New York HOA Electric Vehicle Charging Station Rights

Article 9-D of New York's Real Property Law, the Electric Vehicle Rights Act, applies to every homeowners' association in the state and turns on Real Property Law Section 343. Subdivision 2 voids as against public policy any covenant, deed restriction, bylaw, or association rule that effectively prohibits or unreasonably limits installing or using an EV charging station. The statute defines two per se unreasonable limitations: a restriction that keeps the station from functioning at its intended maximum efficiency, and one that raises installation or maintenance costs by an amount estimated at more than ten percent of the total initial installation cost, counting both labor and equipment. Associations keep one carve-out under subdivision 3: they may still bar charging stations on property the association itself owns or that members own in common, such as a shared parking lot or clubhouse grounds.

Where an association requires prior approval, subdivision 4 sets the process. The application must be processed without willful delay, and any approval or denial has to be in writing. A denial must spell out the exact basis for rejecting the request with specific examples of the association's concerns. If the association does not deny the application in writing within sixty days of receiving it, the application is automatically deemed approved, unless the sixty-day clock is paused by the association's reasonable request for more information from the homeowner. Subdivision 5 still requires the finished installation to meet every applicable local, state, and federal health and safety code and permitting requirement, so the deemed-approval rule does not excuse code compliance. A homeowner who sues to enforce Section 343 and prevails is entitled under subdivision 6 to reasonable attorney's fees. Condominium unit owners fall under the parallel Section 339-ll instead, which adds a licensed-contractor requirement and a mandatory certificate of insurance naming the association as additional insured.

A homeowners' association that denies an application without a written, itemized basis, or that simply sits on it past the sixty-day window, has no defense: the request is deemed approved by operation of Section 343(4) regardless of the association's intent. A homeowner can sue to compel compliance, and a prevailing plaintiff recovers reasonable attorney's fees under Section 343(6), on top of forcing the installation through. Associations that impose cost-shifting conditions estimated to exceed the ten percent threshold face the same automatic unenforceability under subdivision 2.