Unenforceable HOA Rules in Arkansas

A lot of guidance online implies that every state has some law shielding native or drought-tolerant landscaping from an HOA. Arkansas does not, and it gives homeowners less to work with than most of the states already covered in this series. Being clear about that up front matters, because citing a statute that does not exist is the fastest way to lose credibility with a board. What follows is what actually governs a landscaping dispute in Arkansas and where you genuinely have room to push.

This is a plain-English summary, not a fight plan. Most of these disputes end quietly once a homeowner reads their covenants closely and asks the association to apply them evenly.

The honest starting point: no landscaping statute

Texas has Property Code §202.007, which bars an HOA from prohibiting water-conserving and native landscaping. California has Civil Code §4735, which protects low-water landscaping and blocks fines during drought. Washington's RCW 64.38.057 goes further and names pollinator habitat directly. Arkansas has nothing comparable. No Arkansas statute says an association cannot require turf grass, cannot ban native beds, or has to approve a xeriscape plan.

So in Arkansas the landscaping rules live in your subdivision's recorded declaration or bill of assurance, plus whatever bylaws your association adopted. The room to push back is about how those documents are written and how the board applies them.

Arkansas has no umbrella HOA act for standard subdivisions

Several states in this series have a comprehensive planned-community or property owners association statute that sets out how rules get adopted, how fines work, and what notice an owner is owed, whether or not it touches landscaping. Arkansas does not have one for standard single-family subdivisions.

If you own a single-family home in a subdivision with a homeowners association, and there is no recorded master deed, the Horizontal Property Act almost certainly does not govern you. Your association instead operates on its recorded declaration or bill of assurance, plus the Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 (A.C.A. §4-33-101 et seq.) if it is incorporated, which supplies meeting, voting, and governance rules but says nothing about what an association may require in a yard.

That combination decides what your board may require, what procedure it owes you, and how it can enforce a violation. There is no statewide statute standing behind either side of a landscaping dispute the way there is in Texas, California, or a mandatory-act state like Virginia or Ohio. The recorded document is doing the work a statute would do elsewhere, which makes reading it closely more valuable in Arkansas than in most states.

Arkansas does void covenants, just never for landscaping or solar

It is worth showing that the Arkansas legislature knows how to override a private covenant when it decides a purpose is important enough. It has done exactly that, once, for a purpose that has nothing to do with plants.

That is the clearest evidence in Arkansas law that legislative silence on landscaping is a choice rather than an oversight. The state has stepped in to void a covenant for group-home housing. It has not done the same for a native plant bed, a rain garden, or a rooftop solar panel. Compared with the solar-override statutes found in Missouri, Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Indiana, Arkansas offers nothing: there is no statewide law barring an HOA from restricting solar panel installation, and no dedicated Arkansas solar-access bill has passed. The same is true for political yard signs, which several other states protect from HOA restriction and Arkansas does not.

A covenant-termination bill that never became law

What Arkansas Code §18-12-103 does say, in the subsections that are actually in force, is narrower. An instrument creating a restrictive covenant is not effective unless it is executed by the property owners and recorded with the county recorder. And where a recorded instrument states both a duration for the covenant and a separate procedure for amending it, the duration language does not limit the right to amend, the two are read independently. That is a real, useful provision if your declaration has an old, unclear expiration clause you want to change, but it is not an expiration statute on its own, and it does nothing for a homeowner whose association is active and simply disagrees with a native planting.

Where you do have leverage

No statute does not mean no options. Three angles carry real weight in Arkansas, and they carry more weight here precisely because the recorded document is the only authority in play.

What the declaration or bill of assurance actually says

Boards sometimes enforce a rule that is not in the recorded document, or read a general maintenance clause far more broadly than its words support. A clause requiring a yard be kept neat is not the same as a clause requiring turf grass. Ask for the exact recorded provision and the page it appears on, not a summary from a newsletter or a board member's recollection.

Even-handed enforcement

Selective enforcement is one of the strongest positions available to an Arkansas homeowner, and it matters more where the association's authority rests entirely on a private document it is expected to apply consistently. If your native bed is cited while comparable or messier yards on the same street are not, document it. Dated photos of uncited yards put the board's consistency in question and often end the matter.

Whether the board followed its own procedure

A declaration usually specifies how rules are adopted, what notice precedes a fine, and whether an owner gets a hearing. Where the association is incorporated, the Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act adds meeting, notice, and governance requirements on top of that. A board that skipped its own steps is on weak ground regardless of whether the underlying rule is valid. Confirm the process was followed before you concede the citation.

A different "property owners' association" that is not your HOA

What your HOA can still require

Because Arkansas supplies so little statutory leverage, it helps to be realistic about what an association can enforce through a clearly written declaration:

• Turf grass, or a minimum percentage of lawn, where the declaration says so plainly
• Pre-approval of landscaping changes through an architectural review committee
• Maintenance standards covering dead plants, overgrowth, and edging
• Height limits near sidewalks, driveways, and street sight lines
• Rules about raised beds, borders, trellises, and other structures
• Setback and screening requirements

The practical difference from Texas or Washington is that a clearly written Arkansas turf requirement is more likely to hold up. The productive path is usually to design something the declaration can accept rather than to argue that a statute overrides it.

A cost-share program can still offset a conversion. Northwest Arkansas has one worth reading before you plan the work: the Illinois River Watershed Partnership funds up to half the cost of a residential rain garden or green infrastructure project, covered in our Northwest Arkansas rain garden rebate post. See what else is currently available statewide on our Arkansas rebate page.

How to respond when the rules feel unfair

Even with no statute behind you, a calm and documented approach settles most of these. Four steps, in order:

1. 1Ask for the rule in writing.Request the exact recorded provision the association is citing, by section. A verbal warning is not an enforceable violation, and seeing the language often reveals the rule says less than the board believes.
2. 2Find out what governs your association.Determine whether your community is a condominium organized under the Horizontal Property Act or a standard subdivision running on its declaration or bill of assurance plus the Nonprofit Corporation Act. That answer sets the procedure your board owes you, and it is the question most Arkansas homeowners have never asked.
3. 3Document uneven enforcement.Photograph comparable yards that have not been cited, with dates. Where an association's authority rests entirely on a private agreement, evidence that it applies that agreement inconsistently carries real weight and frequently gets a citation withdrawn.
4. 4Submit a tidy plan.Give the review committee something concrete to approve: a plant list, a simple layout, and a maintenance schedule. A neat, clearly intentional design is far easier for a board to accept than a request framed as a challenge.

When to involve a lawyer

Because Arkansas gives you so little to cite on your own, a short attorney consultation is worth more here than in a state with a landscaping statute. Consider one if:

• You are being fined and cannot tell whether the declaration actually supports the citation
• The association is threatening a lien
• You suspect selective enforcement and want to know how strong that position is
• You cannot tell whether your community is governed by the Horizontal Property Act or by its declaration alone

An Arkansas real estate attorney can read your declaration and tell you quickly whether the rule holds. Given how completely Arkansas leans on that document, one consultation is often worth it before you commit to either a fight or a redesign.

People also ask

Does Arkansas have a law protecting native landscaping from HOAs?

No. Arkansas has no native-plant, pollinator, or xeriscape statute, and nothing comparable to Texas Property Code §202.007 or California Civil Code §4735. If your recorded declaration or bill of assurance clearly requires turf grass, Arkansas law generally lets the association enforce it. Your leverage comes from the wording of that document, whether the board followed its own procedure, and whether it enforces the rule uniformly.

Is there a general Arkansas HOA statute?

Not for standard subdivision associations. The only Arkansas statute built for associations is the Horizontal Property Act, A.C.A. §18-13-101 et seq., and it applies only to condominiums whose master deed expressly elected to be governed by it. A non-condominium association operates on its recorded declaration or bill of assurance, plus the Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 (A.C.A. §4-33-101 et seq.) if it is incorporated. That is why reading your declaration matters more in Arkansas than in most states.

Can an Arkansas HOA make me keep a grass lawn?

If the recorded declaration or bill of assurance clearly requires turf grass or a minimum percentage of lawn, then generally yes. Arkansas has no statute overriding a turf requirement the way Texas does. A vague tidiness or maintenance clause is not the same as a turf mandate, though, and inconsistent enforcement can undercut a citation.

Do Arkansas covenants expire after a certain number of years?

Not automatically. A 2019 bill, SB551, would have let a court terminate certain old, widely-held covenants after 30 years under a narrow set of conditions, but it died in a House committee and never became law. Arkansas Code §18-12-103 as it stands today only requires a covenant to be recorded to take effect, and says that a stated duration does not limit a separate right to amend. There is no automatic expiration for an ordinary, actively-enforced HOA covenant in Arkansas.

Does Arkansas protect solar panels or political signs from HOA restrictions?

No. Unlike several other states covered in this series, Arkansas has no statute barring an HOA from restricting rooftop solar panels, and no statute protecting political yard signs from covenant restriction. Both remain governed entirely by the community's own covenants. Arkansas has voided a covenant for one specific purpose, blocking group homes for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities under A.C.A. §20-48-611, but that protection does not extend to landscaping, solar, or signage.