guide8 min read

Your Illinois HOA Can't Ban Solar — and It Has 30 Days to Answer You

Ryan Cook•July 31, 2026•Updated Sep 2, 2026

I hear some version of it in a good third of my first conversations: "I'd love to, but my HOA will never approve it."

In Illinois, that sentence is usually wrong. There's a state law that says so. It's been on the books since 2011, it got sharper in 2021 and again in 2023, and most homeowners have never heard of it. Plenty of HOA boards haven't either, which is the part that causes the trouble.

It's called the Homeowners' Energy Policy Statement Act. If you want to read it yourself, and you should, it's 765 ILCS 165.

What the law says	Section	The number
An HOA bylaw or power that prohibits solar is "expressly prohibited"	Sec. 15	Effective Jan. 1, 2011
Board may set the layout on a roof face, but not cut production	Sec. 20(a)	Max 10% production loss
Can't deny based on lease, PPA, or loan	Sec. 20(b)	Any financing method
Association must adopt a written energy policy statement	Sec. 20(b)	90 days after your request
Application must be processed	Sec. 30(a)	30 days (120 if no policy exists yet)
Miss the deadline and you may proceed anyway	Sec. 30(c)	After written notice + 10 business days
Prevailing party gets costs and attorney's fees	Sec. 40	Added 2023
Not covered: tall or shared-roof buildings	Sec. 45	Over 60 feet, or a shared roof

The sentence that does the work

Section 15 is four lines long and it's blunt. The adoption of a bylaw or exercise of any power by the governing entity of a homeowners' association, common interest community association, or condominium unit owners' association "which prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting the installation of a solar energy system is expressly prohibited."

Section 20 runs the same rule through deed restrictions and covenants, so a subdivision's recorded paperwork can't do what a board bylaw can't. And Section 20(c) closes the loop: any provision of a declaration or energy policy statement that conflicts with the Act "shall be void and unenforceable as contrary to public policy."

That's unusually blunt language for a property statute. It means the 1998 covenant sitting in your closing packet doesn't have to be amended, repealed, or voted on to stop mattering. It's already unenforceable.

What your board actually gets to decide

Plenty, and I want to be fair about that. Section 20(a) lets the association "determine the specific configuration of the elements of a solar energy system on a given roof face."

Then it puts a ceiling on that power. The association may not prohibit elements of the system from being installed on any roof face, and any determination it makes "may not reduce the production of the solar energy system by more than 10%." The Act defines production as the estimated annual electrical production of the system.

Ten percent is the whole ballgame. A board can't push you off the south face onto the north face and call it an architectural preference — that's a production hit far past 10% on most Illinois roofs, and it's exactly the move the 2021 amendment was written to stop. Your designer can model both layouts and put a number on the difference.

One more line in that same section: you can't be required to use "specific technology, including, but not limited to, solar shingles rather than traditional solar panels." Boards that want a lower-profile look sometimes try this. It's not theirs to require.

Things your association is not allowed to do

Section 20(b) and Section 30(a) read like a list of complaints someone actually collected, which I suspect is what happened. An association may not:

condition approval on the approval of adjacent property owners
inquire into a property owner's energy usage
impose conditions impairing the operation of a solar energy system
impose conditions negatively impacting any component's industry standard warranty
require post-installation reporting
charge any fee for a solar application above what it charges for any other application related to changes to property
require a solar-specific application form

It can impose reasonable conditions about maintenance, repair, replacement, and removal of damaged or inoperable systems — but only if those conditions aren't "more onerous than the association's analogous conditions for nonsolar projects." Whatever it asks of the guy building a deck is the ceiling for what it asks of you.

The clock runs against them, not you

Section 30(a): your application "shall be processed by the appropriate approving entity of the association within 30 days of the submission."

If your association has never adopted a written energy policy statement, Section 20(b) gives it 90 days to adopt one after it receives your request or application, and Section 30(b) stretches your application window to 120 days.

Here's the part that surprises people. Under Section 30(c), if the association blows the deadline or never adopts a compliant policy, you may proceed with the installation anyway. You give written notice of the failure and 10 business days to cure it. During those 10 days, the association may only adopt the policy or process the application — it may not seek injunctive relief or take other action, and it "may not impose fines or otherwise penalize a property owner for exercising the property owner's rights under this Act."

And Section 40 says the prevailing party in litigation under the Act is entitled to costs and reasonable attorney's fees. In my experience that fee clause is what ends these disputes, usually before anyone files anything.

The line that matters if you're not paying cash

Buried in Section 20(b): "Nor may a property owner be denied permission to install a solar energy system based on system ownership or financing method chosen by the property owner."

That covers leases, power purchase agreements, and financed purchases the same way. It's there because approving only cash buyers had the practical effect of prohibiting solar for most households, which Section 15 already bans.

I care about this one because a lease is how a lot of Illinois families get started — no system to buy, $0 down, and a predictable rate as low as $0.10/kWh depending on the design. Whether that beats your current bill is an estimate until we've looked at your actual usage. But your board doesn't get a vote on how you pay for it.

Two buildings the law doesn't cover

Section 45 is the honest limit, and I'd rather you hear it from me than find out at a board meeting. The Act does not apply to a building that is greater than 60 feet in height, or that has a shared roof and is subject to an association.

"Shared roof" means any roof that serves more than one unit — including a contiguous roof serving adjacent units — or that's part of the common elements or common area.

A detached home in a covenant subdivision in O'Fallon or Edwardsville is squarely covered. A townhome with its own separate roof usually is. A row of townhomes under one continuous roof usually isn't, and a mid-rise condo definitely isn't. If that's your building, this statute isn't your lever, and community solar is generally the more realistic route.

Section 25 is worth a sentence too: your system still has to meet the standards and requirements of state and local permitting authorities. The Act clears your HOA out of the way. It doesn't clear the village.

What I'd actually do

Ask your association, in writing, for its written energy policy statement. Date the request and keep the copy. If one exists, read it against Section 20(b) — the minimum standards in that section are the floor, and anything below the floor is void. If one doesn't exist, you've just started a 90-day clock.

Then submit your application in writing, with the production estimate attached. If a board member wants to talk layout, Section 20(a) says have that conversation with a number in hand.

Most boards, once someone shows them the statute, approve it. The ones that don't are usually operating on a covenant nobody has read since the Clinton administration.

If you want to know what a system would look like on your roof before you take anything to a board, run the numbers on our solar calculator or take a look at how a lease compares to buying. And if your board has already told you no, call me at (618) 217-2001 or reach out through our contact page. I've written that letter before. These are estimates until we've looked at your actual bill and your actual roof — but the law part isn't an estimate.

Sources

765 ILCS 165, Homeowners' Energy Policy Statement Act, full text (ilga.gov) — P.A. 96-1436 eff. Jan. 1, 2011; P.A. 102-161 eff. July 26, 2021; P.A. 103-296 eff. July 28, 2023

Statute text re-verified September 2, 2026. This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

In almost every single-family situation, no. The Homeowners' Energy Policy Statement Act (765 ILCS 165) says that any bylaw or exercise of power by a homeowners' association, common interest community association, or condominium unit owners' association that prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting the installation of a solar energy system is expressly prohibited. Section 20 extends the same rule to deed restrictions and covenants, and Section 20(c) says any provision of a declaration or energy policy statement that conflicts with the Act is void and unenforceable as contrary to public policy. That last phrase matters, because it means an old covenant in your subdivision paperwork does not have to be repealed to lose its force. Your board still gets a say in how the system is laid out, and there are two building types the Act does not cover, but a flat no on a normal single-family home is not one of the options Illinois gives them.

Thirty days. Section 30(a) of the Act says the application shall be processed by the appropriate approving entity of the association within 30 days of submission. There are two related clocks worth knowing. If you request an energy policy statement, or submit an application, the association has 90 days to adopt a written energy policy statement under Section 20(b). And if you filed your application before the association had adopted any policy statement at all, Section 30(b) gives it 120 days instead of 30. The association also cannot charge you a fee for a solar application above what it charges for any other application to change your property, and it cannot force you to use a solar-specific form. Submit in writing, keep a dated copy, and note which clock you are on. The dates are the part people forget to document.

No, and the statute is unusually direct about it. Section 20(b) says a property owner may not be denied permission to install a solar energy system based on system ownership or financing method chosen by the property owner. That single sentence covers leases, power purchase agreements, and financed purchases alike. It exists because boards were approving cash buyers and turning away everyone else, which had the practical effect of prohibiting solar for most households. I bring it up often, because a lease is how a lot of Illinois families get in without writing a check up front, and it is the option most likely to draw a raised eyebrow at a board meeting. If your board asks who owns the equipment as a screening question, that is worth a polite letter citing this section. The Act does not let ownership structure be the reason for a denial.

Sometimes, and this is the honest limit people get wrong. Section 45 says the Act does not apply to a building that is greater than 60 feet in height, or that has a shared roof and is subject to an association. The Act defines a shared roof as any roof that serves more than one unit, including a contiguous roof serving adjacent units, or that is part of the common elements or common area. So a townhome with its own separate roof is generally covered, while a townhome under one continuous roof spanning several units is generally not. A mid-rise condo with a common roof is not covered either. If you are in a shared-roof building, this statute is not your lever, and the conversation becomes a common-elements question for your association rather than a rights question. Community solar is often the more realistic path in that situation.

The Act gives you a self-help remedy, which is rare in Illinois property law. Under Section 30(c), if an association fails to adopt a written solar energy policy statement consistent with the Act, or fails to process your application within the required time, you may proceed with the installation regardless of what the declaration says. First you must give the association written notice of the alleged failure and 10 business days to cure it. During those 10 business days the association may only adopt the policy statement or process the application. It may not take other action, including seeking injunctive relief, and it may not fine or otherwise penalize you for exercising these rights. Section 40 adds that in litigation under the Act, the prevailing party is entitled to costs and reasonable attorney's fees. That fee provision is usually what ends the argument before it starts.