Tennessee HOAs Cannot Ban EV Chargers on Your Own Parking Space (T.C.A. § 66-27-1002)

The right comes from 2026 Public Chapter 914, House Bill 1875, which passed the General Assembly on April 13, 2026 and took effect July 1, 2026. The act did the same job twice, once for each kind of Tennessee association, because Tennessee has never had a single statute covering both. Section 1 added a new section to Part 4 of the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, so unit owners' associations governed by §§ 66-27-401 through 66-27-418 are bound. Section 2 created a new Part 9 of Chapter 27 for homeowners' associations, with definitions at § 66-27-901 and the operative rule at § 66-27-902. The two texts are nearly identical, the condominium version speaking of a unit owner, a designated parking location and a common element, and the homeowners' association version speaking of a property owner and a common area.

Section 66-27-901 borrows the definitions Tennessee already uses elsewhere in the chapter. A "declaration" is any instrument, however denominated, that creates a homeowners' association, together with amendments, restrictive covenants, bylaws and similar governing instruments. A "homeowners' association" is an incorporated or unincorporated association owned by, or whose members consist primarily of, the owners of the residential property covered by the declaration. "Prohibit" is defined to include a prohibition set out in the declaration or in the rules and regulations, which closes the obvious workaround of leaving the declaration silent and banning chargers by board resolution. "Rules and regulations" is defined to mean written policies, resolutions, guidelines, restrictions and procedures however denominated, so a design guideline or an architectural review standard counts.

The division of territory is the heart of the statute. On property the owner owns, including the owner's designated parking location, the association may not prohibit a charging station at all; it may only regulate number, size, placement and manner of placement or installation on the exterior. In common areas the association maintains, the default flips and the association may prohibit or restrict chargers outright, with the same power to set reasonable restrictions. The proviso in subsection (b) rescues the common case in a condominium or a townhome community: where the owner's designated parking location is itself within the common area, the association may not prohibit a charger in that space. What the statute does not do is give the owner a right to run conduit across the rest of the common area, force the association to supply capacity, or require a separate meter, and it sets no approval deadline, so an association is not put on a clock the way it is in states that impose a 60-day review period.

Cost and risk fall on the owner. Subsection (c) requires the owner installing a charging station to indemnify and hold the association harmless from all liability, including reasonable attorney's fees the association incurs from a claim arising out of the installation, maintenance, operation or use of the station. The association may require the owner to obtain and maintain insurance covering claims and defenses of claims related to the installation, maintenance, operation or use of the station, and may require the association to be included as a named insured on the policy. Subsection (d) states that the association is not responsible for maintaining a charging station installed by an owner, or for the electric vehicle it serves. The statute is silent on removal and restoration on sale, on who pays for the electricity, and on any deposit, so those points remain matters for the association's rules and for the owner's own utility account.

The timing rule in Section 3 of the act is more generous than Tennessee's flag statute. The act applies to actions taken, and declarations entered into, renewed, or amended, on or after July 1, 2026. Because it reaches actions taken on or after that date, an association acting today cannot avoid it by pointing to a declaration recorded in 1995, unlike the flag protection at § 66-27-602, which is limited to instruments created or amended on or after July 1, 2017. A charger denial issued before July 1, 2026 is not retroactively unlawful, but a denial issued now is measured against § 66-27-902.

§ 55-31-201 does. An owner whose association refuses an installation, or fines the owner for one, asserts the statute as a defense to the association's collection action or sues in the chancery court of the county where the property lies for a declaration that the prohibition is void and for an injunction. Tennessee wrote no attorney fee provision into the owner's side of the ledger, while subsection (c) expressly gives the association its reasonable attorney's fees through the owner's indemnity when a claim arises out of the charger.

The asymmetry is worth planning around: document the installation, use a licensed electrician, keep the permit, and buy the liability coverage before the association asks, because the association's fee exposure is contractually shifted to you by statute while yours is not shifted to it. For a condominium owner an unpaid fine also becomes a lien on the unit under § 66-27-415 and is enforceable by judicial foreclosure, so a charger dispute in a condominium should not be handled by simply refusing to pay.