HOA Red Tape

So Mister C and I made the leap to getting a whole house solar system installed. We live in Sunshineville where there's about three hundred and sixty days of sunshine a year. Solar just makes sense.

A few years ago our state passed a law stating that HOAs could not interfere with the installation of a solar system. Effectively, they couldn't say that any homeowner couldn't install one, regardless of what their CC&Rs stated. It did say they could have some "reasonable rules regarding the placement of a solar energy device if those rules do not prevent the installation, impair the functioning of the device or restrict its use or adversely affect the cost or efficiency of the device."

The guy doing the install did have to send the HOA a request for permission to do the install but this is really just a formality and most HOAs just send out a "go ahead" notice the same day they get the request. Because at the end of the day they can't legally stop people from installing a solar system.

On Friday, the roofers arrived at five in the morning and started removing the roof tiles to set the posts that will ultimately support the framework for our panels. We are so excited about getting this done because not only is it an environmentally good thing to do but it should save us quite a bit of money over the long term.

Yesterday we got a letter from the HOA telling us that they were sending the request on to the architectural committee to get their input. It would be at least thirty days before they would even consider giving us approval. Additionally, they made sure to tack on that if we started doing anything prior to getting that approval, they would force us to undo what we had done and fine us on top of it.

Are you kidding me?