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Senate committee clears bill easing HOA removal of solar-panel bans
Summary
The Senate Business and Labor Standing Committee voted to favorably recommend House Bill 119, which lowers the vote threshold for homeowners associations to remove solar-panel restrictions from two-thirds to a simple majority.
The Utah Senate Business and Labor Standing Committee on Feb. 26 favorably recommended House Bill 119, a bill that reduces the vote threshold homeowners associations must meet to remove a restriction on residential solar panels.
Representative Michael Owens, the bill sponsor, said the measure “effectuates a change” only to the voting requirement and otherwise rearranges existing code. “If you have an HOA that has restricted the installation of solar panels that can be removed by a 51% vote of the…entity within the HOA that made the decision,” Representative Owens said.
The bill’s sponsor and committee supporters framed the change as aligning HOA rules with modern adoption of rooftop solar by lowering what they said is an onerous two-thirds requirement. No public testimony was offered during the committee hearing.
Senator Curt Ipson moved the committee’s recommendation and the motion passed by voice vote. The committee clerk recorded the motion as approved unanimously, five to zero.
The bill was placed on the committee’s consent calendar for floor consideration. If enacted, the law would allow an HOA decision-making body to rescind solar restrictions with a simple majority vote; the committee did not discuss additional technical changes to other parts of the homeowners association code.
The committee did not hear any amendments or formal opposition at the hearing. Sponsors said the rest of the bill is a rearrangement of existing language and the change is narrow: reducing the removal threshold from two-thirds to 51 percent.
