Florida condo EV charging station rights

First, the scope: Florida Statutes 718.113(8) is part of the Condominium Act, Chapter 718. It protects condo unit owners, not homeowners in an HOA under Chapter 720. If you are buying a single-family home in an HOA, this section does not apply to you.

For a condo, the rule is that the declaration or the board may not prohibit a unit owner from installing an electric vehicle charging station within the boundaries of the owner's limited common element or exclusively designated parking area. The owner has to have the electricity separately metered and pay for it, cannot cause irreparable damage to the condominium property, and carries the cost of installation, operation, maintenance, and repair, along with hazard and liability insurance. The association may require compliance with bona fide safety codes and apply reasonable standards for the dimensions, placement, and appearance of the station, but those standards cannot prohibit the install or substantially increase its cost.

The association may also require you to hire a licensed and registered firm familiar with charger installation, to provide a certificate of insurance naming the association as an additional insured on your policy within 14 days after it approves the install, and to reimburse any increase in the association's insurance premium within 14 days of an invoice. The statute also gives you an implied easement across the common elements to run the wiring.

If charging at home is part of the plan, 718.113(8) protects the install in your assigned space, but it puts the cost and the insurance on you. The condo documents tell you the metering and approval steps, and the minutes show whether the board has handled charging requests smoothly or made them a fight. For a single-family HOA, the protection is different, so confirm which kind of community you are buying into.

Read these together before you make an offer:

• Whether the community is a condominium under Chapter 718, which is where this right applies.
• The condo rules for EV charging, separate metering, and the approval process.
• Any architectural standard that would substantially raise the install cost, which the statute does not allow.
• Recent board minutes for how charging requests were handled.

A condo board that drags out or overcharges for a charging install is a governance signal, and a declaration that bans charging outright conflicts with 718.113(8).

An HOA Notes brief reads the declaration, the rules, and the minutes together, flags provisions that conflict with the Condominium Act, and cites the page behind every finding.

Florida Statutes section 718.113(8) (Condo EV charging station rights). CONDOMINIUM ONLY (Chapter 718): neither the declaration, a restrictive covenant, nor the board may prohibit a unit owner from installing an electric vehicle charging station within the boundaries of the owner's limited common element or exclusively designated parking area. The installation may not cause irreparable damage to the condominium property, and the electricity must be separately metered or metered by an embedded meter and paid by the owner. Chapter 720 (HOAs) has no equivalent. The association may require the owner to meet bona fide safety requirements, follow reasonable architectural standards on dimensions, placement, or external appearance that do not prohibit the installation or substantially increase its cost, use a licensed and registered firm, provide a certificate of insurance naming the association as an additional insured within 14 days after approval, and reimburse any increased insurance premium within 14 days of an invoice. The owner pays installation, operation, maintenance, repair, insurance, and removal costs.

When you read the disclosure packet, watch for no EV charging stations may be installed in any parking space, all electrical modifications to parking areas require board approval and may be denied, and no installations in limited common elements without unanimous board approval. HOA Notes flags each of these against the statute and tells you which restrictions are actually enforceable.