Is there a legal limit on what a block can charge residents per kWh for EV charging?
There is no legal cap on a communal EV charging tariff. Ofgem’s maximum resale price rules, which stop a landlord charging a tenant more for electricity than the landlord paid for it, do not apply to electricity sold for charging an electric vehicle. Ofgem confirmed this in a formal decision, so a freeholder, a management company or a charge point operator is free to set whatever rate per kWh it chooses.
That is why the funding model matters so much. Under a fully funded model the operator installs the infrastructure and the chargers free of charge, then recoups that cost through a premium on the kWh rate over a contract term, often with a maintenance charge per socket on top. Once the agreement is signed the block has no say in either.
To give an example, one freeholder who contacted us recently had seen the annual charges under the old operator go up fivefold, with both the kWh rate and the per socket fee set by the operator. With no legal cap, the block’s protection is to make sure the rate and the agreement are fair before anything is signed.
Can the managing agent change the EV charging tariff residents pay?
That depends on who paid for the installation. Under a fully funded contract the tariff is the operator’s for the length of the term, and the managing agent can ask for a change but cannot make one. Where the block has paid for the infrastructure, usually through the service charge or reserve fund, and each resident has paid for their own charger, nobody is recouping a hardware cost through the rate. The managing agent then sets the rate on the management platform and any change needs the managing agent’s approval, so it cannot move without the block knowing.
Residents see the rate in the app before every session starts, and the platform keeps a record of every session and every rate change. The managing agent can adjust the rate when the building’s electricity tariff changes, so that residents are always paying close to what the block pays its supplier.
What is a fair price per kWh for residents on shared EV chargers?
A fair rate is the building’s own electricity tariff plus a small margin that covers the cost of running the platform. There is always a software fee to pay for the management platform, and a maintenance package that keeps the chargers checked for fire safety and insurance purposes, and that margin is what pays for them. Residents then pay close to what the electricity costs the block, and non EV drivers do not subsidise anyone through the service charge. Some blocks choose to charge exactly at cost and cover the software fee from the service charge instead, and either approach is easy to set and easy to change later.
A fair rate is not a public charging tariff. Public chargers cost more per kWh because the operator has to fund the hardware, the site and a return on it. A block that copies those rates is taking a margin from its own residents. On our platform we set the rate to the building’s actual tariff at handover and the managing agent adjusts it from there. The steps to get there from an operator’s contract are on our switching EV charging provider page, and the full service is on our apartment block EV charging page.
