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How to share your EV charger

If you've got a car charger at home, you may be interested in sharing it with other EV drivers in your neighbourhood. Here's how to get ready to share the charge!

TLT LLP logo One of the key concerns for many people about switching to an EV is how they can charge their vehicle at a convenient location if they don’t have their own charging point - especially if they simply don't have the space or access to install a charger at home.

One way to break down the barriers and make electric travel accessible for all is to encourage charger sharing within communities (find out more about how you can do that here!).

We're big fans of making neighbour-to-neigbour charger sharing as easy as possible for people across the South West, and so are our legal partners at TLT LLP; the UK commercial law firm who specialise in the clean energy sector.

To help you to become a charging 'host' without worrying about any legal risks to yourself or your property, we've teamed up with TLT LLP to bring you a handy guide of what to consider when sharing your EV charger.

Fortunately, if you're a typical homeowner with a freehold property, there are unlikely to be any legal traps when it comes to sharing your car charger with local drivers.

If you are looking for extra guidance, TLT have set up a dedicated helpline to support you with any legal concerns (for example, whether your mortgage lender may be affected by sharing your car charger). You can contact TLT via the helpline on anz.helpline@tltsolicitors.com

While TLT can’t guarantee that they will be able to help with every query, where they are able to help, they will be happy to arrange a free-of-charge call with one of their lawyers to give you additional guidance and peace of mind.

Do you need planning permission?

In England and Wales, the installation, alteration or replacement of EV charge points on areas of off-street parking is granted by way of permitted development rights (PDR). Essentially, PDR give planning permission without the need to go through the process of submitting a planning application.

It is possible for PDR to be limited by local planning authorities (LPAs), and you can check with your LPA to see whether there are any local planning requirements around the installation of EV charge points. TLT LLP have already checked with Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council and South Gloucestershire Council, and can confirm that none of these authorities currently have any requirements of this kind - so no planning permission is needed within these council areas to share your EV charger! If you live in another council area in the South West, it's best to check directly with your LPA to be sure.

Is there a restrictive covenant on the title?

Properties can be subject to restrictive covenants, which can restrict the owner’s use of the property. You can check if you have any restrictive covenants in place by reading the title deeds to your property.

If there was, for example, a restrictive covenant limiting the use of the land to residential purposes or preventing use of the land for any business, you could encounter difficulties if you wanted to charge neighbours a small fee, on top of the cost of electricity, for the use of your charge point.

However, it would be unlikely that anyone enforcing a covenant of this kind would try to restrict this kind of ad hoc charger use, even if you were making a small profit from the service.

Is the property mortgaged?

Many homeowners will have a mortgage on their property, and your mortgage terms may require you to get consent from your mortgage lender before installing a charging point, or place restrictions on how your property is used - so you may want to check this with your lender first.

Many mortgage lenders are taking steps to support their customers’ environmentally-friendly activities, so we'd expect installation of an EV charging point and providing help to others using EVs to be an activity that many lenders would support.

If your property is a leasehold, it's important to check the terms of your lease to make sure there's nothing restricting your ability to install or share a charging point. As long as your lease includes the area where your charging point will be installed, it's unlikely that there would be any restrictions on ad hoc sharing, but there may be a requirement to get permission from your leaseholder before installing the charger. However, as EV chargers are becoming more common place, and can add value to your property, it's unlikely that any leaseholder would object.

What happens if someone is injured or their car gets damaged when using the charge point?

You may have concerns around what would happen if someone was injured or a car was damaged while using your charge point.

As a general rule, you should not find yourself treated as legally liable for any injury or damage suffered by someone else in the absence of any ‘negligence’ on the your part.

So as long as you take some common sense precautions, it's unlikely you could be held to blame if an accident happened. Using a reputable installer to install the charge point, checking for any obviously incomplete work following installation, checking from time to time to see if there is any obvious damage that might cause a risk to a user, and not allowing someone to use the charge point if you're aware of some kind of obvious risk are all sensible ways to ensure you're doing your best to make your shared charger a safe place.

If someone was injured, or their car was damaged, by a defect in the manufacture or installation of the charger, then it's much more likely to be the manufacturer or installer of the charging point who is liable - not the homeowner.

In the unlikely event that you were held legally liable for injury or damage, we would expect your household insurance policy to provide cover.

However, insurance policies will all vary in terms of what they cover, so we're currently working with TLT to get advice and assurance from insurance providers on whether claims related to a car charging points would be covered under a typical household insurance policy.

You can find out more about making money by sharing your EV charger locally here.

If you'd like more legal advice on sharing your home charging point, you can visit TLT LLP here, or contact their free helpline on anz.helpline@tltsolicitors.com