Can Your HOA Stop a Metal Roof in North Carolina?

No North Carolina statute we found gives homeowners a right to install metal roofing over their HOA's architectural rules. That means your community's governing documents decide what is allowed and how approval works.

The North Carolina Planned Community Act, Chapter 47F of the General Statutes, applies in full to planned communities created on or after January 1, 1999, and several of its sections, including association powers and the procedure for fines, also apply to older communities for events after that date. The Act gives associations powers such as adopting rules and regulations and regulating common elements, unless the declaration says otherwise. Control over what owners do to their own homes, including roofing, comes from the declaration, the bylaws and the architectural guidelines adopted under them.

So the real questions are in your documents: Does the declaration require architectural approval for exterior changes? Do the guidelines list allowed roofing materials or colors? Is there a process and a deadline for review? Get copies from the management company or the association's website before you choose a roof, and read them with your roofer.

HOAs that restrict metal roofs usually do so to keep a consistent look across the neighborhood, not because of performance. Guidelines written years ago often name architectural asphalt shingles as the standard, and many review committees picture exposed-fastener barn metal when they hear the words metal roof.

The kind of metal roof matters to most committees. Standing seam panels have a distinctly modern or farmhouse look that fits some neighborhoods and not others. Stamped aluminum shingles are formed to resemble slate, cedar shake or tile, and from the street they can read much like the traditional roofs already in the community. Color is the other big factor; committees often limit roofs to a short list of earth tones, grays and black.

Other concerns committees raise include glare, how a roof will look next to neighbors' shingles, and how the community will handle future requests once one metal roof is approved. Address them directly in your application. Product photos on similar houses, color names that match the approved palette and a note that the profile mimics a traditional roof answer most of these before anyone asks. Our metal shingles vs architectural shingles article compares the two looks side by side.

You get approval by submitting a complete application that makes it easy for the committee to say yes: what the roof is, what it looks like, and why it fits the neighborhood. Incomplete applications are the most common reason for delays.

A strong application includes:

• Product details. Manufacturer, product line, profile and color name, with the spec sheet or brochure.
• Physical samples of the actual color and profile, which look different from screen images.
• Photos of installed roofs of the same product and color, ideally on homes similar in style to yours.
• A photo of your house with a note on which roof areas change, and any trim, gutter or flashing colors.
• The contractor's information and a copy of the estimate's scope, if the guidelines ask for it.
• A short statement tying the choice to the guidelines: color within the approved palette, a profile that resembles slate or shake, concealed fasteners, low glare.

Ask the committee or manager in advance whether metal has been approved in the community before. If it has, cite the address. Get approval in writing before you sign for custom-ordered materials, and keep it with your house records.

If you install a roof without required approval, the association can pursue the remedies in its documents and in the Planned Community Act, which can include fines and, in some cases, a demand to change or remove the work. That is why approval should come before the first shingle comes off.

The Act sets the minimum process for fines when the declaration does not provide its own. Under G.S. 47F-3-107.1, the executive board or an adjudicatory panel of members who are not officers or board members must give the owner notice of the charge, an opportunity to be heard and present evidence, and notice of the decision. A fine may not exceed $100 for the violation, and the association may impose a fine of up to $100 for each day more than five days after the decision that the violation continues. Fines are treated as assessments secured by liens. An owner can appeal a panel's decision to the full board by written notice within 15 days.

Those numbers add up quickly on a roof that cannot easily be changed. If you already installed a roof without approval, submit an application now with the same documentation you would have provided in advance, and ask to be heard before any fine is set.

Yes. Rooftop solar has specific protection under G.S. 22B-20, which makes deed restrictions, covenants and similar agreements that would prohibit, or have the effect of prohibiting, solar collectors on residential property void and unenforceable, with exceptions.

The exceptions let covenants regulate the location or screening of collectors in ways that do not prevent their reasonable use, and let them prohibit collectors visible from the ground on a facade facing common or public-access areas, on a roof surface that slopes down toward those areas, or in the area between the facade and the property line. Condominiums in multi-story buildings with horizontal unit boundaries are excluded.

The North Carolina Supreme Court applied the statute in Belmont Association v. Farwig in June 2022. A Raleigh HOA's architectural committee had denied front-roof panels under a general approval covenant that never mentioned solar. The Court reversed the Court of Appeals, holding that the restriction had the effect of prohibiting solar collectors and did not fit the statute's exceptions, so it was void. Bills to rewrite the statute were filed in 2019 and 2021 (House Bills 750 and 842), but the statute's history lists no amendment since 2009, so the text described here is the law in effect. Our article on solar panels on a metal roof covers mounting.

For HOA review, the most persuasive evidence is what the roof looks like on real houses. Interlock aluminum shingles come in Slate, Cedar Shingle, Shake and Mediterranean Tile profiles, with the fasteners concealed, so from the street they read as a traditional roof rather than as panels. Colors include Deep Charcoal, Musket Grey, Black, Colonial Brown, Tudor Brown, Sierra Tan, Hunter Green, Tile Red and Copper Penny, which makes it easier to match an approved palette.

Metal Roof NC, an authorized Interlock dealer, completed two neighboring Durham homes with Deep Charcoal slate-profile roofs in July 2023, the kind of local example committees like to see. When you request an estimate, ask for profile samples, color samples and photos you can attach to the application.

If your committee is unfamiliar with metal shingles, offer to bring samples to a meeting. Our pages on aluminum shingles, Interlock roofing and the Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte service areas show the profiles in more detail.