EV Charger for Flats & Leasehold Properties London

Almost always yes. Standard residential leases reserve alterations to the structure, the supply infrastructure, the communal areas and (often) the parking spaces to the freeholder. Even a charger on a wall in your own allocated parking bay typically touches at least one of those reservations. The route is a written application — which the freeholder must consider reasonably under Section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.

No. Section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 says where a lease requires landlord consent for alterations, that consent cannot be unreasonably withheld. "Unreasonable" is interpreted by the courts and the First-tier Tribunal — refusal needs a substantive reason (genuine structural concern, evidenced fire-safety risk, irreconcilable supply constraint), not just preference. EV-related refusals are increasingly rare in London in 2026 as case law accumulates against freeholders who refuse without strong cause.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 includes a regulation-making power for the Secretary of State to require freeholders to permit certain alterations including EV chargers. Regulations have not yet been laid as of mid-2026; consultation is open. When the regulations come into force, the freeholder consent question will move from "reasonable consideration" to "permitted by default subject to specified conditions" — a material change. We track the consultation outcomes and update consent advice accordingly.

Yes, significantly. Allocated (demised) parking: the lease usually makes the bay yours to use, and a charger in that bay is more analogous to a personal alteration — consent is usually easier. Communal parking with no allocation: the charger has to be a building-wide scheme rather than an individual install, because no single leaseholder controls a bay. We run building-wide schemes as a freeholder/managing-agent project rather than individual leaseholder installs.

Char.gy fits chargers to existing street lamp columns, ubitricity (Shell Recharge) integrates with lamp posts and bollards, Connected Kerb installs in-kerb units. Council-led applications open in batches — you express interest, the council prioritises by demand, the operator installs at no upfront cost to you, and you pay per kWh (typically 35–50p) via an app or RFID. We coordinate the application as project manager — the actual install is done by the operator.

Leaseholders: £350 per socket as the leaseholder of the flat with off-street parking. Landlords: £350 per socket up to 200 sockets per applicant per year, across a portfolio of let properties (flats or houses with off-street parking). Both routes are administered by OZEV via an OZEV-approved installer (us). Both are deducted from the invoice at install — you don't pay upfront and reclaim.

If the charger or cable is visible from the public highway in a conservation area or for a listed building, planning permission is required on top of freeholder consent — this is true for all London Article 4 zones (Camden, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster, Hackney and parts of Hammersmith & Fulham). We check on survey and run the planning application where required. Where the location simply doesn't work, kerbside is the alternative.

Where multiple flats share a single LV supply, each charger has its own MID-approved kWh submeter (built into modern OCPP chargers). The OCPP back-office logs each session against the resident's RFID or app token, and exports per-resident statements monthly. Charges are billed at the building's import tariff plus a small admin margin — set by the management company or RTM, not us. Solar and battery storage at the building level can lower the per-kWh number for residents.