Can your HOA stop you building an ADU?

The state law leaves your covenants alone, on purpose

This is not an oversight or a grey area. The final subsections of the 2027 law spell out that it does not touch private agreements about land — recorded declarations and covenants, condominium instruments, and property owners’ association declarations. Whatever your county comes to allow, your association’s documents are decided separately and are not affected by any of it.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to supersede or limit contracts or agreements between or among individuals or private entities related to the use of real property, including recorded declarations and covenants … or any declaration of a property owners’ association created pursuant to the Property Owners’ Association Act.

Most covenants never mention ADUs at all

Which is usually good news, and it is also why people get the wrong answer by searching for the wrong word. Declarations were largely written before anyone used the term, so the provisions that catch a second dwelling are the ones about outbuildings, accessory structures, guest houses, detached buildings, or leasing any portion of the property. Read for those, not for "ADU". A document that is genuinely silent on all of them is a much better position than one with an explicit prohibition.

You can probably read them without asking anyone

The declaration of covenants is normally recorded in the county land records, which are public. You may also have a copy in your closing paperwork. If you need the association’s own records rather than the recorded declaration — architectural guidelines, board minutes, past decisions — Virginia law gives members in good standing access to those on written notice, for a stated purpose and at reasonable cost. Ask for the architectural guidelines specifically; they are often where the real constraints live.

Architectural review is not a no

People read "you will need approval from the architectural review committee" as a refusal. It is not. It is a process with criteria, and the criteria are usually about how the thing looks from the street — materials, roof pitch, height, where it sits — rather than whether it may exist. A design that anticipates those criteria tends to get approved. A design that ignores them tends to come back with conditions attached, months later.

And the rules can be changed

Rarely quick, but not impossible, and worth knowing before you conclude it is hopeless. Under Virginia law a declaration may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the lot owners unless the declaration itself sets a different threshold — so check yours first, because that figure varies. An amendment takes effect once it is recorded with a certification from the association’s principal officer. If several neighbours want the same thing, that is a route rather than a wall.

What to do next, in order

Find out whether you are in an association at all — plenty of people are unsure. Read the declaration for the words above. Ask the board or the management company the specific questions that decide it, in writing. Only then spend money on a design. Our tool writes that letter for you, filled in from your situation, and it asks rather than argues: a letter that tells a board what state law now permits is both wrong and a poor way to open a conversation you may need to have again.