How do you charge electric cars when you can't park outside?

How will this affect people in Watford who live in flats and own cars? Car parks for older flats are unlikely to have electric charging points. Running long cables from the flat to the car park could be difficult, dangerous, and insufficient for charging vehicles.

There is more than just the problem of getting a cable to your car if you can't park outside your home. Photo: Pixabay

There may be increased demand for the installation of charging points. Unfortunately, there are a variety of legal difficulties in providing this.

Installing an electric charging point would be an improvement, not a repair, therefore this could not be added to any service charge allowed by the lease without the agreement of all tenants. Otherwise, only tenants who agree to the extra expense would have these fitted, if they have dedicated parking spaces.

How do you then allocate the cost of the electricity? Adding the cost to the service charge would be unfair to those who don't own a car. Adding the electric supply to a particular flat's meter could be difficult, meaning that each charging point would need its own meter.

David Marsden

No doubt technology will keep changing and it's important that the legal framework for ownership of leasehold flats can change as well.

Varying old leases would be an expensive and difficult task. When buying a flat it would be wise to check if the lease has resilience built into it to allow for this. A clause such as the following is now found in some modern leases: "any other service or amenity that the Landlord or the Management Company may in their reasonable discretion (acting in accordance with the principles of good estate management) provide for the benefit of the tenants and occupiers of the Estate."

• David Marsden is a partner at award-winning law firm VWV, which has offices in Clarendon Road, Watford. Get in touch on 07770 413 164 or dmarsden@vwv.co.uk