A new law is set to take effect in Michigan that would prohibit homeowners associations from limiting installation of solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, energy efficient windows and other energy-saving improvements. It would also prevent associations from banning clotheslines.
It’s a good bill. Homeowners’ association and historical districts often have extreme rules preventing people from making improvements to their property. These associations can stop someone from putting up a wooden fence or replacing deteriorated windows.
It’s true that people choose to live in areas with existing homeowner association or historical district requirements. But state government has a role in defining the limits for what these associations can do.
Neighborhood associations and historical districts don’t actually own the property that they regulate. It’s tough to justify the severe restrictions many associations place on private homeowners on the grounds that these are for the collective interests with their members. People should certainly be free to put up clotheslines and solar panels regardless of how their neighbors feel about it.
The bill passed very narrowly, with all Democrats in support and Republicans opposed. That’s strange for an issue that would seem to be cross-ideological. The strategy legislators use can turn bills that ought to be bipartisan into political issues. A Democratic coalition that already has votes to pass bills doesn’t need to negotiate with Republicans.
State governments have the authority to prescribe what subsidiary governments like cities and historical districts can do. They can also set limits on what organizations based on private contracts, like neighborhood associations, can do.
But the reality is that how much “local control” to allow is often in the eye of the beholder. This current legislature passed a bill allowing local governments to prohibit people from using plastic bags and is considering one stopping them from renting out their homes.
In this instance, we have Republicans voting against overriding infringement by homeowners associations on what people want to do and Democrats praising it. “It’s your property and you should be allowed to capture your own solar energy,” Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak said in favor of the bill. Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, added, “We believe in the fundamental freedoms of people to use their property as they see fit.”
A general principle is that the government should protect private property rights and infringe only in clear cases where not doing so infringes on the rights of others, especially in areas related to public health or safety.
People should be allowed to use legal products (like plastic bags), rent out their home, put up solar panels or clotheslines, and build the type of fence they want. The aesthetics of a neighborhood should not override the rights of the property owner. State governments should have homeowner and historical organizations generally defer to giving people the freedom to do what they want with their own property.
Whether it is at the federal, state or local level, government control is government control. All branches should care more about the private property rights of citizens.