Stations and New Legislation By J Spencer Edgett C
alifornia is a leader in promoting clean and renewable energy technologies. In January 2018, Governor Brown issued Executive Order B-48-18 (“EO”) calling for 5 million zero-emissions vehicles by 2030 and the installation of 250,000 electric vehicle chargers
by 2025. As stated in the EO, “California increased the number of zero-emission vehicles in the state by 1300 percent in six years – growing from 25,000 in 2012 to more than 350,000 – and zero-emissions vehicles now account for approximately 5 percent of all new car sales in California.”
As the number of electric vehicles “(EVs)” increases, community associations will see an increasing number of homeowners seeking to install electric vehicle charging stations and related equipment. All association boards and managers must understand the law as it pertains to such requests, in order to avoid civil penalties and exposure to attorney fee awards if their associations fail to comply.
In 2011, Civil Code Section 4745 (formerly Civil Code Section 1353.9) was enacted to support the proliferation of clean electric vehicles and the policy of the state to promote, encourage and remove obstacles to the use of electric vehicle charging stations. Te law has been amended several times since its enactment with the most recent changes going into effect on January 1, 2019.
Te following changes to Section 4745 went into effect on January 1, 2019:
Section 4745(a) expanded the scope to allow homeowners to install charging stations within their units (e.g., garages).
Section 4745(f)(1)(D) clarifies that the homeowner has to pay for the electricity usage associated with the charging station and the costs of installation of the station.
Section 4745(f)(3) was amended to eliminate the $1,000,000 homeowner liability coverage policy requirement (no limit is now specified) and delete the requirement for the Association to be named as an additional insured under the policy. 1
Section 4745(k) was amended to allow recovery of attorney’s fees only by a prevailing plaintiff homeowner seeking to enforce compliance with the law. Te Association cannot recover attorney’s fees even if it is the prevailing party.
1 Although the requirement to name the Association as an additional insured on the policy was deleted, 4745(f)(1)(c) still states that within 14 days of approval of a request to install a charging station the owner must ‘provide a certificate of insurance that names the association as an additional insured under the owner’s insurance policy in the amount set forth in paragraph (3).” We anticipate there will be a bill introduced to clean up this obvious conflict and error in the statute as currently written.
summer 2019 | the Voice 23
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