Connecticut EV Charger Rights in Condos: 60-Day Deemed Approval

The Connecticut General Assembly added section 47-261g to the Common Interest Ownership Act through Public Act 22-25, section 3. Subsection (b) is the covenant-voiding language: on and after October 1, 2022, a declaration or bylaw provision that prohibits or unreasonably restricts installation or use of a charging station in a unit parking space or a limited common element parking space, or that otherwise conflicts with the section, is void and unenforceable. Subsection (a)(3) defines the one restriction an association may still impose as a "reasonable restriction," meaning one that does not significantly increase the cost of the station or significantly decrease its efficiency or specified performance. "Electric vehicle charging station" carries the meaning given in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-19f rather than a definition of its own.

The application clock in subsection (d) is the part worth calendaring. A unit owner may apply to the executive board to install in a unit parking space, or in a limited common element parking space with the written approval of the unit owner of each unit to which use of that space is reserved. The board must acknowledge receipt in writing not later than thirty days after it arrives, and must process the application the same way it processes an application for an addition, alteration or improvement under the declaration or bylaws. Approval or denial must be in writing and issued not later than sixty days after receipt. If the board does not deny it in writing within those sixty days, the application is deemed approved, unless the board reasonably requests additional information not later than sixty days from receipt.

Subsection (e)(1) lists the five written commitments a board may demand before approving: comply with the declaration or bylaw provisions on additions, alterations and improvements; engage a licensed and insured contractor; provide a certificate of insurance within fourteen days of approval showing coverage in amounts the board deems sufficient; pay installation costs including increased master policy premiums, attorney's fees incurred by the association, engineering fees, professional fees, permits and applicable zoning compliance; and pay the electricity usage costs. Subsection (e)(2) binds the owner and each successive owner to the costs of damage to the station, the common elements or units, maintenance, repair and replacement until removal, restoration of the physical space after removal, electricity, and common expenses arising from uninsured losses under the association's master policy. It also requires disclosure to prospective buyers that the station exists, that these responsibilities travel with it, and that the purchaser accepts the station unless it is removed before transfer. Subsection (e)(3) carves out one exception to the insurance burden: no liability coverage policy may be required for an existing National Electrical Manufacturers Association standard alternating current power plug.

Associations keep real powers under subsection (f). An association may install a station in the common elements for all unit owners and write rules for its use, create a new parking space where none existed to make an installation possible, require removal before the owner sells unless the buyer agrees to take ownership of the station, and assess the owner for any uninsured portion of a loss, deductible included, whether or not the association actually submits an insurance claim. Subsection (c) keeps every installation subject to health and safety standards under state or federal law or municipal ordinance, which in Connecticut means the electrical permit and inspection run through the building official of the town, not the association.

Two exclusions decide whether any of this applies to you. Subsection (h) removes the section entirely from an association that imposes reasonable restrictions on charging stations or that already has stations at a ratio equal to or greater than fifteen per cent of the number of units. Separately, section 47-261g is absent from the list in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-216(a) of CIOA sections that reach common interest communities created in Connecticut before January 1, 1984. Section 47-261b, the rules section, is on that list; section 47-261g is not. A Connecticut condominium recorded in the 1970s therefore does not pick up the charging station right by operation of section 47-216, and its owners are back to whatever the declaration and bylaws say.

Section 47-261g does not create a fine or an administrative complaint route, and the Department of Consumer Protection does not adjudicate it. A declaration or bylaw provision that conflicts with the section is simply void and unenforceable under subsection (b), so an association that denies a conforming application, or that tries to enforce a flat ban recorded before October 1, 2022, is enforcing nothing. The practical remedy is Superior Court. Subsection (g) supplies the fee shifting: in any action by an association seeking to enforce compliance with the section, the prevailing party shall be awarded reasonable attorney's fees, which cuts against a board that sues an owner and loses.

An owner who installs without applying, or who ignores the licensed and insured contractor and certificate of insurance conditions in subsection (e)(1), loses the protection of the statute and is exposed under subsection (e)(2) for damage to the station, the common elements and other units, plus any uninsured loss the association assesses under subsection (f)(4). Because the timing in subsection (d) is what converts silence into approval, an owner whose sixty days pass with no written denial should put the deemed approval in writing to the board before starting work.