EV charging in an apartment or strata building. Approval is the hard part, not the wiring.
Even when the car space is on your own title, you almost certainly need owners corporation approval — because the wiring to reach it crosses common property. NSW has gone further than any other state, and a further reform is before parliament but not yet law, despite what a lot of articles say. Here's what applies where you are, the three fears behind almost every refusal, and how to answer them before they're raised.
Reviewed by the Mission Green Energy Team · Updated August 2026
Can you charge an EV
in an apartment?
Usually yes — but you almost certainly need permission, and the rules differ sharply by state.
The single fact that surprises most apartment EV owners: even if your car space is on your title, you probably still need owners corporation approval — because the wiring to reach it runs through common property. The power has to come from somewhere, and the path it takes is almost never entirely yours.
So the question isn't really “am I allowed”. It's what approval threshold applies, how long it takes, and what happens if the committee says no. Those three answers vary enormously depending on which state you're in — New South Wales has gone considerably further than anywhere else, and further changes are currently before its parliament but are not yet law.
The good news is that this is a solved problem in buildings that have done it. The bad news is that the process is slower than people expect — budget weeks to months, not days, and start before you buy the car if you can.
New South Wales:
the strongest position in the country.
Two changes already in force, and one still pending — the distinction matters.
Already law. EV charging infrastructure is classified as sustainability infrastructure under section 132B of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. That matters for one practical reason: it lowers the approval threshold from a special resolution (75%) to an ordinary resolution — a simple majority. In a building where a vocal minority opposes EVs, that difference decides the outcome.
Also already law. Since 1 July 2025, an owners corporation cannot refuse an EV charger installation on aesthetic grounds alone. Heritage-listed buildings are excepted. “It'll look untidy” is no longer a sufficient reason.
Not yet law — and be careful who tells you otherwise. The Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2026 would create a statutory right to charge: an owner could install charging in their own car space (including something as modest as a 10 A or 15 A socket) by giving written notice, with the committee having three months to respond, obliged not to object unreasonably, and required to put any objection in writing — and with the installation deemed approved if they simply don't reply.
As at August 2026, that bill has passed the Legislative Assembly and sits before the Legislative Council. It has not been assented to. A number of articles describe it as though it is already in force. It isn't yet — so plan your application against the rules that exist today, and treat the reform as an improvement that may land during your process rather than a right you can currently assert.
Everywhere else:
approval, but fewer guarantees.
Same broad shape, weaker protections — which makes how you ask matter more.
Outside NSW, the picture is more conventional: you generally need owners corporation or body corporate approval for work affecting common property, the required majority depends on your state's strata legislation and on how the work is characterised, and there is usually no equivalent statutory backstop preventing a refusal on weak grounds.
Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory each run their own strata or community titles legislation with different terminology (owners corporation, body corporate, community corporation) and different resolution thresholds. Several are actively reviewing EV charging provisions, so the position is moving.
The practical consequence: in states without a NSW-style backstop, your application succeeds or fails on how well it is prepared, not on your legal rights. Which is genuinely good news, because preparation is the part you control.
Confirm the current rules for your state with your strata manager and your state's fair trading or consumer affairs body before you start — and note that energy.gov.au publishes guidance specifically for strata residents.
How to actually
get it approved.
Committees don't reject EV chargers. They reject vague applications.
“Who pays for the power?”
The single most common objection, and the easiest to defuse. Answer it before it's asked: a dedicated meter or sub-meter on your charger, billed to you, so not one cent of your charging appears on the building's common power bill. Bring the proposed metering arrangement, in writing, with your application.
“Will the building's supply cope?”
The legitimate technical concern, and it grows as more residents follow you. Commission a load assessment from a licensed electrician covering your charger and headroom for others. Proposing load management — a system that throttles chargers when the building is busy — turns you from a risk into the person who solved it.
“Who's liable?”
Cover it explicitly: licensed installation with a certificate of electrical safety, your contractor's public liability insurance, a written undertaking that you own maintenance and any making-good, and clarity on what happens if you sell. Committees approve things that arrive with the risk already allocated.
Two more things that consistently work. Propose infrastructure, not just your charger. A committee weighing a one-off favour for one resident behaves very differently from one considering a building upgrade that raises property values and serves the next ten EV owners — conduit sized for future runs costs little now and reframes the entire conversation.
And find the other EV owners first. A joint application from three lots is far more persuasive than three separate ones arriving over eighteen months, and it spreads the cost of the load assessment.
Expect roughly 4–10 weeks for a straightforward NSW application from notice to approval, assuming the committee responds promptly, and longer where the matter has to wait for a general meeting. Ask early which meeting cycle applies — missing an AGM by a week can cost you months.
What if you
rent the apartment?
Harder, but not hopeless — and there's a good option that needs nobody's permission.
Renting adds a second approval: you need the landlord's consent as well as the owners corporation's, because a fixed charger is an alteration to the property. Owners corporation rules generally deal with lot owners rather than tenants, so in practice your landlord has to make the application — which means your first conversation is with them, not the committee.
What tends to work: offer to fund the installation yourself, frame it as a permanent improvement that stays with the property and adds value, and confirm in writing who owns the hardware at the end of the lease. A landlord who pays nothing and gains an asset is a much easier yes than one being asked to spend.
The option that needs no permission at all: a portable charging cable into an existing power point in your own space, if you have one. It's slow — roughly 10–15 km of range per hour — but for typical apartment driving patterns, plugged in most nights, that is often genuinely enough. Never run it through an extension lead, and ask for the outlet to be checked if it's old or shared. Our guide on what you can and can't legally do yourself covers the line.
Beyond that: many apartment residents simply use workplace charging or a nearby public charger for the bulk of their kilometres. It's less convenient than a wallbox in your own space, but it works, and it costs nothing to arrange.
So — what should you
actually do?
In order.
1. Start before you buy the car. This is the single biggest regret we hear. Approval takes weeks to months; the car arrives in days.
2. Read your by-laws and ask your strata manager what threshold applies. Five minutes of reading tells you whether you're facing a simple majority, a special resolution, or a by-law that already covers it.
3. Get a licensed electrician's load assessment first, and bring it with the application. Committees say no to uncertainty far more often than they say no to EVs.
4. Answer metering, capacity and liability up front, in writing, before anyone raises them.
5. If you're in NSW and get an unreasonable refusal, NCAT is available — but exhaust the reasonable route first.
And in the meantime, plug into a power point on a scheduled off-peak window. It costs nothing, needs no approval, and covers most apartment driving while the paperwork moves.
EV charging in an apartment or strata building:
your questions, answered.
Usually yes, but you almost certainly need owners corporation approval first — and this catches people out even when their car space is on their own title, because the wiring to reach it runs through common property. The real questions are what approval threshold applies, how long it takes, and what happens if the committee refuses, and those answers vary by state. New South Wales has the strongest position: EV charging is classified as sustainability infrastructure under section 132B of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, which lowers the threshold from a 75% special resolution to a simple majority, and since 1 July 2025 an owners corporation cannot refuse on aesthetic grounds alone (heritage buildings excepted). Other states generally require approval for work affecting common property with fewer statutory protections. Budget weeks to months rather than days, and start before you buy the car.
Partly, and the distinction matters because several articles describe this inaccurately. Two protections are already in force: EV charging is sustainability infrastructure under section 132B of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, so approval needs only a simple majority rather than a 75% special resolution; and since 1 July 2025 an owners corporation cannot refuse an installation on aesthetic grounds alone, heritage buildings excepted. A full statutory right to charge is proposed but not yet law. The Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2026 would let an owner install charging in their own car space by written notice, with the committee having three months to respond, obliged not to object unreasonably, required to give written reasons, and the installation deemed approved if they fail to reply. As at August 2026 that bill has passed the Legislative Assembly and is before the Legislative Council; it has not been assented to. Plan against the rules in force today.
For a straightforward New South Wales application, expect roughly four to ten weeks from notice of intended work to approval or no objection, assuming the strata committee responds promptly. It takes longer where the matter must wait for a general meeting rather than being dealt with by the committee, so one of the most useful early questions is which meeting cycle applies to your building — missing an AGM by a week can add months. Outside NSW, timelines depend on your state's legislation and your building's by-laws and can be longer where a higher resolution threshold applies. The practical advice is to start the process before you buy the car, because approval takes weeks to months while delivery takes days. In the meantime, a portable charging cable in an existing power point in your own space needs no approval at all and covers most apartment driving patterns.
First, work out whether the refusal is reasonable, because most are not really refusals of EV charging — they are refusals of an application that left questions unanswered. The three concerns behind almost every no are who pays for the electricity, whether the building's supply can cope as more residents follow, and who carries the liability. Address all three explicitly: a dedicated meter or sub-meter billed to you, a licensed electrician's load assessment with headroom for others and a load management proposal, and written confirmation of licensed installation, certificate of electrical safety, contractor public liability insurance and your responsibility for maintenance and making good. Resubmitting with those answers resolves a large share of refusals. If a New South Wales owners corporation still refuses unreasonably, a lot owner can take the matter to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT). That is a genuine avenue but it costs time, so treat it as the fallback rather than the plan.
It is harder because you need two approvals rather than one — your landlord's consent, since a fixed charger is an alteration to the property, and the owners corporation's, since the wiring affects common property. In practice the owners corporation process deals with lot owners rather than tenants, so your landlord generally has to make the application, which means your first conversation is with them. What tends to work is offering to fund the installation yourself, framing it as a permanent improvement that stays with the property and adds value, and agreeing in writing who owns the hardware at the end of the lease. The option that needs nobody's permission is a portable charging cable into an existing power point in your own space, which delivers roughly 10 to 15 km of range per hour — slow, but often sufficient for apartment driving patterns if the car is plugged in most nights. Never run it through an extension lead.
You should — and proving that upfront is the single most effective thing you can do to get approval. The most common objection a committee raises is that one resident's charging will land on the building's common power bill, subsidised by everyone else. Defuse it before it is raised by proposing a dedicated meter or sub-meter on your charger, billed directly to you, and including the proposed metering arrangement in writing with your application. Where the supply comes from your own lot rather than common property the point may be simpler, but say so explicitly rather than leaving the committee to wonder. Some buildings instead adopt a shared managed charging system with individual billing through a platform, which can be a better long-term answer once several residents want charging. Whichever applies, the principle a committee needs to see stated plainly is that your charging costs you and costs the building nothing.
Where these figures come from.
Figures on this page are drawn from primary sources and were current as at August 2026. Programs, prices and standards change — confirm at the source before relying on a number.
- energy.gov.au — Installing a personal EV charger for strata building residents
- NSW Climate and Energy Action — Making your residential strata building EV ready
- NSW Fair Trading — Strata and community living
- NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) — strata dispute resolution
- Electric Vehicle Council — Australian EV charging resources