Colorado HOA EV charging rights

The statute does not give the board a veto. It says the association shall not prohibit a Level 1 or Level 2 charger in three places: your unit, a parking space assigned or deeded to your unit, and a parking space that you and other owners can both use. That third category came in with HB 23-1233 in 2023, and it matters in older condo buildings where nobody owns a particular space.

What the board keeps is narrow. It can enforce real safety requirements tied to a building code or a recognized standard, make you register the charger within 30 days of installing it, and set reasonable rules on its size, location, and look. A rule that goes further, or a flat ban in an older declaration, does not hold up against the statute.

Many Colorado condos assign parking as a limited common element. For a charger on a limited common element parking space, carport, or garage, the association must consent if you agree in writing to follow its design specifications, hire a licensed and registered electrical contractor, pay for the installation and for restoring any common elements the work disturbs, and give it a certificate of insurance naming the association as an additional insured within 14 days of its consent.

After that, unless a written contract or the governing documents say otherwise, you and each later owner of that space pay for damage the charger causes, maintain and insure it, and remove it if the association needs to work on the common elements. A removable charger stays your property, and when you sell you can take it or sell it to the buyer.

If you drive electric, read these before you make an offer:

• Any ban on chargers or on electrical work in parking areas, which the statute overrides.
• How your parking is set up: deeded, assigned, a limited common element, or shared.
• Any fee for having a charger beyond the cost of electricity or a reasonable access fee.
• Whether the home already has a charger, and whether it was registered with the association.

If charging at home is part of why you are buying, Colorado law is on your side, and a board that would rather not deal with chargers cannot simply say no. The rules it can still apply are about safety, registration, and appearance.

An HOA Notes brief checks the declaration and rules for an EV restriction, flags one that goes past what the statute allows, and cites the page behind each finding.

Colorado Revised Statutes section 38-33.3-106.8 (EV charging station rights). Notwithstanding the declaration, bylaws, or rules, an association cannot prohibit a unit owner from using, or installing at the owner's expense for the owner's own use, a Level 1 or Level 2 electric vehicle charging system in the unit, in an assigned or deeded parking space, or in a parking space accessible to the owner and other owners. It cannot charge a fee for placing or using a charger in the owner's unit (it may recover the actual cost of association-supplied electricity or charge a reasonable access fee) and cannot restrict parking because a vehicle is a plug-in. The section applies only to residential units and not to time share units. The association may enforce bona fide safety requirements consistent with a building code or recognized safety standard, require the charger to be registered within 30 days after installation, and adopt reasonable aesthetic rules on its dimensions, placement, or external appearance. For a limited common element parking space, carport, or garage, it must consent if the owner agrees in writing to follow its design specifications, use a licensed and registered electrical contractor, pay for installation and restoring any disturbed common elements, and within 14 days of consent provide a certificate of insurance naming the association as an additional insured.

When you read the disclosure packet, watch for no electric vehicle charging equipment on any lot or in any parking space, no electrical equipment modifications to any unit or lot, and blanket denial of EV charger applications. HOA Notes flags each of these against the statute and tells you which restrictions are actually enforceable.