AN HOA threatened to seize a family’s home – without consent – after neighbors complained about $32,000 of improvement work.
But the Farwigs refused to back down, despite being hit with a $50,000 fine, and won a four-year-long lawsuit.
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Thomas Farwig and his wife Rana took on the Belmont Association over a dispute about the installation of solar panels in North Carolina.
And after a successful battle, the North Carolina Supreme Court confirmed homeowners’ rights to add the panels – setting a legal precedent.
The case continues to feature across many legal websites as it means that other local homeowners can also use the decision to defend themselves.
The News & Observer first reported in 2022 that it paved the way for many more households in the state to also install solar panels.
The Supreme Court heard that about five years after buying their property, the family installed solar panels on the roof of their house without submitting a request to, or obtaining approval from their HOA.
They were then sent a notice informing them they had violated the association’s rules.
Although the HOA “gave the defendants the option to relocate the solar panels to a part of the house not visible from the road, [they] refused and this [legal] action followed,” according to the judgment.
VIOLATION
The court declared that the Farwigs’ HOA-imposed restrictions were “in violation” of state rules.
The justices concluded that the HOA’s rule “does have the effect of prohibiting the installation of solar panels and the reasonable use of solar panels,” and had been imposed against North Carolina’s law.
“Nothing in the restrictive covenants of Rana and Thomas Farwig’s homeowners’ association mentioned solar,” explained the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC).
“So, when the couple installed solar panels on the roof of their home in Raleigh, they had every reason to be surprised when their homeowners’ association denied approval of the panels,” the legal experts added.
SOLAR PROTECTION
North Carolina’s General Assembly passed the Solar Access Law in 2007 to protect homeowners wishing to use low-cost renewable energy.
This guaranteed homeowners’ rights to install solar panels.
It also banned any deed restrictions or covenants that would interfere with their installation or use.
But, in the Farwigs’ case, their HOA fined them more than $50,000 and threatened to foreclose their home.
The association did this by placing a lien on their property – an HOA’s legal claim on an owner’s home.
The court’s ruling has been hailed as a significant step forward for homeowners who have been previously hamstrung by their HOA.
AMBIGUITY
It also resolved what the justices had described as an “ambiguous” law.
“For too long, North Carolina homeowners lived with uncertainty about whether our solar access law would protect their right to go solar if opinions on their respective homeowners’ associations swung against it,” said Lauren Bowen, senior attorney at SELC.
“The court has affirmed the right to go solar under the law, and homeowners can now be confident their decisions to go solar will not be denied arbitrarily,” she added.
“This decision will reduce a significant barrier to the residential solar market in North Carolina.
“[It will also be] supporting jobs in the rooftop solar industry, and helping homeowners lower their utility bills and clean up the grid,” said Peter Ledford of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, which SELC represented in an amicus brief on behalf of the Farwigs.
“If you live in North Carolina, you likely have read or heard stories about HOAs prohibiting members from installing solar panels on their properties or of members being sued by their HOA for doing so,” explained The National Law Review in 2022.
More than 200 solar companies have directly invested more than $10 billion in North Carolina.
And the industry is directly responsible for more than 6,000 jobs in the state.
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