Florida EV ownership has surged, and condo boards are getting charging requests at a pace that didn't exist three years ago. Florida consistently ranks among the top states for registered electric vehicles in U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center figures. The good news for boards is that the law is settled and easy to follow once you know the two scenarios. Either a unit owner installs at their own expense in their own parking space (and the board has limited power to deny) — or the board installs common chargers for the building on a simple board vote (no member supermajority required). This guide walks through both, plus the five myths that lead to denials the statute doesn't authorize and the practical decisions a board faces when planning a building-wide install.
This is general information about Florida condominium EV-charging law and is not legal or tax advice. Approval decisions, architectural standards, vendor contracts, and tax-credit eligibility require your association's attorney and CPA. Always engage counsel before relying on the operational guidance below.
The statute in plain English
Two subsections of Florida Statute 718.113 govern EV charging in Florida condos:
- FS 718.113(8) gives every unit owner the right to install an EV charging station within the boundaries of their limited common element or exclusively designated parking space. Neither the declaration, a restrictive covenant, nor the board can prohibit it. The owner pays for everything. The board may impose five specific conditions (covered below).
- FS 718.113(9) gives the board the right to install common chargers on common elements without a member vote. The statute explicitly says this is NOT a material alteration — which means the 75 percent owner-vote rule that would otherwise apply does not.
The original right was enacted July 1, 2018 (Chapter 2018-96, HB 841). The 2021 expansion (Chapter 2021-99) added natural gas fuel stations to the same protections, created the board's common-charger authority under (9), and allowed embedded metering inside the charger. HB 1021 (2024) and HB 913 (2025) amended FS 718.113 in other subsections — mostly around hurricane protection — but did not touch the EV-charging text. The substantive rules have been stable since July 1, 2021.
If an owner asks to install: what you can require
The statute gives the board five specific conditions it may impose. Stay within these and you're on solid ground. Step outside them and you're inviting arbitration.
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| 1. Building-code compliance | The owner must pull a permit, pass inspection, and meet the Florida Building Code (which incorporates the NFPA 70 National Electrical Code, 2023 edition). |
| 2. Reasonable design standards | You can dictate location, color, and mounting style — but the standard can't prohibit the install or substantially increase its cost. Both prongs must hold. |
| 3. Licensed installation firm | The installer must be a "licensed and registered firm familiar with the installation or removal." Firm-level licensure is enough — you don't need a master electrician personally on site. |
| 4. Certificate of insurance | Owner provides a COI naming the association as additional insured, within 14 days of approval. No statutory dollar minimum, so commercial limits ($1M-$2M general liability) are typical. |
| 5. Premium reimbursement | If the charger increases the master-policy premium, the owner reimburses the difference within 14 days of invoice. |
What you absolutely cannot do
Two things the board has no statutory authority to do:
- Prohibit the installation outright. The statute contains two separate bans on prohibition — one against the declaration, one against the board itself. Neither can be worked around by characterizing a denial as something else.
- Impose design standards that prohibit or substantially increase the cost. A standard that requires hidden conduit running through finished soffits or specifies a $2,000 boutique charger when a $600 unit would work is arbitration-vulnerable. The "substantially increase the cost" prong is the one boards most often miss.
Who pays for what (owner-install scenario)
| Cost | Who pays |
|---|---|
| Charger hardware + installation labor | Owner |
| Conduit, wiring, the owner's circuit work | Owner |
| Operating electricity (separately metered or via embedded meter) | Owner |
| Maintenance, repair | Owner |
| Hazard and liability insurance | Owner |
| Increased master-policy premium attributable to the charger | Owner reimburses the association within 14 days |
| Removal (only if owner decides station is no longer needed) | Owner or successor |
| Building's main-service panel upgrade if needed | Statute is silent — defensibly the owner |
Note that there is no statutory trigger forcing removal on sale or lease. The charger transfers with the unit, and the new owner inherits both the equipment and the obligations.
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- Keep yourself compliant on every statute change
- Keep your board compliant across every workflow
- Keep your HOA compliant and your owners happy
If your board wants to install EV charging for the whole building
This is the scenario most Florida boards underestimate. Owner-installs handle individuals one at a time; a board-led common-charger installation serves the building's needs at scale, generates ongoing user fees, and protects property value. The statute makes it easy: under FS 718.113(9), board installation of common chargers is NOT a material alteration. That means the 75 percent member-vote rule that would otherwise apply does not. The board can authorize the project on a simple board vote — like any normal operating decision.
Why a board would do this
- Owner demand. EV ownership is mainstream in Florida now. A waiting list of one-off owner installs creates friction and uneven service; a common-charger rollout serves everyone consistently.
- Property value. MLS listings that mention EV charging trade at a measurable premium and sell faster.
- Avoid the patchwork. Without a common-charger plan, every individual install requires panel work, board review, and case-by-case insurance. Centralizing is operationally cleaner.
- New-buyer expectations. Younger buyers increasingly screen condo listings on EV access. No charging available is starting to function like no high-speed internet did 15 years ago.
Six decisions your board needs to make
- How many chargers. A common starting point is 1 charger per 20-30 units, or 5-10 percent of total parking spaces. Don't try to serve 100 percent of demand on day one. Start small, monitor utilization, add capacity as it climbs.
- Charger type. Level 2 (240V, 30-50 amps) is the standard for residential condo deployments — delivers 25-40 miles of range per hour. Level 1 (120V) is too slow. Level 3 / DC fast chargers require commercial-grade service most condos can't deliver.
- Location. Three common choices: (a) cluster in the visitor lot — easiest install, fairest to all residents; (b) cluster near the electrical room — cheapest to install, most efficient; (c) one per assigned space — most convenient for owners but expensive. Most successful Florida deployments cluster 4-8 chargers in a single zone with a shared electrical run.
- Pricing model. Three options: free for residents (simple but invites charger-hogging), flat per-session fee ($2-5), or per-kWh metered ($0.15-0.30/kWh, often set to break-even on electricity cost plus a small maintenance margin). Per-kWh is the most common.
- Ownership model. Either the association owns the chargers outright and contracts maintenance, OR a vendor owns and operates (revenue-shared with the association). Vendor-owned lowers upfront capex but reduces long-term revenue and control.
- Funding source. Operating budget for small installs, reserves if the budget category exists, special assessment for larger projects, or vendor-financed (no upfront capex, vendor recovers from user fees).
Federal tax credit and Florida utility rebates
Federal: The Section 30C tax credit (Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit, extended through 2032) may cover a portion of installation cost — but condo-association eligibility depends on the association's tax-filing status (Form 1120 vs 1120-H vs tax-exempt) and how the credit interacts with member-versus-non-member use. Verify with your association's CPA before relying on the credit in your financial model.
Florida utility rebates: Florida Power & Light's Charge Forward program, Duke Energy's Park & Plug program, and other utility incentives periodically offer rebates of $500-$2,000 per port for multifamily and commercial installations. Eligibility, funding caps, and program structure change frequently — check directly with your serving utility before assuming a rebate is available.
Operational considerations
The U.S. Department of Energy's overview of electric vehicle charging at home is a useful neutral primer for a board scoping a project. The practical points that matter most:
- Network connectivity. Modern Level 2 chargers report usage and process payments via cellular or WiFi. A "networked" charger costs $500-800 more per port than a basic unit but enables remote billing, usage reporting, and software updates. For 4+ ports, networked is almost always worth it.
- ADA accessibility. At least one charging station must be accessible-compliant — accessible route, clear floor space, reachable controls.
- Insurance. The chargers become association property. Confirm with your master-policy broker they're covered as common-element equipment; some carriers exclude EV charging without an explicit endorsement.
- Charger-hogging. Once a vehicle is fully charged it should move so others can use the station. An "idle fee" 10 minutes after completion ($0.40-$1.00 per minute) deters hogging.
- Utilization monitoring. Pull monthly usage. If 70 percent of sessions hit the cap, time to add ports. If utilization stays below 25 percent for six months, you over-built — cut the next phase.
A 6-step board action plan
- Survey residents. Quick poll: how many own/lease EVs today, how many plan to within 12 months, how many would use a common charger.
- Get an electrical assessment. Your building electrician quotes panel capacity, conduit routes, and per-port installation cost. Typically $300-500 for the assessment itself.
- Build the financial model. Capex, opex, expected user-fee revenue, payback period. Factor in any tax credit and utility rebate.
- Vendor selection. Get 2-3 quotes. Compare hardware quality, network features, support SLAs, total cost of ownership over five years.
- Board vote. Per FS 718.113(9), no member vote required. The board resolution should specify funding source, vendor, location, pricing model, and operational responsibilities.
- Install, launch, monitor. Track utilization for 6 months. Revisit pricing and capacity at the 6-month mark.
Limited common element vs unassigned parking
The owner-install right under (8) is tethered to a specific kind of parking arrangement:
- Deeded limited common element or exclusively designated space: the (8)(a) right applies in full. The owner can install.
- Unassigned common-element parking (first-come, first-served): no individual right. The owner has no specific space to protect. The only path is to ask the board to install common chargers under (9).
- Separately deeded parking unit (deeded as its own condominium unit): gray zone. No published Florida arbitration award or appellate case has resolved this. The better reading is that the owner is still covered, but boards denying on this distinction take on arbitration risk.
Why HOAs are on their own
This is the biggest gap in Florida community-association law: HOA parcel owners have no statutory right to install an EV charger. Chapter 720, the Florida HOA Act, contains no parallel provision. A full read of the 2025 codification produces zero matches for "electric vehicle," "EV," or "charging station" in any rights-granting context. The protected-clauses list at FS 720.3075 does not name EV chargers either.
What governs an HOA EV-charger request: the recorded declaration, architectural review committee standards, and the general reasonableness requirement under FS 720.303(1). HOA boards have substantially more discretion to restrict than condo boards. An HOA owner who wants to install has to work through the ARC process, propose specific reasonable standards, and (if denied) consider whether the denial fails the general reasonableness test — or argue federal Fair Housing Act accommodation if the EV is medically necessary. None of those paths is as clean as the condo owner's clear statutory floor.
It is worth noting the contrast with solar: Florida law treats HOA solar rights very differently from HOA EV charging. Under the Florida Solar Rights Act, HOA homeowners do have a strong statutory right to install solar panels — see our guide to Florida HOA solar panel rights for how that protection works. There is simply no equivalent EV-charging statute for HOAs.
Florida cooperatives under Chapter 719 are equally unprotected. There is no EV-charging provision anywhere in Chapter 719. Cooperative shareholders are governed entirely by their cooperative documents and proprietary lease.
Five myths boards regularly believe
Most EV-install denials that fail in arbitration fail because the board's reason doesn't fit anywhere inside the statute. Here are the five most common misreadings:
- "We can deny because the panel can't handle it." No panel-capacity exception exists. The board can require the owner to pay for an upgrade or impose load-management standards under safety rules — but a flat capacity denial is unsupported.
- "The charger must come out when you sell." No statutory removal trigger on sale or lease. Removal is only required if the owner decides the station is no longer needed.
- "HOA owners have the same right." They do not. Chapter 720 has no parallel provision.
- "HB 913 changed the EV rules in 2025." It did not. The EV text in (8) and (9) is unchanged from the 2021 version.
- "We need a 75 percent member vote before installing common chargers." No. Subsection (9) explicitly removes the installation from material-alteration analysis — simple board vote is enough.
Key takeaways
- Owner-install scenario: FS 718.113(8) grants the right, the board cannot deny, the owner pays for everything, and the board may impose five specific conditions.
- Board-install scenario: FS 718.113(9) lets the board install common chargers without a member vote — the installation is not a material alteration.
- The law has been stable since July 1, 2021. Despite widespread misinformation, HB 913 (2025) did not change the EV-charging text.
- Start small on common chargers. 1 port per 20-30 units, Level 2, clustered location, networked for billing — then add capacity based on utilization.
- Verify tax credits with your CPA. The federal Section 30C credit may apply; condo-association eligibility depends on tax-filing status and is not automatic.
- HOAs are not covered. Chapter 720 contains no parallel right. Parcel owners must go through architectural review.
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