Alabama HOA EV Charging

Quick-Reference EV Charging Table

Note: for condominiums created before January 1, 1991, the predecessor Alabama Condominium Ownership Act (Ala. Code § 35-8) governs rather than the 1991 Act, and should be verified separately.

Section 1: Overview — How EV charging is regulated for HOAs in Alabama

Alabama has written no statute that specifically governs electric vehicle charging stations in community associations. Search the Alabama Code and you'll find nothing: not the Alabama Uniform Condominium Act of 1991, at Ala. Code § 35-8A-101 et seq.,¹ not the predecessor Alabama Condominium Ownership Act, at § 35-8-1 et seq.,² not the Alabama Homeowners' Association Act, at § 35-20-1 et seq.,³ and not Title 37's public-utilities provisions. The consequence follows directly: no state law overrides the recorded declaration or the CC&Rs on EV charging.

Alabama runs a split governance structure. Condominiums created on or after January 1, 1991 fall under the 1991 Act plus the recorded declaration; condominiums created earlier stay under the predecessor act.⁴ Planned communities have no dedicated substantive Alabama statute at all — they answer to their recorded CC&Rs, with the Alabama Business and Nonprofit Entity Code, Title 10A, supplying corporate formalities for associations organized as nonprofit corporations.³

For a condominium, the practical question that controls everything is where the proposed station would go and who controls that space, because the association generally controls alterations to common elements even when a parking space is assigned to one unit.⁵ Alabama sits with the majority of states that haven't enacted EV-charging mandates — a different path from states like California, where Civil Code § 4745 voids any governing-document provision that prohibits or unreasonably restricts EV charging installation, and Colorado.⁶ The sections below work through that framework in detail.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. EV-charging-specific law in Alabama

Alabama has no EV-charging-specific statute for community associations. Search the 1991 Act, the predecessor Condominium Ownership Act, the Homeowners' Association Act, and Title 37, and you'll locate no electric-vehicle or charging-station provision anywhere. The practical consequences follow directly: no statutory override of the declaration or CC&Rs, no statutory approval timeline, no statutory deemed-approval rule, and no statutory cap on the conditions an association may impose. Whatever authority governs an EV charging request in an Alabama community comes from the recorded governing documents and general property and contract law — not from a dedicated statute.

That places Alabama in the majority of states that haven't enacted EV-charging-station legislation for community associations. Yale Climate Connections reported in April 2026, citing Plug In America, that "Washington, D.C., and 15 states have passed what are called right-to-charge laws." Alabama isn't among them.⁶ Neither the 2025 nor the 2026 Alabama Regular Session introduced an EV-charging bill affecting community associations. Two 2026 bills touching condominiums and consumer protection moved through the legislature, but they're unrelated to EV charging — Section 4 covers them.

2B. Condominiums: how the 1991 Act's general provisions bear on EV charging

The Alabama Uniform Condominium Act of 1991 traces back to the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act, a model law that predates electric vehicle charging and contains nothing EV-specific. Alabama has never adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. Even so, the 1991 Act's general provisions still shape the analysis.

Start with Section 35-8A-211, which addresses alterations of a unit. Subject to the declaration and other law, a unit owner "may make any improvements or alterations to his unit that do not impair the structural integrity, or mechanical systems, or lessen the support of any portion of the condominium," but "may not change the appearance of the common elements, or the exterior appearance of a unit or any other portion of the condominium, without permission of the association."⁵ A charging station serving a parking space almost always needs wiring or equipment that reaches a common element or alters an exterior, so this provision typically routes an EV request to association approval rather than leaving it to the owner's sole control.

Association authority over common elements comes from Section 35-8A-302, which empowers the association to "regulate the use, maintenance, repair, replacement, and modification of common elements,"⁷ and from Section 35-8A-307, covering upkeep of condominiums.⁸ Limited common elements, such as an assigned parking stall, fall under Section 35-8A-208, where an allocation "may not be altered without the consent of the unit owners whose units are affected."⁹ For condominiums created before January 1, 1991, the predecessor Alabama Condominium Ownership Act governs instead, and Section 35-8-14, on prohibited work, states that "there shall be no material alteration of or substantial addition to the common elements or limited common elements except as authorized by the declaration."¹⁰ The 1991 Act neither compels an association to permit EV charging nor prohibits it. The declaration decides.

2C. Planned communities and the role of CC&Rs and corporate law

For planned communities, EV charging comes down purely to the CC&Rs. No Alabama statute imposes substantive EV obligations on planned communities. Architectural or design-review provisions in the CC&Rs are the tool most associations reach for to evaluate a charging-station request, applying the same standards they'd use for any other exterior modification.

The practical order of precedence in a dispute runs from state law, to the declaration or CC&Rs, to bylaws, then rules. Since no Alabama EV statute reaches planned communities, the CC&Rs sit at the top of that practical hierarchy. The Alabama Homeowners' Association Act, at § 35-20-1 et seq., applies to associations created on or after January 1, 2016, but it addresses corporate formation, board powers, filings, records, and assessment liens — not EV charging or exterior modifications.³ The Alabama Business and Nonprofit Entity Code, Title 10A, supplies corporate scaffolding only: board action, meeting, and notice requirements at the corporate level.¹¹ It's a corporate governance code, not an HOA or EV statute, and it grants no EV-specific authority. Where the CC&Rs stay silent, common law contract and property doctrine fills the gap.

Section 3: What HOAs can and cannot do regarding EV charging

A. Installation rights and prohibitions

An Alabama association's ability to prohibit an EV charging station comes down entirely to the governing documents, because no statute constrains a prohibition. In a condominium, the declaration and the 1991 Act's common-element provisions — § 35-8A-211, § 35-8A-302 — control: where a station would alter or use a common element, the association's permission is required, and the declaration may bar it outright — true for both pre- and post-1991 condominiums, with § 35-8-14 controlling for pre-1991.^5,10 In a planned community, the CC&Rs govern whether installation may be prohibited. No Alabama statute limits a prohibition either way, so the distinction that actually matters is between prohibiting installation outright and conditioning it — the latter being the more common approach, true for both.

B. Conditions an association may impose

Where installation is allowed, an association can generally condition it through architectural approval of the method, the equipment, and the routing under its design-review authority — for condominiums, per the declaration and § 35-8A-211(2); for planned communities, per the CC&Rs.⁵ It may require professional or licensed installation and code compliance, insurance and indemnification that puts liability on the owner, and aesthetic and location standards, to whatever extent the governing documents permit — true for both, per declaration or CC&Rs. In a no-statute state, the ceiling on these conditions is whatever the declaration or CC&Rs allow, read against general reasonableness principles — not a statutory cap.

C. Cost, metering, and maintenance allocation

Absent a statute, the governing documents set the allocation of installation cost, electricity cost, metering, and maintenance, repair, and damage responsibility — and the common default puts these costs on the requesting owner, whether that's per the declaration in a condominium or the owner and CC&Rs in a planned community. On the utility question, the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center reports that under Alabama Public Service Commission Docket No. 32694, "an entity that owns, operates, leases, or controls electric vehicle charging stations is not defined as a public utility" — so an owner charging a personal vehicle on a private meter generally isn't reselling utility service and isn't PSC-regulated, true for both.¹² Submetering or cost-sharing arrangements, where they're used, run through the declaration or CC&Rs, true for both.

D. Where the station may be installed

In a condominium, location decides who controls the decision. A separate interest — a unit, or an attached garage defined as part of the unit — stays within the owner's control, subject to exterior-appearance limits. An assigned parking stall is typically a limited common element under § 35-8A-208. A general common element is controlled entirely by the association, which generally controls alterations to common elements, including assigned ones.⁹ In a planned community, the analysis comes down to whatever the CC&Rs say about the owner's lot, driveway, or assigned space, and about exterior modifications.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Neither the 2025 nor the 2026 Regular Session introduced a bill creating or amending EV-charging rules for community associations in Alabama. Two 2026 bills touched community-association governance generally, but neither addresses EV charging.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No Alabama appellate decision in the past 36 months touches EV charging, common-element alterations relevant to charging, or CC&R-based limits on owner charging equipment. Trial-level disputes run through the Alabama Circuit Courts, with appeals to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals and discretionary review by the Alabama Supreme Court — but no EV-charging opinion has issued yet.

C. Active legislative debates

Alabama has no active proposal on the table that would create EV-charging rights or restrictions for community associations. The current legislative focus sits on condominium procedure and real-estate licensing, not a right-to-charge framework.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Alabama sits with the majority of states that have no EV-charging-specific statute for community associations, leaving the recorded declaration or CC&Rs in control. A first group of states has enacted mandates that void or limit HOA prohibitions — notably California, under Civil Code § 4745, which requires a response within 60 days with silence counted as approval, and Colorado, under C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8.⁶ A second group addresses EV charging more narrowly, folded into a condominium or HOA act. Alabama falls into the third group, with no such statute at all. For a multi-state operator arriving in Alabama from a mandate state, the owner-protective rules they're used to — void-and-unenforceable prohibitions, deemed-approval deadlines, mandated insurance figures — simply don't apply here. The governing documents control instead. EV charging remains a fast-moving area of legislation, so Alabama's status is worth rechecking every quarter.

HOA Weekly's Alabama EV Charging coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and courts act, and we re-verify the threshold question — whether a statute exists — each cycle. Federal incentives may affect installation economics, but no federal law mandates HOA EV charging access. The Section 30C Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit was terminated for property placed in service after June 30, 2026 by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, so this credit is no longer available as of the July 18, 2026 verification date.¹⁵

Footnotes

1. Ala. Code § 35-8A-101, Alabama Uniform Condominium Act of 1991 (short title), Alabama Legislature ↩
2. Ala. Code Title 35, Chapter 8, Alabama Condominium Ownership Act (§§ 35-8-1 through 35-8-22) ↩
3. Ala. Code Title 35, Chapter 20, Alabama Homeowners' Association Act (§§ 35-20-1 through 35-20-14) ↩
4. Ala. Code § 35-8A-102 (applicability: chapter applies to all condominiums created after January 1, 1991) and § 35-8A-401 (specified sections reaching pre-1991 condominiums) ↩
5. Ala. Code § 35-8A-211, Alterations of units ↩
6. Yale Climate Connections (April 2026), citing Plug In America: "Washington, D.C., and 15 states have passed what are called right-to-charge laws"; California Civil Code § 4745 ↩
7. Ala. Code § 35-8A-302, Powers of unit owners' association (subsection (a)(6)) ↩
8. Ala. Code § 35-8A-307, Upkeep of condominiums ↩
9. Ala. Code § 35-8A-208, Limited common elements ↩
10. Ala. Code § 35-8-14, Prohibited work (Alabama Condominium Ownership Act) ↩
11. Ala. Code § 35-20-5 (HOAs organized as nonprofit corporations under Chapter 3 of Title 10A) ↩
12. U.S. DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center, "Public Utility Definition" (Alabama): "An entity that owns, operates, leases, or controls electric vehicle charging stations is not defined as a public utility. (Reference Alabama Public Service Commission Docket No. 32694)" ↩
13. Alabama Legislature, HB260, 2026 Regular Session (condominiums; consents, waivers, arbitration, and mediation) ↩
14. Alabama Legislature, SB246, 2026 Regular Session (unsolicited offers to purchase real estate; unfair service contracts) ↩
15. Argonne National Laboratory, Refueling Infrastructure Tax Credit: "The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), enacted July 4, 2025, amended the [Section 30C] credit such that it will not be allowed for any property placed in service after June 30, 2026." ↩