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You Live In A Flat And Cannot Get A Charge Point Fitted
There is a car park, but the space is not yours, the wall is not yours, and nobody will say yes.
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What's happening?
In a block, three separate things have to line up before anything can be installed, and the electrical work is the easy one. First, permission: the parking area and the external walls are almost always demised to the freeholder or managed by a management company, so your lease governs whether you can fix anything to them. Second, the supply: the question is whether you feed the charge point from your own flat's meter, which is what makes the electricity your electricity, or from the landlord's communal supply, which then has to be metered and recharged to you somehow. Third, the route: getting a cable from your flat down to a basement or courtyard space crosses common parts, and that crossing is the part that usually needs a formal licence to alter. A good installer will tell you early which of the three is going to be the sticking point, and it is nearly always the second.
What usually causes it?
- A lease that forbids alterations to the structure or common parts without the freeholder's written consent
- Unallocated parking, so there is no space the charge point could sensibly serve
- No practical cable route from your flat's consumer unit to the parking level
- A managing agent with no policy for EV charging, so requests sit unanswered
- A communal supply with no way to bill your charging to you rather than to the service charge
- An existing landlord's supply already near capacity, so extra load needs a network assessment first
Is it dangerous?
Nothing here is a shock or fire risk in itself, but two workarounds are. Running an extension lead from a flat window down to a car park is the one installers see most, and a domestic extension reel is not built for hours at 10A, let alone in the rain. Plugging into a communal socket without permission is the other — it is someone else's supply, and the circuit was almost certainly never designed for a sustained charging load.
Can I fix it myself?
Read the lease clauses on alterations and on the demised parking space before you ask anyone anything, so you know whether you are asking for permission or just notifying. Then write to the freeholder or managing agent with a specific proposal: which space, which wall, fed from your own meter, installed by a certified installer, with the fixings and making-good at your cost. Check the government grant pages as well — there are chargepoint grant routes aimed specifically at flat owner-occupiers and people in rented homes, and a separate scheme for landlords, and a funded route sometimes changes a freeholder's mind.
When should you call an EV charger installer?
Get an installer to survey before you write to the freeholder, not after. A short written proposal naming the cable route, the mounting position and the supply it comes from is far more likely to be agreed than an open request. Involve them again if the answer comes back as a communal supply, because that changes the job into a metered installation and may need the distribution network operator notifying.
What will the EV charger installer actually do?
- Survey the route from your flat's consumer unit through common parts to the parking level
- Establish whether the flat's own supply can carry the charge point, or whether a landlord's supply is the only option
- Specify metering where the feed is communal, so charging is billed to the right person
- Produce a written scheme the freeholder or managing agent can approve, including fixings and reinstatement
- Notify the distribution network operator where the block's load is being materially increased
- Install, test and certify the circuit, and label the isolation point clearly for the building's records
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