Can an HOA Fine You for Letting Your Lawn Go Dormant?

A brown lawn during drought doesn’t necessarily mean the grass is dead or neglected. Turf can enter dormancy to survive heat and limited rainfall, while some state and local laws restrict an HOA’s ability to penalize homeowners for brown grass when watering restrictions are in effect. Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock

Your grass turns brown during a scorching, rainless summer, so you do what seems reasonable: stop pouring hundreds of gallons of water onto it and let the lawn go dormant. Then an HOA violation notice appears in the mailbox demanding that you restore the green lawn—or face a fine. It sounds absurd, especially when local officials may simultaneously be asking residents to conserve water, but HOA lawn fines aren’t governed by one nationwide rule. Whether an association can penalize a homeowner can depend on the HOA’s covenants, state law, local watering restrictions, and whether a drought emergency has officially been declared. Before turning the sprinklers back on just to satisfy a warning letter, homeowners should understand what dormancy actually means and what rules apply where they live.

Brown Grass Isn’t Necessarily Dead Grass