Unapproved modifications

What actually makes a modification "unapproved"

A committee's power to call something unapproved comes from the same place all of its power comes from: the declaration. If the declaration is silent on a category of exterior change, or only implies it loosely, the committee's authority to treat a project in that category as a violation is, at minimum, contestable.

"The authority of an association or any architectural, construction improvement, or other such similar committee of an association to review and approve plans and specifications for the location, size, type, or appearance of any structure or other improvement on a parcel... 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 statutory language; whether your own state imposes the same limit is something to confirm directly against your state's statute and your recorded declaration before you write a violation letter. The first question is never "did they ask," it is "did the declaration require them to."

Silence is not always a denial, and it is not always a violation

A finished project with no paper trail can look like a clear case of "they never asked." Sometimes it is. Sometimes the owner asked, the committee sat on it, and the clock ran out in the owner's favor.

"If an application is not denied in writing within 45 days from the date of receipt... the application shall be deemed approved, unless that delay is the result of a reasonable request for additional information."

Source: California Civil Code Section 714, State of California

That is a California rule for solar water heating applications specifically; other categories, other states, and your own declaration may set a different deadline, a different consequence for silence, or none at all, so check the actual text that applies before assuming silence favors either side. Before you log a project as unapproved, check whether an application was ever filed and, if so, whether the committee's own deadline had already expired.

What happens next lives in your declaration, not in this lesson

Fines, a demand to remove the work, a lien: these are enforcement and collections tools, not architectural review tools, and this course does not teach their mechanics because they vary by declaration and by state far more than architectural review itself does. Your governing documents are the place to look for what the board can actually do about a genuinely unapproved change, and how.

Before reaching for any of them, check your own committee's conduct too. A board or committee is not automatically in the right just because it is the one enforcing.

"If the association or any architectural, construction improvement, or other such similar committee of the association should unreasonably, knowingly, and willfully infringe upon or impair the rights and privileges set forth in the declaration of covenants or other published guidelines and standards... the adversely affected parcel owner is entitled to recover damages caused by such infringement or impairment, including any costs and reasonable attorney fees."

Source: Florida Statutes Section 720.3035, State of Florida

That exposure runs under Florida's statute specifically; whether a similar remedy exists in your state is a question for your own state's statute and your association's counsel. Get the committee's own process right before treating the owner's process as the only thing in question.