EV charging costs in flat garages?

Hi, I rent out a flat in a development of freehold flats where there’s an external managing agent to make sure relevant legislation is complied with. The issue is residents charging electric cars from their garages.

Prior to the flats’ management picking up the tab for electricity used, the meters were read every quarter by the then Chairman who allocated the cost to individual owners. This was so onerous and consumption so minor that in most cases, the cost was picked up as part of the service charge.

The first issue is a resident installing an EV charging point but then the management company gets debited with the cost. Assuming it is known who has these chargers, a system of personal payment could be implemented but the fact that cars can be charged using a 3 pin plug/lead from the standard socket outlet already in each garage (albeit slower than on a purpose-made EV point), no-one would be any the wiser apart from the subsequent inflated communal bill.

The only solution would seem to be for everyone responsible to have their own electrical consumption by using individual meters to generate individual bills. This would obviously mean them being read but perhaps self-readings could be taken or smart technology to automatically send consumption data to the energy company who then send the bills directly to each garage holder. What do Property118 readers think? If not addressed, the present situation has the potential to send service charges through the roof.

If meters are the answer, who should bear the cost of meter installation? Individual owners? Management company? Energy supplier?

And if a properly installed car charging point isn’t installed and owners just use a 3-pin plug – how safe and fire-proof would this be and if there was an accident would this be covered by block insurance?

There doesn’t seem to be much precedent for this as EV charging is still very new so any help/advice from readers would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Jonathan