EV charging stations in a condominium

The owner's right to install a charging station

Article 1122 bis of the Italian Civil Code, introduced to support sustainable mobility, allows each owner to install, at their own expense, equipment for charging electric vehicles on their own parking spot or on any part of their exclusive property. No approval from the assembly is required: the owner gives notice of the intention and proceeds, unless the installation requires using shared parts of the building, such as running cables through stairwells or shared ducts.

When shared parts are involved, the assembly cannot forbid the work but may only require alternative execution methods, provided they do not create excessive additional cost or reduce the usefulness of the installation for the requesting owner. A plain refusal is not lawful: the provision exists precisely to overcome the unjustified vetoes that used to block these installations.

Mandatory notice to the property manager

Before starting the work, the owner must notify the property manager, with a technical description of the project, of the intention to install the charging equipment. This notice allows the manager to assess the impact on shared parts and, if necessary, to bring the matter to the next assembly within a set deadline to evaluate possible alternative execution methods.

The manager must place the request on the agenda of the first available assembly meeting whenever the work affects shared parts of the building: this step does not authorize the work, which remains the owner's right, but informs the other owners and collects any technical remarks. AmministraPro's tools for managing condominium communications and agenda items for the assembly help keep these steps documented in an orderly way, which is useful in case of future disputes.

Individual costs versus shared costs

The cost of the charging equipment itself, including the dedicated meter and the wiring from the connection point to the requesting owner's parking spot, remains entirely at the owner's expense: it is not a shared condominium cost and is not allocated among the other owners.

The situation is different for any work on shared parts needed to allow the equipment to be connected, such as upgrading the shared electrical system or minor work on common cable trays: if requested directly by the interested owner for their own installation, the cost stays with them; if instead the assembly decides on a general upgrade of the shared electrical system to prepare multiple future charging points, that cost is shared and allocated according to the general ownership shares, unless a different table applies to the electrical system.

In practice, when several owners request installation within a short period, it is worth considering a collective project in the assembly to prepare shared cable ducts: the preparation costs are split among those who benefit, while each individual charging station remains private.

When an assembly resolution is actually needed

An assembly resolution is not needed to authorize a single private charging station, which is an individual right. It is needed when the condominium decides to build a centralized charging system serving several parking spots, with work on shared parts intended for collective use: in that case the ordinary majorities required for useful innovations apply, under Article 1120 of the Civil Code, which specifically favors measures for sustainable mobility and energy saving.

The assembly also resolves when the condominium regulation needs to be amended to govern the use of shared parts affected by the cable routing, or when the costs of a collective project are to be allocated by agreement among the interested owners using criteria other than the general ownership shares, provided everyone agrees.

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