Getting HOA Approval for Window Replacement in California

Replacing windows in a house you own outright is a decision between you and the building department. In a common interest development, which is California's term for condominiums, planned developments and similar communities, there is a third party: the association.

This page is part of our California window guide. It is general information, not legal advice. Your association's recorded declaration and rules control much of what follows, and they vary widely.

Start with one question: whose windows are they?

Before design review, cost or brand, find out who is responsible for the windows. The answer is in your declaration (the CC&Rs) and, where the declaration is silent, in the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act.

Three kinds of property

• Separate interest. Your unit or lot, as its boundaries are defined in the declaration and condominium plan.
• Common area. Everything else the association owns or controls.
• Exclusive use common area. Common area set aside for the use of one or a few owners.

Civil Code section 4145(b) lists what is exclusive use common area unless the declaration says otherwise. The list covers fixtures designed to serve a single separate interest but located outside its boundaries, and it names shutters, awnings, window boxes, doorsteps, stoops, porches, balconies, patios, exterior doors, door frames and hardware, screens and windows.

So in a typical condominium where the unit boundary is the interior surface of the walls, the windows are exclusive use common area by default. In a planned development of detached houses, the windows are usually part of the lot the owner owns.

The default split of responsibility

Civil Code section 4775(a) sets the default, again "unless otherwise provided in the declaration":

Read the bottom row twice. Under the statutory default, the owner maintains exclusive use common area windows (cleaning, lubricating, small upkeep) and the association repairs and replaces them.

Now the caution. Many declarations override this default and assign window replacement to the owner. Some assign the glass to the owner and the frame to the association. Some are silent, and some are unclear. The words "unless otherwise provided in the declaration" make your CC&Rs the first document to read, and the maintenance matrix, if your association publishes one, the second.

If the association is responsible, replacement is a reserve-funded project the board schedules for the whole building. Your role is to report failures in writing and ask where windows sit in the reserve study. If you are responsible, or you want to replace early at your own cost, you need approval, and the rest of this page applies.

Architectural review: what section 4765 requires

Where the governing documents require association approval before an owner makes a physical change to a separate interest or the common area, Civil Code section 4765 sets minimum standards for that process. The association must:

• Have a fair, reasonable and expeditious procedure written into its governing documents, with prompt deadlines and a stated maximum time to respond to an application and to a request for reconsideration.
• Decide in good faith. A decision may not be unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious.
• Follow the law. A decision may not violate governing law, including building codes and other laws on land use and public safety, whatever the governing documents say.
• Decide in writing. A disapproval must explain why and describe the procedure for reconsideration by the board.
• Allow reconsideration. If an application is disapproved, the owner is entitled to reconsideration by the board at an open meeting, unless the board itself made the original decision at an open meeting.
• Tell owners the rules each year. The association must give members annual notice of which physical changes need approval, with a copy of the procedure.

The point about building codes matters with windows. An association cannot require a window that fails the current energy code, lacks required safety glazing, or shrinks a bedroom egress opening below what the code allows. If a design guideline written years ago specifies a product that no longer complies, the code prevails. See what Title 24 requires of replacement windows for the current figures.

What changes on 1 January 2027: SB 908

Senate Bill 908 was signed on 29 September 2026 as Chapter 787 of the Statutes of 2026. It adds section 4754 to the Civil Code and takes effect on 1 January 2027. It is the first California statute aimed specifically at HOA restrictions on window replacement.

What counts as a residential window replacement project

The definition is in new Government Code section 65850.73. A project qualifies if it:

• proposes only to replace existing windows in a single-family or multifamily residential building with windows of the same size and in the same location;
• involves no physical alterations to the building beyond those needed to install the windows; and
• complies with the California Building Standards Code, including the Residential, Building, Fire, Wildland-Urban Interface and Energy Codes.

Enlarging an opening or adding a window is outside the definition and stays under the ordinary rules.

What the association may no longer do

Under section 4754(a), any provision of a governing document that effectively prohibits or restricts an owner from completing a residential window replacement project, or that imposes requirements on California Energy Code-compliant windows, is void and unenforceable. It applies to separate interest windows, exclusive use common area windows, and windows the documents call common area but that are designed to serve one owner's unit.

What the association may still do

Section 4754(b) preserves two kinds of restriction:

• Reasonable installation restrictions that do not significantly increase the cost or significantly decrease the energy efficiency of the project.
• Reasonable aesthetic restrictions, but only for a project in a multifamily building of more than 20 units that does not include townhomes, and only where the project changes the exterior visual appearance of a window. Combined with any installation restrictions, they must stay inside the same cost and efficiency limits.

"Significantly" is defined. It means more than 10 percent of the cost of the project as originally specified and proposed, or a decrease of more than 10 percent in its energy efficiency. A restriction may not require a material that would make the window fail the Energy Code.

If the governing documents place no reasonable restrictions on window replacement at all, the association may not put the project through design review or any other approval.

A 45-day clock

Where approval is required, the application is processed like any other architectural application under section 4765, and a project that complies with the permitted restrictions must be approved. The decision must be in writing. If the association does not approve or disapprove in writing within 45 days of receiving the application, it is deemed approved, unless the delay comes from a request for information the application required and the owner did not provide.

Conditions when the windows are not strictly yours

For windows that are exclusive use common area, or common area serving only your unit, or part of your separate interest but set in a common area building structure, section 4754(e) requires the association to approve the project if you agree in writing to:

• comply with the governing documents on aesthetic or installation standards that stay inside the 10 percent limits, and on the association's inspection rights;
• use a licensed contractor;
• obtain any required permits and give the association proof; and
• pay the cost of installation.

There are continuing obligations too. You and each later owner are responsible for maintaining, repairing and replacing the new windows, for damage caused by the installation, and for disclosing the project and those responsibilities to prospective buyers. The association may record a notice against your title and may require the installer to indemnify it for damage caused by the installation.

That last trade is worth thinking through. If your declaration makes the association responsible for replacing your windows, going ahead on your own under section 4754 moves that responsibility to you and your successors.

The city side

The same bill requires cities and counties to approve qualifying window replacement projects administratively, without discretionary review or a hearing, and limits denial to cases with written findings of a specific adverse impact on public health or safety that cannot be mitigated. Buildings individually listed on the California Register of Historical Resources, and most buildings designated on a local register, are excluded. The building permit and the building codes still apply.

Until 2027

For applications decided before 1 January 2027, section 4765 and your governing documents are the rules. An association still has to act in good faith and within its own stated time limit. If your project is not urgent and your association's guidelines are restrictive, the calendar is a factor in when to apply.

The application checklist

A complete application is the difference between one review cycle and three. Include:

1. The association's own form, filled in completely.
2. A list of every opening, with location, existing size and operating style, and what will replace it. State that sizes and locations are unchanged.
3. Product data sheets for the manufacturer and product line: frame material, exterior color, grid pattern if any, glass tint or reflectance.
4. The NFRC ratings, U-factor and SHGC, for the exact configuration, with a note of your climate zone and the Energy Code requirement. How to read an NFRC label explains them.
5. Photos of the existing windows from outside, and a photo or brochure image of the proposed product in the same color.
6. The installation method. Retrofit or full-frame, and what happens to exterior trim, stucco or siding around the opening. Associations care most about what the outside will look like afterward. See retrofit versus new-construction installation.
7. The contractor's name, license number and proof of insurance. Many associations ask to be named as additional insured for the work.
8. A statement that a building permit will be obtained, and a commitment to provide a copy.
9. Work days and hours, access, and debris removal.
10. The written agreement described above, if section 4754(e) applies to your windows.

Submit it in a way that proves the date, since the response deadline runs from receipt.

Practical advice

• Do not order windows before approval. Custom windows cannot be returned.
• Match what is there. The same exterior color, grid pattern and frame sightlines get approved quickly under any version of the law.
• Ask whether others have already been approved. A product the committee has accepted before is the path of least resistance.
• Ask about a building-wide project. If many units have failing windows, a single association project can be better value and settles the appearance question for everyone.
• Keep everything in writing and keep the approval with your house records. A buyer's agent will ask for it.

For lining up bids for the committee, see how to compare window replacement quotes. For the permit, see permits for retrofit windows in California. If you manage a community and are planning a building-wide replacement, our property managers page is the better starting point.

Sources

• Civil Code section 4765 (architectural review procedure)
• Civil Code section 4775 (repair, replacement and maintenance responsibility)
• Civil Code section 4145 (exclusive use common area)
• Senate Bill 908 (Chapter 787, Statutes of 2026), adding Civil Code section 4754 and Government Code section 65850.73
• Office of the Governor: housing legislation signed 29 September 2026

Working with Heritage Exteriors

We put together the product data, NFRC ratings, photos and installation details an architectural committee asks for, and we do not order windows until you have written approval. We pull the building permit and give you a copy for the association's file. Licensed in California, CSLB #1055919. Call (916) 546-2991.