The practical answer: build a written EV charging policy before the next request, and have association counsel confirm what Illinois law and your governing documents require of the board when an owner asks to install charging equipment. Illinois has addressed electric vehicle charging in the association context, and the specific obligations, timelines, and permissible conditions are legal questions that depend on your community's statute -- the Illinois Condominium Property Act for condominiums, or the Common Interest Community Association Act for many townhome and single-family communities -- and on your declaration. Do not build a policy from another association's template without that review.
What boards can do independently is the engineering and administrative groundwork. Nearly every dispute over EV charging comes down to unanswered technical questions: does the building have capacity, who pays for the electricity, who owns and maintains the equipment, and what happens when the requesting owner sells the unit. Answer those in writing and the legal review becomes straightforward.
Start With Electrical Capacity
Engage a licensed electrical engineer to evaluate the building's service capacity, the garage's existing distribution, and what infrastructure would be needed to support charging at a reasonable scale. Approving installations one at a time without a capacity study is how associations end up unable to accommodate the fifth requester after approving the first four. The study should describe both an individual-installation path and a shared-infrastructure path.
Metering and Cost Allocation
Decide how electricity will be measured and billed. Options generally include a dedicated meter, a submeter, or a networked charger with usage-based billing. The association should not absorb an individual owner's charging costs through the common expense budget, and the policy should say so explicitly.
Ownership, Maintenance, and Removal
A written agreement between the association and the installing owner should address, at minimum: who owns the equipment, who maintains and repairs it, who is responsible for damage to the common elements, insurance and indemnification requirements, what happens on transfer of the unit, and the conditions for removal and restoration. Counsel should draft or review this agreement; it is the single most important document in the process.
Installation Standards
Require licensed and insured electricians, permits where applicable, inspection sign-off, compliance with applicable codes, and adherence to any parking-area fire-safety requirements. Ask your engineer and counsel to confirm current requirements with the local jurisdiction rather than assuming, since local rules for parking structures and charging equipment can change.
Board Process Checklist
- Ask counsel which Illinois statute governs your community and what it requires regarding EV charging requests.
- Commission an electrical capacity study covering individual and shared-infrastructure scenarios.
- Adopt a written EV charging policy with an application form and a defined review timeline.
- Require licensed contractors, permits, inspections, and certificates of insurance.
- Specify metering and cost allocation so the association does not subsidize individual usage.
- Use a counsel-drafted owner agreement covering ownership, maintenance, insurance, transfer, and removal.
- Define equipment and installation standards, including conduit routing and fire-safety requirements.
- Apply the policy consistently to every applicant and document each decision in the minutes.
- Revisit capacity and the policy annually as adoption grows.
Getting It Right the First Time
EV charging is an infrastructure decision with a twenty-year horizon, not a one-off approval. Our maintenance coordination and board support teams help condominium, HOA, and townhome boards in Chicago and the North Shore coordinate engineers, contractors, and counsel into one process.
This article is educational information for association boards, not legal advice. Requirements depend on current Illinois law and your governing documents; consult association counsel before adopting or applying an EV charging policy.
Request a consultation to build your association's EV charging process.