What obstacles can my neighbors put up to install a community charging point: who pays and who does the work

Although, at the moment, it seems the most common, the electric car is not a field limited to single-family homes with an individual charger at home. Although there are those who even live with an electric car and without a plug, in the community garages It is also possible to have a recharging point for our vehicle.

Because the most comfortable thing is that our electric car can be recharged at night. In this case, the first thing we must be clear about is that we have every right to install a charging point in a community garage, although we will not be able to use the community electricity.

In other words, we can install a charging point, but as neighbors we do not have the right to plug our vehicle into a domestic outlet that gives garage service. It is important to take this into account because, in the first case, we will be the ones paying the recharge and, in the second, the billing would go to the monthly community fee.

How to act

If there is one thing we must be clear about, it is that installing a plug for private use of our electric car in a community garage is completely permitted and endorsed by law. In fact, the community of neighbors can’t refuse for the installation to take place.

If you have specific doubts, you can solve all the information for charging electric cars in community spaces with the Technical Guide of application of the ITC-BT 52. Installations with special purposes. Infrastructure for recharging electric cars.

But, in short, the art. 17.5 of the Horizontal Property Law states that “the installation of a recharging point for electric vehicles for private use in the building’s car park, provided that it is located in a single square of garage, it will only require prior communication to the community. The cost of said installation and the corresponding electricity consumption will be fully assumed by the direct interested party(s).

That is, the neighbor will be in charge of carrying out the necessary installation and paying for it. From the College of Administrators of Madrid They recommend that, once the intention to install the plug has been communicated, the community of neighbors commission a project to decide the best place for the installation of meters and the wiring to the recharging point of each square.

If they do not have this approval, they point out that it is good to establish minimum requirements for each neighbor, which the College of Administrators of Madrid summarizes in:

• Prior communication by the requesting owner or neighbor.
• From the meter to the recharging point, the line must be installed under an approved tube and along the route agreed with the community of owners, not being able to use the common conduits and boxes.
• The pipe passes from the meter room to the garage will be the responsibility of the requesting owner.
• The recharging point will be installed on the back wall of the parking space, as central as possible and without occupying the overhang of the adjoining spaces.
• The owner or neighbor must deliver the installation bulletin to the community of owners.
• Comply with current regulations at all times.

technical details

Once the communication is issued, the type of community garage in which you want to install the charging point must be taken into account.

If the garage is independent of the dwellings, there two posibilities. The first is that a pre-installation be carried out from the garage’s electrical panel, which runs through the entire garage with a sufficient section so that, subsequently, anyone who wants to can hook up to that line and place the recharging point in their place next to a counter that must be periodically read to generate receipts and pass them to collection.

The other option is for each interested owner to carry out an individual installation from the garage’s electrical panel to their parking space with an appropriate section wiring for a single recharging point and the installation of a meter, and so on for the rest of the interested parties. This option has the inconvenience that as new installations are carried out, the wiring that runs through the garage will increase, so it should be mandatory that when a number of individual derivations are reached, they must be replaced by a larger community one. section so that the rest of the owners can join later.

If, on the other hand, we are talking about a garage associated with some homes, it will also be feasible to carry out individual leads from the meters of the houses to the parking spaces, although, from the collegiate body they point out that “always complying with the provisions of the Low Voltage Electrotechnical Regulation (REBT) to avoid possible claims for the correction of defects in future inspections of the garage “.

And in Catalonia…

In Catalonia, however, they have their own Horizontal Property Law and the process is slightly different. As Francesc Xavier Quintana, vice president of the Col·legi d’Administadors de Finques de Gironain this case it is regulated by the article 553-36.3.

In it we read the following: “In the event of installing an individual recharging point for electric vehicles, it is only necessary to send the presidency or the administration the Technical project thirty days before the start of the work and the corresponding technical certification once the installation is finished. Within this period, the community can propose a reasonable alternative that is more appropriate to its general interests. If the alternative installation does not become effective within two months, the interested owner can execute the installation that he had initially projected “.

In other words, if any type of work had to be undertaken for the installation of a charging point, the owner would have to propose a technical project that could be answered by the community within the next 30 days. In case the neighbors decide on the last proposed alternative, they have two months to install it. If it is not carried out, the owner of the electric vehicle has free rein to carry out his own project.

Furthermore, as to the question of who should bear the expenses in the event of an increase in power, Francesc is clear: the community of neighbors. Therefore, it recommends that, in a situation in which the neighbor and the community may collide and, possibly, the demand for chargers will increase in the coming years, both reach an agreement and study a facility that may serve other owners in the future. .

Photos | Michael Fousert, jordan graff Y Derrick Treadwell