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SOLAR PANELS & CLOTHESLINES
By
Jan Bergemann
Published June 25, 2021
Over the years there have been lots of legal fights over solar
panels and clotheslines – also called Renewable Energy Devices
-- and I don’t think that these laws will end the lawsuits.
It will very little for condo owners since they don’t own any
space where solar panels could be installed. Maybe a tiny panel
on the balcony? Just kidding! Condo associations could install
solar panels on the roof of the building, but that’s not up to
the unit-owners.
It gets a lot more complicated in HOAs where owners own lots –
and especially roofs – where panels could be installed. But
there will always be the fight between the fans of renewable
energy against the fans of uniformity, one of the main reasons
why HOAs where created in the first place.
Nowadays most families rely on washers and dryers, but there are
still some who like the old fashioned way of using clothesline
to dry the laundry in the sun, saving as well the cost of
bleach. But, as usual in HOAs, neighbors may not like to see the
neighbor’s laundry flapping in the wind – and the fight is on.
That’s the moment when boards will create new rules, demanding
clotheslines being hidden behind fences in order to avoid
neighbors seeing the laundry being dried.
Solar panels are more complicated. Some people claim that the
law allows owners to install solar panels wherever they want.
But be careful what you wish for. Imagine your neighbor
installing a field of solar panels in his front yard pointing
south. Ever seen anything as ugly as a field of solar panels?
There goes the aesthetic look most Homeowners’ associations are
trying to achieve.
It will be a fight between two worlds – and I don’t think that
the law will put an end to the fights between neighbors in
community associations.
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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