fees and expenses from the person who displayed the flag. That symmetry is the reason both sides in Minnesota flag cases usually settle once the rule is examined, because the loser pays.