EV Charging in Condos and HOAs: What Boards Can and Cannot Deny

The owner in 1204 just bought an EV. She emails the board asking to install a charger in her deeded parking space, and two directors answer in the same thread: one says the CC&Rs do not allow it, the other says it should go to a vote of the membership. In California, that thread just started a 60 day clock. In a Florida condominium, the board has already said something it is not allowed to say.

Right-to-charge statutes changed the question boards face. Where one exists, you are not deciding whether to permit a charger. You are deciding what conditions you can attach and how fast you have to answer.

Separate the two requests before answering either one

Where the charger goes decides which rules apply. A charger in the owner’s unit, in a deeded space, or in a parking area assigned to that owner for exclusive use is what right-to-charge statutes were written for, and a flat denial there is what gets boards in trouble. A charger on the general common elements, in a space nobody owns exclusively, is a license question the board has far more room to shape. Most bad outcomes start with a board answering the second question when the owner asked the first.

California: a prohibition in your governing documents is void

In California, Civil Code Section 4745 makes any governing document provision that prohibits or unreasonably restricts an EV charging station within an owner’s unit or designated parking space void and unenforceable. Designated parking space covers a deeded space, one in the owner’s exclusive use common area, and one specifically designated for that owner.

The section allows reasonable restrictions and defines them narrowly: restrictions that do not significantly increase the cost of the station or significantly decrease its efficiency or performance. Anything heavier is a prohibition wearing a different name.

Three procedural points decide most California disputes:

• The application is processed in the same manner as an application for an architectural modification, and it may not be willfully avoided or delayed.
• Approval or denial must be in writing. An application not denied in writing within 60 days of receipt is deemed approved, unless the delay comes from a reasonable request for more information.
• An association that willfully violates the section owes actual damages plus a civil penalty up to $1,000, and a homeowner who prevails is awarded reasonable attorney’s fees.

Since the application runs on your architectural track, confirm that the ARC process you already run records receipt dates and issues written decisions. Deemed approval is what happens to informal processes.

One California detail changed recently. Until the end of 2025, an owner installing in a common area or exclusive use common area had to name the association as an additional insured. Senate Bill 770, chaptered as Chapter 525 of the 2025 statutes and effective January 1, 2026, deleted that requirement. The owner still maintains liability coverage at all times, delivers a certificate of insurance within 14 days of approval, and delivers one annually after that.

Florida: the board cannot deny a request for the owner’s own space

In Florida, Statute 718.113(8) says a condominium declaration or restrictive covenant may not prohibit a unit owner from installing an EV charging station within the boundaries of that owner’s limited common element or exclusively designated parking area, and the board may not prohibit it either. The subsection also gives the owner an implied easement across the common elements for the installation and the supply of power to it.

What Florida puts on the owner is cost and responsibility:

• Installation, operation, maintenance and repair costs, including hazard and liability insurance, belong to the owner and pass to the successor. The association may enforce payment under Statute 718.116, the provision it uses for unpaid assessments.
• The electricity must be separately metered or metered by an embedded meter and paid by that owner or the successor.
• The installation may not cause irreparable damage to the condominium property.
• If the owner later decides the station is no longer needed, that owner pays to remove it.

Florida went the opposite way from California on insurance. Under 718.113(8)(h), the association may require a certificate naming itself as an additional insured within 14 days of approval, and may require the owner to reimburse the actual cost of any increased premium attributable to the station within 14 days of the invoice. The point where your master policy ends and the owner’s coverage begins confuses most buildings already, so put the charger terms in the approval itself.

That text sits in Chapter 718, which governs Florida condominiums. A Florida HOA under Chapter 720 should not assume the same words apply.

What your board can still require

A right-to-charge statute takes away the power to say no, not the power to set conditions. Both states let a board insist on what protects the building:

• A licensed contractor, plus permits and compliance with applicable codes and local ordinances. Florida lets you require a licensed and registered firm familiar with this kind of installation.
• Reasonable architectural standards covering dimensions, placement and external appearance, as long as they do not prohibit the station or substantially increase its cost.
• A written allocation of cost and responsibility covering electricity, maintenance, damage, removal and restoration.
• Disclosure of the station and its obligations to a future buyer, which California requires of the owner.

Most of that belongs in board-adopted rules rather than an amendment to the declaration, and what your board can enforce without amending the bylaws marks that line.

The shared station is a budget decision, not a rights decision

A station the association installs on the common elements for everyone is a funding question, governed by different rules than an owner’s request. California Section 4745(h) lets the association or the owners install a station in the common area for all members, and requires the association to develop terms of use for it. Subdivision (i) lets an association create a new parking space where one did not exist.

Florida is more explicit. Statute 718.113(9) lets the board install or operate a station on the common elements or association property and set the charges, and it states that installing, repairing or maintaining a station under that subsection does not constitute a material alteration or substantial addition. Material alteration is normally what forces an owner vote in a Florida condominium, so the statute removes that trigger here.

It does not remove the money question. A real capital cost puts you back on reserves, the operating budget, or when the board can levy a special assessment and when owners get a vote.

If your state has no right-to-charge statute

Where no right-to-charge statute exists, the governing documents control and a board can lawfully deny the request. A tracker maintained by Plug In America, an EV advocacy organization, listed more than a dozen states plus the District of Columbia with some form of right-to-charge law in March 2026, and most of those laws protect owners rather than renters. Check your state there, then read the statute itself.

Even without a statute, the request is coming. A board that writes a charger policy before the first application sets the terms. One that writes it during a dispute is negotiating.

A process that holds up

1. Adopt a written charger policy with architectural standards, insurance terms and a standard owner agreement.
2. Date stamp every application on receipt, where the whole board can see it.
3. Get an electrical capacity assessment of the garage before requests pile up, so load answers rest on a number.
4. Put the owner’s obligations in a signed agreement that binds successors, since both statutes pass them with the unit.
5. Decide in writing every time, with the reason stated. Silence is the one answer that converts into a yes.

Your state statute and your governing documents control, and the two can say different things, so check both before you reply to the owner in 1204.

Dated applications, written decisions, signed agreements and an insurance certificate that reappears every year tend to end up in four different inboxes. Noque keeps requests, notices, documents and each owner’s history in one place, so the date a board approved something is never reconstructed from email. If you want to see that in your community, talk to a specialist.