What Section 33-439 makes void
Arizona Revised Statutes Section 33-439 makes any covenant, restriction or condition contained in any deed, contract, security agreement or other instrument affecting the transfer or sale of real property which effectively prohibits the installation or use of a solar energy device void and unenforceable.
The operative word is effectively. A restriction does not have to say the word solar to fall foul of the statute. If its practical result is that you cannot install or use a solar energy device, it is void, and that is a broader protection than many homeowners assume they have.
There is one exception on timing: an instrument entered into before April 17, 1980 is not subject to that section. For most Scottsdale housing that will not be the relevant question, but it is worth knowing the exception exists.
This page is not legal advice and your community's documents are specific to it. Whether a particular set of restrictions effectively prohibits solar is decided case by case, so if the answer matters and your association is resisting, an hour with an Arizona attorney who handles association law is the sensible next step.
The rules an association can still make
An association may adopt rules regarding the placement of a solar energy device, so long as those rules do not effectively prevent installation, impair the device's ability to function, or adversely affect the cost of the device.
Those three limits are the ones to hold a rule against. A placement requirement that moves an array onto a shaded or north-facing plane impairs its ability to function. One that requires expensive concealment adversely affects the cost. Either is a rule worth questioning rather than accepting.
So when a committee proposes an alternative location, the right response is a specific one: ask your installer to model production for the proposed placement against the original. A concrete production difference is a much stronger conversation than a general objection, and it goes directly to the statutory test.
Keep it in writing throughout. A written record of what was proposed, what was refused and on what grounds is what makes any later conversation short and factual, whether or not it ever involves a lawyer.
Making the application straightforward
Knowing the statute is not a reason to skip the process. Submit an application to the architectural review committee the way you would for any improvement, because an application that arrives complete and specific is approved far more often than one that arrives as an argument.
Include the layout, the mounting method, the panel and frame colour, and the route of any visible conduit. Committees are usually reacting to uncertainty about appearance rather than to solar as such, and a drawing removes most of that uncertainty before anyone forms a position.
Ask your installer whether they have taken projects through your specific association before. In a city with this many associations, one that works locally will know what several of the larger ones have asked for previously and can pre-empt it.
Confirm which utility serves your address while you are at it, since Scottsdale is served in different parts by different utilities with completely different solar rules, and boundaries can change block by block. Verify by entering your address rather than assuming from your city.
The state credit you claim yourself, and the federal one that ended
Arizona still has a state income tax credit of its own, claimed on Arizona Form 310, Credit for Solar Energy Devices. It is calculated by multiplying the cost of a solar energy device by 25 percent, capped at $1,000, and the form provides for tracking credit carryover across multiple years.
Ask a tax advisor how the cap and the carryover apply to your situation before you rely on a figure in a quote. A credit is only worth what you can actually use against tax owed, and an installer is not the right party to advise you on that.
Arizona also exempts solar equipment from state sales tax and excludes it from property tax, so the improvement does not raise your property tax bill the way a renovation of similar cost would. Neither arrives as a cheque, which is exactly why they get left out of people's own arithmetic.
The federal position has changed and much published material has not caught up. The 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a cash or loan purchase now does not receive it. Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so such a provider may claim it and reflect part of the value in the rate offered. Ask what they claim and what actually reaches you, and confirm with a tax advisor.