Former neighbors sold their house last year and moved from our HOAless 1950s subdivision to a 2000s subdivision with an HOA built on former farmland on the edge of town (they needed a bigger house).
The first thing they did was have solar panels installed on their roof. The HOA freaked out. They sued. They spent thousands on lawyer. This morning they made the news.
Seems that most people in the subdivision don't care. They really don't stick out. Within 10 years it will be normal. Those without solar panels will stick out.
But that doesn't keep the GQPers on the HOA from wasting HOA dues on lawyers. I warned him about HOAs when he told me they were moving. HOAs are why I live in a 1950s subdivision, most newer ones have them and they are all run by a bunch of busybodies fretting over every little thing. The zoning code is all I need, let code enforcement deal with problem properties. I don’t want to be paying $500/mo rent on my property on top of my mortgage and property taxes so it can be used to sue me or my neighbors.
Here's the local TV news story on my former neighbors solar panel problem
New Illinois law may help homeowners sued over solar panels
BELLEVILLE, Ill. – A home in Belleville is an eyesore, according to a lawsuit filed by the neighborhood homeowner’s association. It’s over the placement of solar panels.
The homeowners are Jennifer and Mark Bassler.
“We want to reduce our carbon footprint and help the environment as much as possible and so this is something we had thought about for a while,” Jennifer Bassler said.
They had solar panels professionally installed in October 2020, despite HOA rules that say they can only be in the back. They wanted maximum efficiency and impact for complete coverage. They and their attorney believed they were protected by Illinois law.
John Albers of Shay Law in Peoria, Illinois said the law is called the Homeowners Energy Policy Statement Act.
“Usually, when I get involved in situations like this it’s simply a matter of educating the HOA on what that law provides for, and in every instance, in the past, they’ve just said ‘oh, ok’ and that’s the end of it,” Albers said.
“In this instance, they insisted they would be able to enforce their policy.”
Neighbor Frank Wallace said he supports the Basslers.
“The job of the HOA is to protect our home values,” he said.
Wallace said he told the HOA to stop spending his dues on attorney fees to go after people doing the right thing.
His response from the HOA was that “They said most of the people we’ve spoken to in the Orchards say they’re against putting solar panels where others can see them.”
“I don’t believe it because I’ve spoken to many, many people that live here and they’re not against solar,” Wallace said. “We’re all for the whole renewable energy thing.”
Yep... It's going to be real easy to go "carbon-free by 2050". (We are Ameren Illinois here, same company, Union Electric and Illinois Power merged in the late 90s to form Ameren)
Ameren Missouri’s IRP calls for 5.4 GW of renewables by 2040, but it keeps some coal and retains natural gas as an option.
Ameren has joined the ranks of U.S. utilities pledging to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with a long-range plan that invests nearly $8 billion in renewable energy and accelerates some coal plant closures — although it will retain much of its coal fleet through the next two decades.
Like other net-zero carbon goals, Ameren’s will rely on “further advancements in innovative, carbon-free technologies and constructive federal and state energy and economic policies” to reach its final goal, CEO Warner Baxter said in a Monday statement.
Ameren joins a growing list of U.S. utilities committing to net-zero carbon by midcentury in states that haven’t yet set that goal as a mandate, although several are on the cusp of doing so. The list includes Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, Southern Company, Arizona Public Service, NRG, PSEG, Xcel Energy, Consumers Energy, Alliant Energy and, just last week, Entergy.
Update: He just sent me this link to a petition on Change.org, if you can, please sign.
Help homeowners being sued for solar panels! $40,000 in legal bills so far, and if he loses, he’s on the hook for the HOAs legal fees as well.
And a Youtube video on his plight.
My former neighbor also just told me he is out on disability right now. He is a firefigher and got injured on a medical assist call a little over a month ago. It took 15 firefighters to get a heavy patient out of a basement. Unrelated to his solar panel problem, but WOW!
It took 15 people (fire and EMS) to move the patient. We have people movers which are basically tarps rated for 1000 pounds. The people mover ripped. We had to use three by the time we were done. Anyways the call resulted in 3 back injuries and one smashed hand. I was the worst of the back injuries.
He then had complications that sounded more like Covid-19 than anything else. Blood clots had lowered is blood oxygen to the 80% range and affected his heart by 31%. He is recovering now.