Can strata stop you installing an EV charger in NSW?

EV charging is already classified as "sustainability infrastructure" under NSW strata law, which matters because it changes the voting threshold. Instead of needing a special resolution (75% support) to approve a change to common property, sustainability infrastructure only needs a simple majority vote at general meeting. And since 1 July 2025, owners corporations have been prohibited from refusing sustainability infrastructure — including EV charging — on aesthetic grounds alone. A charger can still be refused on genuine technical, safety or cost grounds; it can no longer be knocked back simply because someone doesn't like how it looks.

Separately, the Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2026 is before the NSW Legislative Council as of writing, and would strengthen apartment owners' right to install EV chargers further. This should be treated as pending, not settled — re-verify its status before relying on it, and treat everything on this page as general information rather than legal advice.

1. Check your by-laws. Some schemes already have an EV charging by-law covering exactly this. If not, you're relying on the general sustainability infrastructure provisions.

2. Put a proposal to the owners corporation. A simple majority vote applies for sustainability infrastructure, not a special resolution — a real difference from most common-property changes, which need 75%.

3. Get a specific quote, not a generic one. Strata committees respond better to a scoped proposal — cable route, metering method, who bears the cost — than an open-ended request to "install an EV charger".

4. Know what can and can't be refused. Aesthetics alone isn't valid grounds for refusal since 1 July 2025. Genuine issues — insufficient shared supply capacity, a real fire-safety concern, cost the scheme can't fairly allocate — are still valid grounds, and worth addressing head-on in your proposal rather than leaving them for the committee to raise.

Two practical approaches for a shared basement or podium car park:

• Individual sub-metering. The charger draws from common-property supply, but a dedicated meter tracks your usage so you're billed accurately rather than the cost being absorbed into general levies. This is usually the fairer option in a multi-owner building and increasingly what strata committees expect to see proposed.
• A dedicated circuit back to your own switchboard. Only practical where your car space is close enough to your lot, or where the building's cable runs make it feasible. Simpler to bill — it's already on your meter — but not always physically possible.

Either way, the building's total available capacity matters. A single charger rarely strains a building's supply; several owners wanting one at once is when load management or a supply upgrade becomes a real conversation, and that's a building-wide project rather than one owner's job.