[Captain Slow]

Greetings fellow members.

My friend is currently experiencing problems with his Residential Welfare Association (RWA). It appears that they are now prohibiting residents from installing charging stations in their parking lots. From a legal standpoint, what options does he have?

This situation has become a significant concern for my friend, especially considering his plans to purchase an electric car.

Up until now, we have noticed that some residents have taken the initiative to install charging sockets for both four-wheelers and two-wheelers in their parking lots, as this facility was not previously available from the association.

To ensure the safety of our residents and prevent potential fire or electric shock hazards within the complex, Management Committee has decided not to permit any individual charging stations for individual four-wheelers or two-wheelers in any of the basement parking areas.

We kindly request every resident to adhere to these guidelines.

Any advice on what can he do about this?

Looks like he will have to do this -

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update...3553108590592/

[Rodie09]

I find the RWA's stand fair given that they come up with a plan to systematically retrofit the parkings with charging sockets in a given time frame.

Simply saying no will not work.

Those who are installing on their own, if from meter rooms, are actually tampering with the designed and permitted electrical distribution.
Can be held liable if any thing goes wrong.

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by Rodie09

I find the RWA's stand fair given that they come up with a plan to systematically retrofit the parkings with charging sockets in a given time frame.

Simply saying no will not work.

Those who are installing on their own, if from meter rooms, are actually tampering with the designed and permitted electrical distribution.
Can be held liable if any thing goes wrong.

The decision appears to be motivated by the intention to sell power from a third-party vendor instead of using the electricity from one's own meter.

Sir, following that line of reasoning, even installing solar panels on your house could be seen as interfering with the intended and approved electrical distribution system.
Even adding an extension box or a UPS system to your home constitutes a direct alteration to the electrical design of your house!

[Rodie09]

Regarding Solar Panels, yes if you are installing a grid connected system you need to obviously have the electrical distribution company aligned. In apartments, RWA nod is very much needed for solar panel also.

Altering the internal wiring of a house and installing capacity (switchboards) above rated kva for your meter is definitely not allowed.

Coming to the topic at hand, imagine in a society of 100-200 basement parking if everyone drew their own wires, conduits and switchboards - there would be a chaos in terms of design, aesthetics.of common areas, safety of others etc.

Living in apartments comes with own restrictions although you bought the property. It is never going to be like an independent house.

[deathwalkr]

I assumed that the power in the common areas like parking are linked with the flat's power meter? Or does each parking have their sockets linked with the respective owner's power meter?

I guess the Association is a bit paranoid about safety. From the linkedin post, he himself says risk of shock and fire is high.

Wonder how the new gen apartment complexes are dealing with this issue. Could help paying a visit to some new apartments and finding out.

[riteshritesh]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

I assumed that the power in the common areas like parking are linked with the flat's power meter? .

Power in common areas is billed to the Society, which is taken care in the Monthly maintenance charges charged by the society.
We have Tata Power installing individual charging units in each parking slot and billed to the applicant. It is not drawn from the house supply meter. They provide a separate connection and separate billing for EV charging.

[PreludeSH]

I wonder if there is a safety concern as well. Dont think people (including myself) are comfortable with EVs charging especially parked densely in apartment complex. Over this if one person is not doing the wiring the right way, it impacts too many vehicles. Have to be through some common standard.

[SmartCat]

If some space is available in common areas, RWA can tie-up with third party EV charging infra companies.



Electricity charges are billed to the society but they will pay the RWA a monthly fee or a cut of revenues generated from charging. Residents who plug in their EVs have to pay for every charge.

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

I assumed that the power in the common areas like parking are linked with the flat's power meter? Or does each parking have their sockets linked with the respective owner's power meter?

I guess the Association is a bit paranoid about safety. From the linkedin post, he himself says risk of shock and fire is high.

Wonder how the new gen apartment complexes are dealing with this issue. Could help paying a visit to some new apartments and finding out.

Originally Posted by riteshritesh

Power in common areas is billed to the Society, which is taken care in the Monthly maintenance charges charged by the society.
We have Tata Power installing individual charging units in each parking slot and billed to the applicant. It is not drawn from the house supply meter. They provide a separate connection and separate billing for EV charging.

All residents are currently charging their existing electric vehicles using their own house meters. No electric supply is drawn from common area plug points. Even if someone owns an electric vehicle, the power supply comes directly from their meter. It's like having an extension cord running from their meter to their parking space. Typically, the parking area and meter box are in close proximity, thus simplifying the process.

Therefore, there is no need to discuss residents using common area electricity. This has never been the case and does not happen.

The Question here is can the RWA stop residents from doing so ? Or will a legal letter stop them from doing this ?

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Electricity charges are billed to the society but they will pay the RWA a monthly fee or a cut of revenues generated from charging. Residents who plug in their EVs have to pay for every charge.

The question we are asking is: Why would we want to pay a third-party agency to charge our electric vehicle when the main meter and the car park are so close? Isn't it more of a hassle to move my vehicle out, park it there, and then move it back once it's charged?

[vinjosep]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

If some space is available in common areas, RWA can tie-up with third party EV charging infra companies.

Electricity charges are billed to the society but they will pay the RWA a monthly fee or a cut of revenues generated from charging. Residents who plug in their EVs have to pay for every charge.

We have this in our society and precisely is the reason why I have put all my EV plans on hold. Our RWA aren't allowing new individual charging points anymore.

For about 1000+ apartments we have around 12 charging lots ( clusters of 4 charging points, out of which 3 are for two-wheelers & 1 for a four-wheeler). These are set up by bolt.earth in a tie-up with the RWA. As per the RWA rules, we can park & charge in these designated spots. The RWA also gets a % from the cost we pay to bolt.earth. Also, we have to pay a penalty if we continue to park in the lot, after the 2/4 wheeler is fully charged.

Thus I won't be able to charge my vehicle overnight/ at my will, based on the above conditions. The cost is definitely higher as well (compared to that incurred by an owner with an individual charging point in his parking lot).

So availability of a charging point is not assured nor the cost spread over the span of ownership of an EV vehicle. I feel this is an extremely short-sighted stand by the RWA and goes against EV adoption. Good for delivery chaps or visitors for sure; but definitely not for the residents.

[Rajeevraj]

It is a tricky situation. Earlier I was also having the thought process that anyone should be able to pull a point from their own meter into the parking lot.

Now I also understand the other viewpoint. More and more people are buying electric vehicles and if everyone tries to do custom wiring into the individual lots, it will become a mess. The wiring will definitely have to go through some common areas, there will no standardization and hence no accountability if something goes wrong.

Having said that, the idea of a set of common charging points also will not be scalable. Everyone will want to charge at night and there will always be a problem.

I think now the approach will be short sighted and RWAs will want to go with common charging points as with the current EV Adoption, it will look feasible. But in a couple of years it will become a problem as the adoption increases.

The ideal way for existing apartments is to at least do a standardized wiring setup that takes from individual meter. Have all the common wiring done and anyway who wants it, does the final connection at both ends. Of course, this is a very costly approach and may not be feasible till some sort of an inflection point is reached.

May newer apartments now advertise a point in each parking.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

The ideal way for existing apartments is to at least do a standardized wiring setup that takes from individual meter. Have all the common wiring done and anyway who wants it, does the final connection at both ends. Of course, this is a very costly approach and may not be feasible till some sort of an inflection point is reached.

Ideal solution:

1) Standardized high quality wiring/extension set to be sold separately to EV owners by car manufacturers or accredited third party vendors/installers.

2) Law passed by state govt to compulsorily allow personal EV charging facility (linked to individual meters) in apartments, provided the installation is done by the above accredited vendors

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

2) Law passed by state govt to compulsorily allow personal EV charging facility (linked to individual meters) in apartments, provided the installation is done by the above accredited vendors

This is easier said than done. What if you have multi floor parking lots in high rise apartments. There could be inherent safety or if nothing else, logistical / design issues even associated with major changes like drawing a line from your own meter, specially in very large complex apartment and their respective parking layouts.

As an example, my own building has two levels of basement parkings. A friend lives in a narrower footprint building which has 6-7 levels of parkings. Its simply not practical in many situations to draw new lines from your own meter to your parking lot.

[Jaguar]

Another option is to lay a common high-power line throughout the parking and individuals to tap into that with an individual meter. But this would cost more and with the current rate of EV adoption, RWA's will not want to spend that much.

In our apartment, many folks even objected to setting up common chargers from Ola since some initial costs needed to be borne by the association. There were other issues with Ola not being transparent with the billing rates as well. So for now, we have decided that the initial 10-15 users will be allowed to draw power from their meter and the RWA will look into the matter again when this initial number is breached. This was close to a year ago and I don't see a single EV charget installed yet. There are a couple of electric two-wheelers and I believe they are utilizing some charging stations outside.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

May newer apartments now advertise a point in each parking.

Indeed. Fully agree with this.

A friend had booked an apartment in a reasonably premium project in Pune as late as last year (in very early lots of booking before even construction had begun). We were surprised to find that they had no charging facilities even in a project that was in pre launch phase in 2022 with a slated deliver for 2025 /26 - when EVs are very much a reality. He took this up with the builder and he ultimately promised to provide at least one charging point in one parking per flat.

As a way forward, even if bigger buildings necessarily equip each apartment with one 15 AMP slow charging point in their parking slot, it may meet the basic requirements of many if not most members.