Does anyone here please have experience of a tenant installing an electric car charger in their property? What problems might I as the LL encounter, or is it something straightforward with no legality issues. I am not familiar with this, but i think it will obviously require tenant drilling through the wall to tap to the electrics as the meter is just close to outside wall. Thanks in advance.
My advice to you is to seriously consider organising and paying for the installation yourself.
Start by asking a local spark for a quote
If in England or Wales you will need from the spark an EIC, a part P notification AND the DNO has to be notified too.
Plus there may be alterations required to the fixed wiring of the property so this might impact your EICR too
Hope this helps
Thank you Neelix. When you say ‘spark’, I guess you mean a local electrician. It makes sense to organise installation myself to maximise safety i suppose. But the prospective tenant is volunteering to install and bear the cost, and I thought being an Uber driver is a necessity to him and he’ll be paying the bills anyway. I’m thinking why should i bear the cost, and what difference does it make who installs. If I ensure that liabilities and responsibilities are documented in the contract, will that surfice? We haven’t yet discussed what happens at the end of the tenanvy but i assume he’d want to take it with him, but can it be relocated?Although i worry about fire risks, and implications to my insurance. Do you guys think the cons outweigh the pros of renting if I went ahead.
Ann.
Let him put it in. A happy tenant will stay there longer
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He did ask if it’s for a long let which indicates that he intends to stay long. I’ve also read that installing it can lower the property value in some part of the country, don’t know how true it is. But I’ll just have to check more on potiantial fire risk and insurance. Thanks all.
Ann.
I can’t see how installing an EV charger could reduce the property value AND bear in mind it will become part of the electrical installation that YOU are responsible for
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I’d get a quote from a reputable installer, and if he wants to give you the money to do it, so be it.
Or he might get his mate from the pub to do it.
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I have & I let them arrange it. No problems since. We can’t as Landlords make this difficult. Times change, and if we didn’t embrace it, we’d still have outside loo’s and no phone lines in our properties.
Outside loo s are not around now? . No wonder I have a chill
@Ann8
I work for an EV CPO - we do large MDU EV installations.
for you renting out a private home there are a few factors to consider:
- Infrastructure/ charge point cost:
- Infrastructure: the electrician will tap into your supply to provide current to the charge point. If your home is old without an isolator switch, one will need to be installed (this is specialist work and not every electrician has the qualifications to do this). If your meter is outside no drilling or hard work will be needed other than cable work (relatively straight forward) - the landlord should pay for this as it will have to be left behind and if you get a reputable installer, there will be decent warranties available for the work. Octopus/ Mr Charger or ChargedEV are three names that you could explore. Don’t forget as a landlord you will need to consider the testing of the infrastructure. I suggest annually, as although the regulations dictate every 3 years, if there was an accident and it hadn’t been tested within a year, then you are liable (this is very unlikely to happen).
- Charge Point (CP) - if your tenant buys this, then you will have to allow them to take it with them at the end of the tenancy. What you might find however, is that the cost of uninstalling the CP is too much hassle and they leave it behind for you and your next tenant to use. the names mentioned above will be able to instal this too.
- the pros far outweigh the cons. we have seen that rental properties with a CP installed can expect higher yields, also there may well be grants that you can get to mitigate upfront costs. From an insurance perspective, it shouldn’t have material difference, EV cars are far safer than ICE cars. the only issue would be if the parking is underground as insurance companies dictate a fire suppression system- I assume this isn’t the case here?
Finally, uptake of EV is accelerating and will in the next 10yrs surpass that of ICE vehicles. The available grants won’t be around for that long, so you may as well do it now as there is clearly a need.
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I still have a house with an outside ‘loo’
What’s wrong with that
Getting cold increases metabolism and keeps the weight off
It’s like weight watchers
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I with Neelix on this get it done yourself and bill them the cost
You will need a minor works certificate for this kind of work
A lot of electricians are not qualified ( 18th edition) to do it
There’s a lot of cowboys and legally electrics are your responsibility
I would never allow tenants to touch gas electrics or water
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you must be right I am very slim !
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A minor works certificate is not appropriate for adding an EV point. For England and wales it’s an EIC, part P and notification to the DNO
Plus there may be grants available for Landlords to install EV points too - not the full amount but every little helps
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I had a tenant do this once and never again. They were not good at brickwork or electrics. Find someone professional to do it and split the cost with the tenant, it will help you with marketing the property in years to come.
Thank you all for your advice and thoughts. I have really learned a lot from here and will surely be applying the knowledge i gained from this situation if encountered in the future. I actually ended up not going ahead with this tenant, not because of the VE but another much preferred tenant, fingers crossed all goes well with the tenant i have chosen.
there are - look at the OLEV grants available, as a landlord there are two (infrastructure and charge point)
Or maybe not if efuels are better value and don’t have the damaging effects of lithium mining
Nope once installed the tenant cannot take it as legally it can’t be returned to the same condition as at start of tenancy ie holes and alterations to electrical supplie