An HOA ARC request moves through the same handful of steps in most communities. Someone needs the authority to review it, there have to be standards to review it against, the owner needs a form, and the board needs a deadline and a written answer.
The covenants behind architectural review
Architectural review rests on the community's covenants. Cornell's Legal Information Institute defines a restrictive covenant this way: "A restrictive covenant is a provision in a real property conveyance that limits the grantee's use of the property." In an HOA, those covenants usually sit in the recorded declaration, and the architectural review committee (ARC) applies the ones that govern the outside of homes and lots.
The same source notes that courts don't enforce every restrictive covenant automatically; a court may decline, for example, where enforcement would infringe civil liberties or where the party seeking it lacks standing. A written process that treats every owner alike makes a decision easier to defend if it's ever tested.
The day-to-day mechanics of moving requests through are covered in how to handle HOA architectural review requests faster.
Stage 1: the ARC and its charter
The ARC gets its authority from the declaration, and a board resolution or charter usually sets its scope. The declaration or bylaws usually say who appoints the members and how many serve. While a developer still controls the community, the declarant may run the ARC, so check the declaration for when that ends.
A short charter names the ARC, its members and terms, its scope, how it meets and reaches a quorum, its decision deadline, how it reports to the board and where an owner appeals. The HOA ARC: What the Architectural Review Committee Is and What It Controls covers the ARC in full.
Stage 2: the guidelines
Guidelines turn broad language in the declaration, such as a call for harmony with the community, into standards an owner can read before drawing up plans. Typical standards include an approved paint palette by name or code, fence height and material by location on the lot, placement and setback rules, and a list of pre-approved items that need no review.
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Guidelines draw their authority from the declaration, and how far they can reach is a question for your declaration and your state's law. In many communities the board adopts them by resolution at an open meeting, dates them and sends a copy to every owner. For writing each standard, see HOA architectural guidelines that owners can follow.
Stage 3: the application form
A complete application carries the owner's name and lot, a description of the change, its location on the lot (a site sketch or plot plan), plans or drawings, materials and colors, dimensions, the contractor and schedule, and the owner's signature and date. Ask for a neighbor acknowledgment only where the documents require one.
When an application arrives, the ARC runs a completeness check and asks in writing for anything missing. What goes in an HOA ARC application walks the form field by field.
Stage 4: what counts as a request
An ARC request is an owner's written application asking the ARC to approve a change to the exterior of a home or lot before the work starts. Which side a project falls on is a question for the declaration. Many documents leave routine maintenance that keeps the home as it is, such as repainting in the same approved color or replacing like with like, outside review. A new color, a fence, an addition, a shed, solar panels or new landscaping usually needs approval.
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Solar panels raise their own questions, covered in can an HOA restrict solar panels. The full answer is in what is an ARC request.
Stage 5: the deadline
Response deadlines live in the declaration first. Some declarations carry a deemed-approval clause, where no answer by the deadline counts as approval, and some carry a deemed-denial clause. Find out which one, if either, your declaration contains, and write that into the charter.
Date-stamp each application on receipt, count from a complete application if the documents allow it, and put the deadline on the calendar. Decide before it passes, or extend in writing where the documents permit. ARC deadlines and what happens when the board doesn't answer in time sets out the record-keeping at each step.
Stage 6: the written decision, denials and unapproved work
Every request gets a written, dated decision. A denial cites the guideline it relies on and the part of the plan that doesn't conform, and it tells the owner how to ask for reconsideration or appeal under the documents. The association's attorney should see a denial letter before the owner does.
Work built without approval starts with the facts. Verify what was built, photograph it and check whether it would have been approved as an after-the-fact application. Then the board follows its violation notice process and checks past decisions for consistency. Older work may raise the questions in the HOA grandfather clause and what it protects. Denying an ARC request and handling work done without approval takes both halves of this stage in turn.
California's version of the whole cycle
California's statute for common interest developments, California Civil Code section 4765, applies to a California common interest development whose governing documents require association approval before an owner changes their separate interest or the common area. Its requirements touch most of the stages above:
- a review procedure in the governing documents that is "fair, reasonable, and expeditious", with prompt deadlines and a stated maximum response time;
- a decision made "in good faith" that isn't unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious, and that can't override governing law such as fair housing law or building codes;
- a written decision, with any disapproval explaining why and describing how to ask the board to reconsider;
- reconsideration by the board at an open meeting, unless the board itself, or a body with the same membership, decided at a meeting that met California's open-meeting rules;
- an annual notice to members of which changes need approval, with a copy of the procedure.
For any other community, the declaration and that state's law decide what applies.
Keeping the cycle on record
In HOA-OS, the board can keep the cycle's paperwork in one account: an ARC committee workflow so the ARC reviews each homeowner change request, a request form from the form builder (14 field types, with file upload for the site sketch and a signature line), and a submissions inbox where new applications collect. Document storage holds the declaration, the charter and the current guidelines. The board still makes every decision.
Sources
- restrictive covenant, Legal Information Institute
- California Civil Code Section 4765, Justia
Related Reading
- How to Handle HOA Architectural Review Requests Faster
- The HOA Grandfather Clause: What It Protects and What It Doesn't
- Can an HOA Restrict Solar Panels? Where the Law Stands
A board with nothing in writing should start at Stage 1 and put an ARC charter resolution on the agenda of its next open meeting.