We got the call on a Tuesday in April from a homeowner in a Beaumont subdivision.
Two evenings of chips at the kitchen table. Two slow drives around the neighbourhood. A warm greige settled on for the Hardie board, a deeper charcoal for the shutters. Material bought.
Then the architectural review committee came back with one line. Not approved. Sheen out of range on the body colour, and the trim was not on the current schedule.
Cans in the garage, pollen on the house, and a graduation party on the calendar for the second week of May.
If you are somewhere similar right now, here is the useful news. The paint is the smaller problem. The bigger problem is a resubmission that gives the committee nothing to guess at, and that is fixable in days rather than seasons. Below is the recovery sequence, the honest answer on whether the money is gone, and what Kentucky actually gives you as a Lexington homeowner.
What should you do first when your HOA rejects a color you already paid for?
If your HOA rejected a colour you already bought, do five things in order. Get the denial in writing, stop any application, check the retailer’s tinted paint policy before 30 days pass, build a resubmission packet, and resubmit rather than argue. Most denials come back approved on the second pass when the packet is complete.
The five moves in order
Request the denial in writing, with the specific covenant paragraph cited.
Stop application immediately, even mid wall.
Contact the retailer about the tinted paint while you are still inside any window.
Assemble a resubmission packet, described in full further down.
Resubmit to the same committee rather than escalating.
One thing to say plainly before going further. Nothing here is legal advice. It is what we have watched work, repeatedly, on Lexington houses.
What not to do in the first 48 hours
Do not keep painting to finish the elevation. A completed violation is treated differently from a paused one.
Do not send a long email arguing that the colour is fine. Committees respond to compliance, not persuasion, and the email becomes part of the record.
Do not throw away the cans or the receipts. Both matter for the next section.
Why do architectural review committees reject a color that looked approved?
Four causes account for nearly all of it.
Sheen is approved separately from color
This is the one we see most often on Hardie board in the newer subdivisions. The colour was fine. The sheen was not.
Many schedules permit a colour only in flat or low sheen on the body, and satin or semi gloss only on trim. A satin body colour gets denied even when the code matches exactly.
Undertone changes when the color leaves the chip
A greige that reads warm on a two inch chip can read distinctly pink or green across forty feet of siding in full sun.
Committees are looking at the wall, not the chip. If your sample was small, they were guessing, and guessing tends to end in a denial.
Trim, accent and door colors run on a different schedule
Body colours and trim colours are usually two separate approved lists, and doors sometimes a third.
A perfectly valid body colour paired with a trim shade that is not on the current trim schedule fails as a package. That was half of what happened in Beaumont.
Adjacency and repetition rules
Many covenants prevent the same scheme appearing on adjacent lots, or within a certain number of houses on a street.
This one catches people badly, because the colour is approved, it is on the list, and it is still denied. Nothing is wrong with the choice except where you live.
When the denial is about the contractor’s submission
Sometimes the homeowner did nothing wrong. A contractor submitted a product code from the wrong fan deck, or omitted the sheen field, or filed against an outdated guideline sheet.
Ask to see exactly what was submitted before assuming the choice was the problem.
Can you get your money back on paint that has already been tinted?
Partly, sometimes, and it depends entirely on where you bought it. This is the question nobody answers properly, so here is the direct version.
What the major retailers actually allow
| Retailer | Tinted paint returnable | Window | Form of remedy |
| Sherwin-Williams | Generally no | Not applicable, excluded from returns | None, tinted product is yours |
| Home Depot | Yes, under a colour guarantee | 30 days | Exchange, store credit or free colour correction |
| Independent and contractor supply houses | Varies by store | Varies | Often re-tint or partial credit at manager discretion |
Sherwin-Williams
Sherwin-Williams excludes tinted, custom order, special order and customer specification products from returns. The standard return window never applies to them, because the product was made for you.
That is not a policy you can argue around. Plan on keeping it.
Home Depot
Home Depot runs a separate 30 day colour guarantee on custom tinted liquid paint, stains and primers. Remedies are usually an exchange, store credit, or a free colour correction rather than cash back.
Bring the can and the receipt, and expect them to want the can reasonably full, roughly 80 to 90 percent.
Independent and contractor supply houses
No standard policy exists. Ask, be pleasant about it, and ask specifically about re-tinting rather than refunding. Many will do it even when they will not refund.
The re-tint option, and why darker is easy while lighter is not
Tinted paint can very often be re-tinted, with one physical limit. You can move a colour darker or more saturated. You cannot meaningfully move it lighter, because there is no way to remove colourant that is already in the can.
So if the committee’s approved alternative is darker than what you bought, you are probably fine. If it is lighter, that paint is not becoming the new colour.
Five ways to use paint you cannot return
A garden shed, fence, or detached garage that sits outside the covenant’s colour rules
Interior utility spaces where colour barely matters
Priming a large area before a topcoat in the approved shade
A donation to a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which takes usable paint
A neighbour mid project, since one house’s rejected colour is often another’s approved one
What does Kentucky law actually say about HOA color denials?
Less than people expect, and in a very specific shape. Again, this is background rather than legal advice.
Which statute governs your community
Three possibilities.
The Kentucky Planned Community Act at KRS 381.785 to 381.801, effective 29 June 2023, covers lots with covenants and an association. Condominiums are excluded from it.
Condominiums created after 1 January 2011 fall under the Kentucky Condominium Act starting at KRS 381.9103. Earlier ones fall under the Horizontal Property Law at KRS 381.805 to 381.910.
Association procedure often runs through KRS Chapter 273, the nonprofit corporation law, since most associations are incorporated that way.
Your recorded covenants are the real rulebook
For a colour dispute, the statutes matter less than the declaration recorded against your lot.
That document sets the approved schedules, the review process, the response deadlines and the enforcement steps. Pull the recorded version rather than the summary sheet the committee sends out, because they are not always the same.
What records you can demand
You have more access than most people use.
For planned communities, KRS 381.795 sets out record access with five categories the association may withhold. For modern condominiums, KRS 381.9197 is stronger and cannot be waived. Under KRS 273.233 the association’s bylaws can limit access, so check what yours say.
Request three specific things: the approved colour schedule in force on your submission date, the guidelines in force on that same date, and the minutes of the meeting where your request was decided.
Committees make fewer arbitrary decisions when the minutes are being read.
There is no state HOA regulator in Kentucky
There is no state agency that supervises homeowners associations or hears colour complaints. No board to report a committee to, no ombudsman.
That is why the strategy on this page is persuasion and paperwork rather than complaint. There is no higher authority to appeal to except the association’s own board and, eventually, a court.
Where fair housing overrides a color rule
Narrow but real. KRS 344.360 and the federal Fair Housing Act require reasonable accommodation in housing, and an accommodation request tied to disability can override an ordinary aesthetic rule in specific circumstances.
This applies to a small number of situations and is not a general route around a colour denial.
How do you build a resubmission packet the committee will approve?
This is the part that actually decides the outcome.
Get the denial in writing and read it literally
Committees deny for stated reasons. Answer the stated reasons and nothing else.
If it says sheen, fix sheen. Do not use the resubmission to relitigate the colour.
The seven things in the packet
A one page cover note quoting the exact covenant paragraph you now comply with
Manufacturer, exact code and sheen for body, trim, accent and door
Two large drawdown samples brushed onto the actual substrate, not chips
Photos of those samples on the north and south elevations, at mid morning and again late afternoon
Photos of three to five nearby approved homes in the same family, with addresses
A short scope note naming material, coat count and application method
Your contractor’s name and contact details
If you want a second pair of eyes on a packet before you send it, we are happy to look. Free on site inspection, (859) 695-2718.
Why large samples on the real substrate change the outcome
The same colour behaves differently on different surfaces.
Stucco scatters light and reads lighter and softer. Brick pulls warmth from the masonry underneath. Hardie board reads truest but shows sheen clearly. Wood siding takes colour deeper on weathered boards. Aluminum siding reflects and reads brighter.
A committee looking at a chip is imagining. A committee looking at a two foot drawdown on your actual siding is deciding.
How long the committee has to answer
Kentucky sets no universal deadline, so the number sits in your declaration.
Most run 30 to 60 days. Many contain a deemed approved clause, meaning that if the committee does not respond within the stated window, the request is treated as approved. Find that clause and quote it in your cover note. Its presence tends to speed things up.
When to ask for mediation instead of an appeal
If the second submission is also denied without a stated reason, ask the board for mediation before anything more formal.
It is cheaper than a lawyer, it puts a neutral third person in the room, and in a neighbourhood where you have to keep living, it ends better.
What happens if you already started painting, or already finished?
Calmly, and in this order.
The normal enforcement sequence
Associations almost always follow the same path. A written violation notice, then a cure period, then fines if nothing changes, then legal action or an assessment lien.
You are usually several steps away from anything serious on the day the letter arrives.
How to stop the clock with a written cure plan
Reply in writing with a dated plan. Say what you will do, and by when.
Most enforcement escalates because nobody replied, not because somebody disagreed. A written plan with a date on it converts an open violation into a managed one, and committees generally accept that.
If a lien does eventually attach in a planned community, it sits ahead of other liens except taxes, governmental charges and anything recorded earlier, which means an existing first mortgage stays ahead of it. Worth knowing, and worth never needing.
Who pays when the contractor submitted the wrong color
If your contractor submitted the wrong code, the wrong sheen, or filed against an outdated schedule, that is a workmanship issue and it belongs to them.
Get the submitted document. Compare it to what you approved in writing. Most reputable contractors correct their own filing error and absorb the repaint of the affected area without much argument, and a contractor who will not is telling you something useful.
How do you choose a replacement color that passes the first time?
Start from the approved schedule, not a chip rack
Work from the association’s current list and narrow within it. Choosing freely and then hunting for the nearest approved match is how people end up here twice.
Match the fixed elements
Build the body colour around what cannot change. Roof colour, brick or stone, window frames, stucco banding, and any masonry on the foundation.
Those elements set the undertone you have to live with. The siding colour is the flexible part.
Test in Bluegrass light, not showroom light
Open Bluegrass lots have little canopy and long unobstructed sun. Colours read a full step lighter here than they do in a store or under a covered porch.
Test on the actual wall, on both the shaded and sunny elevations, at two different times of day. That is also exactly what the committee wants to see.
Ask about product and finish at the same time as color
Since you are resubmitting anyway, submit the whole specification once. Colour, sheen, product and application method together.
A committee that has all four in front of it has nothing left to query.
Why does this happen so often in Lexington and the Bluegrass?
Because Fayette County has two very different kinds of neighbourhood, and they run on different rules.
New-build subdivisions come with active committees
Beaumont, Hamburg and the developments running out toward Nicholasville and Georgetown are mostly newer builds on Hardie board and stucco, with recorded covenants and an architectural review committee that actually meets.
Versailles and Richmond have much the same pattern in their newer sections. If your house is under twenty five years old and in a subdivision, assume there is a schedule and a process.
Older neighborhoods run on different rules
The older brick and wood streets around Chevy Chase are more likely to sit under a neighbourhood association or a local overlay than a covenant with a colour list.
Different constraints, often looser on colour, sometimes tighter on materials and detail.
Bluegrass sun and open exposure change how colors read
Wide temperature swings, high summer dew points, heavy spring pollen from February through June, and open land UV exposure on horse farm properties all affect how a finish looks and how long it holds.
A colour chosen indoors and approved on paper can still surprise everybody on the wall. That is precisely why the drawdown samples matter.
A real example: a Beaumont denial that turned into a better exterior
What the first submission was missing
A colour code, a trim colour, and nothing else. No sheen stated. No sample on the siding. The trim shade was not on the current schedule, and nobody had checked because nobody had been asked to.
What the second submission included
Two large drawdown samples brushed straight onto the Hardie board, one on the north elevation and one on the south, photographed at nine in the morning and again at four in the afternoon, with the manufacturer code and sheen written on the sheet.
Photos of three homes on her own street in the same colour family, with addresses.
A one page cover note quoting the exact paragraph of her covenant.
It came back approved inside the committee’s normal window. The delay cost days, not a season, and the graduation party happened on a finished house.
What she decided to change while she waited
What she has mentioned since is not the approval. It is that while she was waiting, she asked us what she would be doing again in six or seven years.
When is a rejected color the right moment to reconsider the whole exterior?
Honestly, this is the cheapest moment it will ever be.
The project is already paused. The budget is already allocated. The specification is open in a way it will not be again for years, because once a colour is on a wall nobody reopens the question until it starts failing.
What the committee reviews versus what you are actually buying
Committees review colour and sheen. They very rarely review film build, solids content or application method, because those do not affect how the street looks.
Which means the finish itself is usually not the obstacle. Your approved colour can sit on a five to seven year repaint or on something built to last considerably longer, and the committee’s answer is generally the same either way.
What a free on-site inspection covers
We measure, walk every elevation including the ones behind the gutters, and give you a written itemised estimate. Our published Lexington range runs roughly $4,500 to $12,000 depending on size, material, story count and how much preparation the house needs.
For context on the alternative, our coating is applied as two airless sprayed coats, never rolled, at roughly 80 percent solids and 8 to 10 times the thickness of paint, with a 25 year transferable warranty against a typical five to seven year repaint cycle.
Being straight about our own numbers: we hold 4.9 stars from 51 reviews across the company, and our Lexington profile shows 4.2 stars from 9 local reviews.
Frequently asked questions
Can my HOA legally reject a color that is on their own approved list? Often yes. Many covenants include adjacency or repetition rules that prevent the same scheme appearing on neighbouring lots, so an approved colour can still be denied for your specific address. Committees may also deny on sheen, or because a trim colour is not on the current schedule. Ask for the reason in writing.
Can I return tinted paint in Kentucky? It depends on the retailer, not the state. Sherwin-Williams excludes tinted, custom order and special order products from returns entirely. Home Depot runs a 30 day colour guarantee on custom tinted liquid paint, stains and primers, usually settled as an exchange, store credit or free colour correction. Independent stores vary and will often re-tint.
How long does an HOA have to respond to an architectural request? Kentucky sets no universal deadline, so the number comes from your recorded declaration. Most communities run 30 to 60 days. Many declarations also contain a deemed approved clause stating that a request not answered within the window is treated as approved. Find that clause and quote it in your submission.
What happens if I paint without approval and they find out? The usual sequence is a written violation notice, a cure period, then fines, then legal action or an assessment lien. You are normally several steps from anything serious when the first letter arrives. Replying in writing with a dated plan to fix it stops most escalations before the fines start.
Can an HOA put a lien on my house over a paint color? Over unpaid fines arising from a violation, yes, an assessment lien is possible. In a Kentucky planned community that lien sits ahead of other liens except taxes, governmental charges and anything recorded earlier, so an existing first mortgage stays ahead of it. This is a late stage outcome, not a first response.
Does Kentucky have a state office I can complain to about my HOA? No. Kentucky has no state agency regulating homeowners associations and no ombudsman for association disputes. Your routes are the association’s own board, mediation, and ultimately the courts. That absence is exactly why a complete resubmission packet is more effective than a complaint.
Do HOA covenants ever expire in Kentucky? Generally no. KRS 381.222 exempts covenants and restrictions from the thirty year limitation that applies to some other recorded interests, so Kentucky covenants do not lapse with age. A very old subdivision restriction can still be enforceable today unless it was properly amended or terminated.
Can I appeal to the board if the architectural committee said no? Usually yes, and your declaration will say how. In most communities the board can review a committee decision. Before appealing, resubmit once with a complete packet, because a clean second submission resolves more denials than an appeal does and it costs you nothing but a few days.
Does the committee approve the product or only the color? In most cases they are reviewing colour and sheen rather than the coating system itself, since film build and solids content do not change how the street looks. Some schedules do name permitted product categories, so submit product and method alongside colour and sheen and let them approve the whole specification at once.
Will a ceramic coating change how my approved color looks on the wall? The colour reads as the colour, but sheen and surface texture affect appearance, which is why sheen is submitted alongside the code. A thicker sprayed film sits differently on textured substrates like stucco than a thin rolled coat does. The safest route is a drawdown sample on your actual siding, submitted with the request.
Getting an approved color on the wall without doing this twice
The homeowner in Beaumont got her approval, her party and a finished house. What she remembers is not the denial. It is that the pause turned out to be the only time anybody asked her what she wanted the house to be doing in ten years.
If you are in the middle of this, we are glad to help with the packet whether or not you ever hire us. And if you want an itemised written estimate to sit alongside your resubmission, the on site inspection is free and there is no obligation attached to it.
Rhino Shield of Cincinnati and Kentucky, 222 Midland Ave #6109, Lexington, KY 40508. Call (859) 695-2718, Monday to Saturday, 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
Nothing on this page is legal advice. Read your recorded covenants, and speak to a Kentucky attorney if a dispute goes past mediation.
