This article is free-riding a potential power play for EV charging.
Three things to know about EV charging in body corporate:
- Body corporates should have approval over any EV charger installation
- Appropriate by-laws regarding EV charging are important
- Residents should not be required to subsidise the cost of charging other people’s vehicles
Find out more in our 3-minute video below:
Electric vehicles in strata are fast becoming a big issue, with more and more people wanting to charge their vehicles on-site.
What should a body corporate do?
The first thing a body corporate committee needs to do is make sure its by-laws provide that committee approval is needed before anyone installs any form of charger or charges from sockets in their car park or otherwise.
The committee needs to act reasonably in making its decision, but there are many questions that arise from this issue.
Fire safety
The Queensland Fire Department has no issues with the charging of electric vehicles, the State Government has not intervened on this issue, and body corporate insurers keep insuring buildings with EVs. So, until any of that changes, it’s probably safe to assume there’s no greater fire risk from EVs than there is from a normal petrol car.
User pays
Most people would agree that it’s fundamentally unfair for someone to be able to charge their car from common power unless they’re metered and being billed for it.
If a body corporate allows chargers to be installed, it must ensure that there’s the ability for everyone to access that same right in due course.
For example, if there are 15 chargers installed and there are 45 car parks, it would be fundamentally unfair if, because of electrical safety or from a load perspective, the other people could not install chargers.
What a body corporate committee can do about EV charging
This is an issue a body corporate needs to plan for, even if they don’t need to approve installations now or to look at retrofitting a building to include trunk infrastructure that allows charging to be made more easily.
From a committee perspective, if you haven’t faced this issue already, it is going to be coming around the corner pretty quickly. Get in contact if you need any assistance in preparing by-laws to accommodate EV charging in your scheme.
Frank Higginson
Hynes Legal
E: [email protected]
P: 07 3193 0500
This post appears in Strata News #728.
This article has been republished with permission from the author and first appeared on the Hynes Legal website.
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