Academy/Committees & Volunteers
Architectural committees
Know what your architectural committee can actually require, and what has to happen when it says no.
An architectural committee only has the power the declaration gives it: to review and approve or deny changes to a home's exterior against written standards. It cannot invent rules from a member's personal taste. Whether it can decide on its own or only recommend to the board depends on your governing documents, and sometimes state law.
Its authority comes from the declaration, not the committee's taste
An architectural committee is a creature of the declaration. It has no built-in power to demand a particular look. Whatever it can require has to trace back to a written standard in the declaration itself, or in guidelines the declaration authorizes.
"shall be permitted only to the extent that the authority is specifically stated or reasonably inferred as to such location, size, type, or appearance in the declaration of covenants or other published guidelines and standards authorized by the declaration of covenants."
Source: Florida Statutes section 720.3035, State of Florida
This is Florida's specific rule. Other states frame the same limit differently, so check your own declaration and state statute for the actual test. The underlying principle holds everywhere: authority is delegated, not assumed. If the declaration is silent on a topic, the committee has no automatic standing to require anything about it.
Advisory or decision-making: know which one governs your committee
Most architectural committees are advisory. They review a request and send a recommendation to the board, which makes the actual decision. Some are different: a board can delegate real authority to a committee, turning it into a decision-making body that acts for the board directly.
"committees with decision-making authority... such as an executive 'committee of the board' made up entirely of directors to which the board has delegated certain powers, or an architectural review committee"
Source: Creating Committees, HOA Law Blog, SwedelsonGottlieb
Which one your committee is changes what applies to its meetings. In California, for example, a committee that has been delegated the board's own decision-making power, such as an empowered architectural review committee, can trigger the same open-meeting and minutes rules that apply to the board itself. Check your own state's community association statute for whether it treats decision-making committees the same way.
A fair process needs a specific, written reason for saying no
Where a committee can say no, it has to apply its standards the same way to every owner, and it has to explain why. "It doesn't fit the neighborhood" is not a reason, it is a feeling.
"written notice to the parcel owner stating with specificity the rule or covenant on which the association or committee relied... and the specific aspect or part of the proposed improvement that does not conform to such rule or covenant."
Source: Florida Statutes section 720.3035, State of Florida
This exact written-notice requirement is Florida law; your state may or may not require it in writing. But the underlying norm, a specific, evenhanded reason rather than a general impression, is good practice everywhere, and it is often the difference between a decision that holds up and one that gets challenged.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
The architectural committee denies a paint color because the chair dislikes it, though the declaration says nothing about color. What's true?
The board delegates final approval power to the architectural committee instead of just advisory review. What changes?
An architectural committee denies a fence application, telling the owner only that "it doesn't fit the neighborhood." What's missing?
- Robert's Rules of Order Revised, Article IX, Committees and Boards, public domain text of the original standard-setting work
- Florida Statutes section 720.3035, State of Florida
- Creating Committees, HOA Law Blog, SwedelsonGottlieb
- Committees (Generally), FindHOALaw, Tinnelly Law Group, PC
- California Civil Code section 4090, State of California
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Committees & Volunteers
See how advisory and decision-making committees differ, so you know which kind yours is.
Whether your architectural committee can decide on its own or only recommend, whether its meetings must be open, and whether a denial must come with written reasons all vary by state and by your declaration.