Ohio HOA Solar Panel Rights Under R.C. 5312.16

Ohio Revised Code section 5312.16, part of the Ohio Planned Community Law, took effect September 13, 2022. It gives a unit owner in an HOA-governed planned community a conditional right to install a solar energy collection device on the owner's dwelling or elsewhere on the owner's lot. The right is not absolute: it applies only "unless specifically prohibited in the declaration." A declaration that bans solar collectors outright still controls, so this statute does not override existing covenants the way solar-access laws in some other states do.

Where the declaration is silent, the owner still needs one of two conditions to hold. First, the cost to insure, maintain, repair, and replace the unit's roof (or the alternative location on the lot) must fall to the owner rather than the association as a common expense. Second, the declaration can instead specifically allow and regulate solar devices and assign who pays for insuring, maintaining, repairing, and replacing them. Even when either condition is met, division (B) lets the board impose "reasonable restrictions concerning the size, place, and manner of placement" of the device, with no statutory test for what counts as reasonable and no protection against restrictions that raise cost or cut efficiency.

Before the board can charge an owner for property damage or impose an enforcement assessment tied to this section, division (C) requires a written notice (email is acceptable if the owner has provided that address in writing) describing the damage or violation, stating the proposed dollar amount, notifying the owner of the right to a board hearing, explaining how to request one, and setting a reasonable cure date. Division (D) borrows its definition of "solar energy collection device" from R.C. 5311.192, the parallel condominium statute, which reaches only a "solar appropriate unit," one with no unit directly above or below it.

There's no fine schedule in the statute itself; R.C. 5312.16 only governs the notice process before a board can act. Before charging an owner for solar-related property damage or imposing an enforcement assessment, the board must send written notice describing the violation, the proposed charge, the right to a hearing, how to request one, and a cure deadline. Owners who install oversized or improperly placed devices risk a board-set restriction violation and possible assessment, subject to that hearing right.