In most cases, installing an electric vehicle charger (EV charger) at a freehold property is straightforward as generally, the freeholder will own the land they are installing the charger on, and the electricity meter will be close to the parking space, if not, at least cabling will be within the boundaries of the property.
This ‘ideal world’ scenario occurs in only a very few instances in the realm of leasehold properties. This article deals with the practicalities of installing an EV charger at your flat. Details of dealing with the legal aspects of installing an EV charger are dealt with in a separate article on this blog and should be read in conjunction with this article. The legal considerations document can be viewed here.
Where will the charger be located?
At first glance, this question may seem stupid as the obvious answer is “by the parking space”. However, many parking spaces in leasehold developments (especially older ones) were designed at a time when vehicles were much smaller, so you need to ensure that your space is big enough to incorporate both car and electric charger and positioning doesn’t cause both practical and legal issues for other leaseholders.
Additionally, car parking spaces may be grouped in such a way that it is not easy to locate a charger such as the scenario in the image below.
Electricity supply
Your EV charger won’t be much use to you without power. The options are:
- You connect it to your flat’s electricity supply
- You connect it to a communal electricity supply
- You install a new electricity supply
In most cases, connecting to your flat’s supply won’t be viable due to the distance between the car park space and the flat’s electric meter. There may be a communal supply located close to your parking space, however, as most communal supplies are rated at only 100 Amps, there will be restrictions on the number of electric vehicle chargers that can be connected……likely one, possibly two.
Installing a new electricity supply would be extremely expensive and probably only viable in the context of a site-wide scheme.
Site-wide EV charging schemes
The most efficient scenario for almost all developments would be a site-wide implementation of an EV charging scheme. There are several advantages to this approach, especially when it comes to economies of scale.
- Government grants of £350 are available per EV charger and £500 per space for infrastructure. These grants are not available to freehold property owners.
- Many sites will require the installation of a three-phase electric supply; however, this would then provide leaseholders the option of fast charging rates up to 22KW as well as the most technologically advanced solutions. Most freehold properties will have a single phase, 100Amp supply so are restricted to slower rates of charging at between 7.5kw and 11.4 kw
- Site-wide schemes are likely to be easier to future-proof. Those higher charging rates possible through a three-phase supply and other technologies such as load-balancing will also open up possibilities in the future not available to freehold counterparts.
- Site-wide schemes will enable billing of each leaseholder’s use of electricity. If you are a single leaseholder and your electricity is attached to a communal supply, you will also likely have to arrange for an additional electric meter to be installed. This meter will also have to be manually read and arrangements would need to be made with the freeholder for re-charging of electricity costs.
Conclusions
Whether you are a single leaseholder or group of leaseholders seeking to join the EV revolution, EV Solutions Group can make this happen on your behalf. None of the above scenarios discussed above are insurmountable.
That said, our advice to any leaseholder looking to get an electric vehicle charging point is – As a first step, enquire with their fellow leaseholders as to whether there is appetite for others to join the revolution. Unquestionably, site-wide schemes are the cheapest and safest option in the long term.