Landlord said no to formalizing my charging setup — what got a landlord's first no turned around for other renters?
Three years in the same building outside Rochester, upstairs unit, assigned spot in the side lot about sixty feet from the electrical room. When I first asked about charging here, the response I got from the old property manager was basically a shrug and a verbal "sure, go ahead" — never anything in writing, never a real outlet installed, just permission to run a cord out my second-floor window to a plug near the lot. That held up fine for three years on a ten-minute commute. It stopped working when my hospital consolidated services onto a satellite campus and my drive went from about twelve minutes each way to closer to thirty. The cord-out-the-window setup isn't built for that kind of daily mileage, and honestly I've never been fully sure that verbal yes from a property manager who left two years ago even means anything to the company that runs the building now.
So I did this the proper way instead of just running the cord further. Wrote an actual letter to the current property management office asking to formalize it — a real outlet, referenced New York's tenant charging protections, offered to pay for a licensed electrician of their choosing, offered to carry whatever insurance rider they wanted on my own policy, offered to sign something agreeing to remove the outlet and patch the wall if I ever move out. Three weeks later, one line back: "Building policy doesn't allow tenant electrical work in common areas, sorry for the inconvenience." No counteroffer, no invitation to talk it through, no explanation of what specifically about my proposal was the problem, and no mention of the cord-out-the-window setup I've apparently been running with someone's blessing for three years. I followed up twice since and got nothing back either time.
I don't want to lawyer up over a parking-lot outlet. I like this building, my rent's reasonable, and turning this into a legal fight feels like the wrong tool for the actual problem, which is that management doesn't want to deal with it, not that they have some principled objection to EV charging. But I also can't keep doing thirty-minute round-trip commutes off a cord out my window forever, especially on an approval that might not even be real anymore.
So, for anyone who's actually been on this side of it — what got a landlord's first no turned into a yes? Was there a specific ask, a specific number, a specific way of framing it that worked where mine apparently didn't? And for anyone whose landlord never budged — what did you do instead? Level 1 and just accept a longer overnight charge, find a different lot nearby, start looking at your lease renewal date differently? I'd rather hear the real range of outcomes than just the success stories.
Filed under: Renters, Apartments & HOA Charging
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12 answers
12 ANSWERS
@Priya SharmaVerified ExpertAugust 23, 2026
New York is actually one of the states with some codified tenant charging protection on the books, but "the law exists" and "a landlord who emails you one line and goes silent will change course because of it" are two different things. These statutes generally require a landlord not to unreasonably refuse a compliant request — they don't require the landlord to respond within any particular timeframe, negotiate in good faith, or explain the refusal, which is exactly the gap you're sitting in.
What I've seen actually move a flat no, in New York and elsewhere, is removing the specific thing the landlord is actually afraid of. It's almost never "EV charging" in the abstract — it's almost always "I don't know what this is going to cost me or who's liable if something goes wrong." Citing the statute harder doesn't do much on its own. The version of this that keeps working: offer to pay for the landlord's own annual insurance endorsement covering tenant-installed EV equipment (that's commonly quoted around $80 a year, not thousands), agree to a submetered outlet so there's no argument about who's paying for the electricity, and put up a removal escrow, something like $500, that covers pulling it back out if you ever leave. That reframes the ask from "trust me" to "here's the check that covers your risk," which is a much easier thing for a property manager to say yes to than an abstract legal argument.
How would I even find out what my building's actual insurance rider would cost instead of just guessing $80 and hoping that's close? Current property management hasn't been forthcoming with much of anything so far, and I don't have a relationship with them the way I did with the old manager who waved me through informally.
Ask them to get a quote from their own carrier before you offer a number — landlords are usually more willing to make one phone call to their agent than to trust a figure a tenant found online. Puts the actual cost in front of them instead of an estimate they can second-guess.
@kmoore79September 01, 2026
Not licensed myself but I work alongside guys who are, and what Priya's pointing at lines up with what our crew lead says about landlord pushback in general — it's rarely the wiring itself, it's "who's paying for the electricity nobody metered." A submetered outlet, installed by an electrician the landlord picked, kills that specific objection stone dead because now there's a number on a bill instead of a guess. Doesn't fix a landlord who's just avoiding the hassle of dealing with you, but it does take one real objection off the table.
@duskravenAugust 26, 2026
Similar situation two years ago — no right-to-charge law backing me up in Wisconsin. What changed it wasn't the ask, it was arriving with a number: priced the insurance rider myself before asking, handed the landlord an actual dollar figure instead of making her go find out. Turned a maybe into a yes in about a week.
A friend from my old bowling league went through almost exactly this last year — priced the insurance add-on herself, offered a removal deposit, offered her own electrician's estimate. Still a flat no, no real reason given beyond "we don't want to set a precedent for the building." She didn't push it further, just kept doing Level 1 off her kitchen outlet since she's retired and not commuting anywhere daily, so it works fine for her situation. Wouldn't have been an option if she still had somewhere to be every morning, which is more your position than hers.
@foghorn_jtAugust 23, 2026
Wait, isn't California basically airtight on this though? I thought the law out there just says the landlord has to say yes if you cover the cost. Genuinely confused why this is even a fight anywhere else.
Closer than most states but not airtight — there's a wrinkle in California's law that trips people up. The statute generally requires a landlord to approve a compliant request, but rent-controlled units get exempted — except that exemption stops applying once the lease has been renewed since 2019. A lot of rent-controlled leases auto-renew every year, and that can count as a renewal, which would knock the unit back into the protected category without anyone realizing it changed. Worth checking that exact detail with a landlord-tenant attorney in your city rather than taking a forum comment's word for it — I'm not looking at your lease or your city's ordinance.
One other recent change if you're in California: HOAs can no longer require your own insurance policy to name them as "additional insured" — that used to be a common sticking point and it's gone now.
@minty_raccoonSeptember 04, 2026
On the submetering point: if the outlet gets its own meter, that's typically its own circuit back to the panel too, not a tap off an existing one, so it's a real job — permit, inspection, GFCI protection per code. A submetered outlet isn't a cheap add-on next to what's already there, it's closer to a small service upgrade. Landlords who agree to it are usually agreeing to more work than they think, which might be part of why it's a harder yes than it sounds.
@staticpollenAugust 31, 2026
Being honest about the other side of this too. Your round trip went from about 24 minutes to an hour — that's a real jump, but it's not automatically a "must have home charging" problem, it's a "how reliable is public charging on your specific route" problem, and those are different questions. Three separate road trips, three separate chargers that didn't work as advertised, for me. If your commute route has a fast charger you actually trust, do the math on cost and time before assuming the outlet is the only fix. If it doesn't, that's a real point in favor of pushing harder on the outlet.
@wrenlee_kAugust 27, 2026
Before spending more time on the negotiation, I'd run the actual numbers on how long you're planning to stay. I track my own charging costs, and the insurance-plus-submeter-plus-escrow route only pays off if you're in the unit long enough to use it — if your lease is up for renewal soon anyway, whether you even want to resign here might matter more than getting management to yes.
@emberpathSeptember 03, 2026
Level 1 off a regular outlet is roughly 3-4 miles of range per hour on most EVs. For a Bolt at 30 minutes each way, that's about 25-30 miles round trip — an overnight Level 1 charge covers it with room to spare. Slower than you want, but not nothing while you keep working the landlord angle.
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