New York Won’t Allow Homeowners Association to Ban Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

In a press release on Tuesday, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she had signed legislation that would prevent homeowners' associations from prohibiting charging stations for electric vehicles.

Get our free mobile app

The legislation is aimed at removing barriers to installing electric vehicle charging stations on private property. A lack of charging stations is seen as one of the biggest obstacles to encouraging New Yorkers to get electric vehicles and help the state reach its ambitious zero emissions goals over the next decade.

As it stands, New York intends to have 850,000 zero emission vehicles on the road by 2025 and have all new passenger vehicles be zero emission by 2035. Without enough charging stations, reaching those goals will be next to impossible. And one of the benefits to electric vehicles is that people are able to put charging stations in their own home, so they can skip trips to the gas station for the most part.

But as with many other things people wish to do with their private property, homeowners associations could stand in the way. Under this new legislation, a denial of a homeowner's application to install and electric vehicle charging station must have a detailed written report as to why the application was denied and that denial sent to the homeowner within 60 days. If the written denial is not sent to the homeowner within 60 days, the application will be approved unless the delay in approval comes from a reasonable request for more information made by the homeowner's association.

In the press release, Governor Hochul stated "We are sparking New York's transition to clean transportation by removing barriers to owning and charging an electric vehicle. It is not enough to encourage New Yorkers to buy electric, we must build green infrastructure that will drive New Yorkers to choose cleaner and greener modes of transportation."