Unenforceable HOA Rules in Nebraska

A lot of guidance online implies every state has some law shielding native or pollinator-friendly landscaping from an HOA. Nebraska does not, not yet. What makes Nebraska different from a state that simply never considered the question is that its legislature has: three separate bills since 2019, most recently one naming pollinator gardens specifically, have tried to change this and failed. Knowing that history, and knowing what actually governs a Nebraska HOA dispute today, is worth more than repeating a claim that is not yet true.

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

The honest starting point: no landscaping statute

Texas has Property Code §202.007, which bars an HOA from prohibiting drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf. Washington bars prohibiting pollinator habitat outright under RCW 64.38.057. Nebraska has nothing comparable. No current Nebraska statute says an association cannot require turf grass, cannot ban a native bed, or has to accept a pollinator planting. If your board is enforcing a plainly written turf requirement from your recorded declaration, current Nebraska law does not override it.

Nebraska almost changed this, and named pollinator gardens by name

This is the part worth knowing before you talk to your board, because it is easy to find and easy to overstate. Nebraska has come closer to a pollinator-garden protection than most states in this series, three times, and has not yet passed one.

LB137 was not a one-off. Two earlier bills covering the same ground, solar energy only, also died: LB49 (introduced 2023) and LB1119 (introduced January 2024), both from the same senator, were indefinitely postponed on the same day, April 18, 2024. An even earlier bill, LB621 in 2019, tried the same thing. Four attempts across three legislative sessions is a real pattern. It tells you the Nebraska Legislature has repeatedly considered voiding HOA restrictions on solar and pollinator plantings and has not yet done it, which is a different, more specific fact than simply having no law at all.

Practically, that means citing LB137 to your board will not help you today. It is not law. But its own definition of a pollinator garden, food, water, and shelter for pollinators, compliant with any local pollinator garden program, is a clean, official-sounding design standard you can borrow for an architectural review submission even though the bill itself carries no legal force. More on that below.

One more thing worth ruling out directly: Nebraska does have an existing solar statute, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 66-911.01, and it is easy to assume it does the same job LB137 was trying to do. It does not. Section 66-911.01 only sets recording requirements for an instrument that creates a solar or wind land right, things like the names of the parties, a legal description, and the nature of the interest. It says nothing about restrictive covenants, declarations, or HOA rules, and does not void anything an association has adopted. The defined terms LB137 borrowed, solar energy collector and solar energy system, already exist elsewhere in the same chapter at §§ 66-904 and 66-905, but a definition is not a protection. As of 2026, no Nebraska statute overrides an HOA covenant for solar energy or for planting, which is unusual among the states in this series: most states that override a declaration for one have chosen solar. Nebraska has not yet chosen either.

Nebraska has no umbrella HOA act either

Beyond the missing landscaping law, Nebraska is also, like Missouri, a state with no comprehensive planned-community or homeowners association statute governing standard subdivisions. That makes the recorded declaration even more central than in a state where a statute sits on top of it.

There is one statute worth knowing if a dispute turns into money: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 52-2001 lets an association place a lien on your lot for unpaid assessments once notice is recorded, and lets you request a written statement of what you owe, which the association must furnish within 10 business days. A lien for unpaid assessments is extinguished if the association does not act to enforce it within three years. That is a real, useful backstop if your dispute turns into an assessment fight, even though it has nothing to do with landscaping specifically.

Where you do have leverage

What the declaration actually says

Boards sometimes enforce a rule that is not in the recorded document, or stretch a general maintenance clause well past its wording. 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 section, not a board member's summary of it.

Whether your covenant has its own expiration date

This is Nebraska-specific and worth checking carefully, because a real Nebraska Supreme Court case shows it happening. In Pine Tree Neighborhood Assn. v. Moses (opens in new tab), 314 Neb. 445 (2023), a 1980 Omaha subdivision's original restrictive covenants carried their own stated term and expired in 2010. The neighborhood association had been incorporated before that, but it was shortly afterthe covenants expired that the association and 22 of the subdivision's 32 lot owners recorded a brand-new declaration covering the same restrictions with a fresh 20-year term. The gap is the point: the lapse did not end the restrictions, it opened a window in which they were re-imposed. The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the new declaration as fully enforceable, even though fewer than all of the lot owners signed it, because it still met the basic requirements for a covenant to run with the land.

Separately, Nebraska has a general Marketable Title Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-288 to 76-298) that treats an unbroken 22-year chain of recorded title as generally marketable, subject to a list of specific exceptions (reversionary interests, remainderman rights, unbarred mortgage or contract claims, deed conditions subsequent, and government rights) and to any notice a claimant files under § 76-290 to preserve an interest. Subdivision restrictive covenants are not named in that exceptions list, but we could not confirm through Nebraska case law, including Pine Tree, that a court has actually applied this general 22-year statute to void a private HOA declaration the way Massachusetts and Wisconsin courts apply their own, more specific covenant-expiration statutes. Do not do this arithmetic yourself and assume a covenant is dead. The number that matters is whatever term your own recorded declaration states, and whether anyone has re-recorded it, which is a title question for the county register of deeds or a real estate attorney, not something to guess at from a statute citation.

Even-handed enforcement

Nebraska courts recognize a real defense here, and Pine Tree lays out exactly what it takes. The right to enforce a restrictive covenant can be lost by waiver or acquiescence in the violation of that same covenant, but the bar is genuinely high. Mere acquiescence in one or two unenforced violations does not waive anything; a homeowner has to show substantial and general noncompliance sufficient to indicate the covenant was abandoned. The court weighs whether the board had notice of the violations, how long it went without acting, the extent and kind of the violations, how close they were to the people now complaining, any affirmative approval the board gave, whether the violations were temporary or permanent, and how much the homeowner invested in reliance on the board's inaction.

In the Pine Tree case itself, the homeowners raised this defense over an RV parked in their driveway and lost, because they could not show the pattern of general, longstanding non-enforcement the doctrine requires. That is the realistic bar: a board that cited one neighbor's pollinator bed once is not the same as a board that has let native plantings stand uncited across the block for years. If the second describes your street, photograph the comparable, uncited yards with dates before you need them.

What your HOA can still require

• 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

Because Nebraska supplies so little statutory leverage, the more reliable path is usually a design the board can approve rather than an argument that a statute overrides it. LB137's own definition of a pollinator garden, food, water, and shelter for pollinators, is a useful, official-sounding vocabulary to borrow for that submission even though the bill died. Cost-share can help fund the work; see what is currently available on our Nebraska rebate page.

How to respond when the rules feel unfair

1. 1Ask for the rule in writing.Request the exact recorded provision the association is citing, by section, not a paraphrase and not a reference to the failed LB137. A verbal warning is not an enforceable violation, and the recorded language often says less than the board believes.
2. 2Find out what actually governs your community.Confirm whether you are in a condominium under the Nebraska Condominium Act or a standard subdivision running on its declaration plus the Nonprofit Corporation Act. Check whether your declaration states its own term or expiration date, and if it does, check the county register of deeds for a later renewal.
3. 3Document uneven enforcement.Photograph comparable or messier yards that have not been cited, with dates. Nebraska courts recognize waiver through general, longstanding non-enforcement, but the bar is a real pattern, not one overlooked neighbor.
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, framed the way LB137 itself defined a pollinator garden, food, water, and shelter, reads as a deliberate landscape rather than a challenge to the board's authority.

When to involve a lawyer

• The board is citing a covenant you believe already expired, or that you suspect was renewed without your knowledge
• You are being fined and cannot tell whether the recorded declaration actually supports the citation
• The association is threatening a lien under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 52-2001
• You cannot tell whether your community is governed by the Nebraska Condominium Act or is a standard subdivision

People also ask

Does Nebraska have a law protecting pollinator gardens or native landscaping from HOAs?

No, not currently. Nebraska has no native-plant, pollinator, or xeriscape statute, and nothing comparable to Texas Property Code §202.007 or Washington's RCW 64.38.057. A bill that would have protected pollinator gardens specifically, LB137, was indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026, and never became law. If your recorded declaration clearly requires turf grass, current Nebraska law does not override it.

Did Nebraska try to pass a law protecting pollinator gardens from HOAs?

Yes, three times on this exact issue since 2019. LB137 (2025), the most recent, would have voided any HOA covenant banning a solar energy device or a pollinator garden and given homeowners a civil cause of action; it died in committee carryover on April 17, 2026. Earlier bills LB49 (2023) and LB1119 (2024) covered solar energy only and were both indefinitely postponed on April 18, 2024. None of these ever became law.

Is there a general Nebraska HOA statute?

Not for standard subdivision associations. Nebraska has no umbrella planned-community act. The Nebraska Condominium Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-825 to 76-894) governs only condominiums created after January 1, 1984. A standard subdivision HOA operates on its recorded declaration plus, where it is incorporated, the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 21-1901 to 21-19,177), which covers corporate formalities but not landscaping, notice, or fines.

Can a Nebraska HOA make me keep a grass lawn?

If the recorded declaration clearly requires turf grass or a minimum percentage of lawn, generally yes. Nebraska has no statute overriding a turf requirement the way Texas or Washington do. A vague tidiness or maintenance clause is not the same as a turf mandate, and a board that has not enforced the rule evenly against comparable yards may have a weaker case.

Can a Nebraska HOA covenant expire?

Sometimes. In Pine Tree Neighborhood Assn. v. Moses, 314 Neb. 445 (2023), an Omaha subdivision's original 1980 covenants carried their own stated term and expired in 2010, but a subset of the lot owners then recorded a new declaration with a fresh 20-year term, and the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld it. Check your own recorded declaration for a stated duration, and check the county register of deeds for any later renewal, before assuming a covenant is gone. This is a title question for an attorney, not a calculation to make on your own.