Louisiana HOA EV Charging

Quick-Reference EV Charging Table

The Louisiana Condominium Act governs condominiums and the Louisiana Planned Community Act, the 2024 restatement of the former Homeowners Association Act, effective January 1, 2025, governs planned communities; the two statutes have distinct provisions and section numbers, and EV-charging values must be drawn from the correct act for each column. Because no EV-specific provision exists, the general provisions of each act, the recorded building restrictions, and the Civil Code control.

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

Louisiana has written no statute that specifically governs electric vehicle charging stations in condominiums or planned communities. A direct review of the Louisiana Condominium Act, La. R.S. 9:1121.101 et seq.,¹ and the Louisiana Planned Community Act, La. R.S. 9:1141.1 et seq.,² locates no EV-charging provision in either act. As a result, an owner's ability to install a charger and an association's authority to permit, condition, or prohibit one are determined by the recorded building restrictions, the declaration, and the general provisions of the governing act, read together with the Louisiana Civil Code.

Louisiana uses two parallel statutes. Condominiums are governed by the Louisiana Condominium Act, and planned communities are governed by the Louisiana Planned Community Act, the restatement of the former Louisiana Homeowners Association Act — originally adopted by Act 309 of 1999, effective June 16, 1999 — that was rewritten by the Louisiana Law Institute, enacted as Act 158 of 2024, and took effect January 1, 2025.³ Each act is read together with the community's declaration and building restrictions. Because Louisiana is a civil-law state, owner obligations arise from building restrictions under the Civil Code, arts. 775-783, not from common-law covenants running with the land.⁴

Nationally, this places Louisiana in the majority of states that haven't enacted EV-charging-station legislation for community associations, unlike right-to-charge states such as California and Florida. The sections below work through the statutory framework, what associations can and cannot do, and the recent legislative and judicial record.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. EV-charging-specific law in Louisiana

Louisiana has no EV-charging-specific statute for community associations. A section-by-section review of the Louisiana Condominium Act¹ and of the Louisiana Planned Community Act as restated by Act 158 of the 2024 Regular Session³ locates no provision addressing the installation, approval, or restriction of EV charging equipment. The consequence follows directly: no statutory override of the declaration or building restrictions, no statutory approval timeline, no statutory deemed-approval mechanic, and no statutory cap on the conditions an association may attach to an installation. This is the default posture in the majority of states, which, unlike California and Florida, haven't enacted community-association EV-charging legislation. No bill creating such a right for Louisiana associations was introduced in the 2025 or 2026 Regular Sessions — see Section 4.

2B. Condominiums: how the Louisiana Condominium Act bears on EV charging

The Louisiana Condominium Act is a bespoke civil-law statute, not an enactment of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it contains no EV-charging provision. The controlling question is therefore where the proposed station sits. Under La. R.S. 9:1122.113, a unit owner may make improvements or alterations to the unit that don't impair structural integrity, mechanical systems, or support, but may not change the appearance of the common elements or the exterior appearance of a unit without the permission of the association.⁵ A charger installed inside the separate interest of the unit, including an attached garage defined as part of the unit, falls under the owner's alteration right, subject to the declaration; a charger requiring the use or alteration of common elements requires association permission.

Association authority over common elements runs broad. Under La. R.S. 9:1123.107, the association is responsible for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of common elements except as the declaration provides.⁶ A unit owner's undivided interest in the common elements is an inseparable component of the unit and can't be altered without the consent of all unit owners under La. R.S. 9:1122.108(B), as applied by the Louisiana Fourth Circuit — see Section 4.⁷ Condominium property is also subject to the law of building restrictions.⁸ The Act therefore neither compels nor prohibits EV charging; it permits owner alterations within the unit and reserves alterations to common elements to association control, with the building restrictions and declaration filling any gap.

2C. Planned communities: the Louisiana Planned Community Act, building restrictions, and corporate law

The Louisiana Planned Community Act is the comprehensive planned-community statute. Act 158 of 2024 restated the former Homeowners Association Act into it, effective January 1, 2025, expanding it from a 9-section statute, La. R.S. 9:1141.1-1141.9, to a 50-section framework, La. R.S. 9:1141.1-1141.50, and modeling it after the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, described in the Act 158 Résumé Digest and by Steeg Law as "a basic statute for creating, managing, and terminating condominium, planned community, and real estate cooperatives."³ The Act contains no EV-charging provision. Association authority over lots, common areas, and exterior modifications flows from the powers and duties of the association under La. R.S. 9:1141.20,⁹ the building restrictions authorized under La. R.S. 9:1141.5,¹⁰ and the recorded declaration.

The order of precedence runs from the non-variable provisions of the Act, to the Act's default rules as modified by the declaration, to the declaration and building restrictions, then bylaws and rules; where a conflict exists between the declaration and another community document, the declaration prevails.¹¹ Building restrictions are established, amended, or terminated under La. R.S. 9:1141.6.¹² The Civil Code supplies the interpretive rule: doubt as to the existence, validity, or extent of a building restriction is resolved in favor of the unrestricted use of the immovable, and the Planned Community Act supersedes the Civil Code building-restriction articles in the event of a conflict, art. 783, as amended by Act 158.⁴ For associations organized as nonprofits, the Louisiana Nonprofit Corporation Law, La. R.S. 12:201 et seq., supplies corporate-formality scaffolding only, not EV-specific authority.¹³ Where statute and declaration stay silent, civil-law property and obligations doctrine governs.

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

A. Installation rights and prohibitions

Because no EV statute constrains it, an association may prohibit or condition an installation to the extent its recorded building restrictions and declaration allow, true for both community types. For condominiums, the anchor is La. R.S. 9:1122.113: an owner may alter the interior of the unit but may not change the exterior appearance or the common elements without association permission.⁵ For planned communities, authority over exterior modifications comes from the building restrictions and the declaration, enforced through the association's powers under La. R.S. 9:1141.20.⁹ No Louisiana statute limits an outright prohibition, so the distinction between prohibiting an installation and merely conditioning it is set by the community documents, not by statute.

B. Conditions an association may impose

Subject to the declaration, an association may require architectural review of the method, equipment, and routing; professional or licensed installation and code compliance; insurance, indemnification, and allocation of liability to the owner; and aesthetic and location standards, true for both. For condominiums, these conditions rest on the association's permission power over exterior and common-element changes, La. R.S. 9:1122.113.⁵ For planned communities, they rest on the building restrictions, La. R.S. 9:1141.5, and the declaration.¹⁰ The ceiling on conditions isn't statutory; it's limited only by the building restrictions, the declaration, and general civil-law reasonableness, with doubt as to the extent of a restriction resolved in favor of unrestricted use.⁴

C. Cost, metering, and maintenance allocation

No statute allocates the cost of installation, electricity, or metering for EV charging; these are set by the declaration, true for both. In the condominium setting, the Act's default is that the owner maintains the unit and the association maintains the common elements, La. R.S. 9:1123.107, which allocates responsibility according to where the equipment sits absent a contrary declaration.⁶ On the utility question, an owner charging on a private meter is generally not reselling utility service; separately, Louisiana law, La. R.S. 45:1622, enacted by Act 762 of 2022, directs the Public Service Commission to explore excluding EV charging providers from the definition of a public utility, and the LPSC then ruled in its Phase I order, May 2023, that EV charging operators may sell electricity without being regulated as an electric utility and, in its Phase II ruling adopted August 17, 2024, barred LPSC-regulated utilities from owning or operating charging stations, Docket No. R-36131.¹⁴ Those provisions regulate utilities, not association authority.

D. Where the station may be installed

For condominiums, location controls the analysis: a charger within the separate interest of the unit, including an attached garage defined as part of the unit, is an owner alteration under La. R.S. 9:1122.113, while a charger in a limited common element such as assigned parking, or in a general common element, requires association permission and, where an owner's common-element interest would be altered, the consent of all unit owners under La. R.S. 9:1122.108(B).⁷ For planned communities, an owner's lot, driveway, or assigned space is governed by the Planned Community Act, the building restrictions, and the declaration.¹⁰ No Louisiana EV provision caps association conditions or imposes an approval deadline; the community documents and general civil-law reasonableness govern.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill creating or amending EV-charging rules for community associations was introduced in the 2025 or 2026 Regular Sessions. Act 158 of the 2024 Regular Session, SB 23, is relevant background: it restated the former Homeowners Association Act as the Louisiana Planned Community Act, effective January 1, 2025, but it created no EV-charging right.³

B. Recent appellate rulings

No Louisiana appellate opinion addresses EV charging in a condominium or planned-community setting. The closest authority concerns alterations to common elements.

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal to create EV-charging rights or restrictions for Louisiana community associations has turned up as of the most recent review; the state's EV-charging policy activity has centered on the competitive market for public charging and utility regulation, not association authority.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Louisiana sits in the largest group of states on EV charging in community associations: those with no EV-charging-specific statute, where the building restrictions and declaration control. That contrasts with states that void or limit association prohibitions through a mandate, such as California, Civil Code § 4745, and Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8, and with states that address EV charging more narrowly within a condominium or HOA act, such as Florida, whose Fla. Stat. § 718.113(8), effective July 1, 2018, provides that a declaration of condominium or restrictive covenant may not prohibit a unit owner from installing an EV charging station within the boundaries of the owner's limited common element or exclusively designated parking area.¹⁶ Louisiana is a civil-law, two-statute state whose planned-community framework was recently restated as the Louisiana Planned Community Act, effective January 1, 2025, and that restatement didn't add an EV-charging right. For a multi-state operator entering Louisiana, the practical implication is that owner-protective rules from a mandate state don't apply; the building restrictions and declaration govern. This is a fast-moving area, and Louisiana's status is worth rechecking every quarter.

HOA Weekly's Louisiana EV Charging coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and courts act, and we re-verify the threshold question — whether an EV-charging statute exists — each cycle. Federal incentives may affect installation economics, but no federal law mandates HOA EV charging access.

Footnotes

1. La. R.S. 9:1121.101, Louisiana Condominium Act (short title), Louisiana State Legislature ↩
2. La. R.S. 9:1141 et seq., Louisiana Planned Community Act, Louisiana State Legislature ↩
3. Act 158 (SB 23), 2024 Regular Session, Résumé Digest (prior law R.S. 9:1141.1-1141.9; new law R.S. 9:1141.1-1141.50; modeled after UCIOA), Louisiana State Legislature ↩
4. La. Civil Code arts. 775-783 (Building Restrictions), including art. 783 (doubt resolved in favor of unrestricted use; Condominium Act, Timesharing Act, and Planned Community Act supersede in conflict), LSU Law Louisiana Civil Code ↩
5. La. R.S. 9:1122.113, Alterations of units, Louisiana State Legislature ↩
6. La. R.S. 9:1123.107, Upkeep of the condominium, Louisiana State Legislature ↩
7. Cusimano v. Port Esplanade Condominium Ass'n, Inc., 2010-0477 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1/12/11), 55 So. 3d 931 (applying La. R.S. 9:1122.108(B)) ↩
8. La. R.S. 9:1121.106, Applicability of ordinances, zoning, and building restrictions, Louisiana State Legislature ↩
9. La. R.S. 9:1141.20, Powers and duties of the lot owners association, Louisiana State Legislature ↩
10. La. R.S. 9:1141.5, Building restrictions; generally, affirmative duty, and common areas (Act 158, 2024, enrolled SB 23), Louisiana State Legislature ↩
11. La. R.S. 9:1141.4(C) (declaration prevails over other community documents) (Act 158, 2024, enrolled SB 23), Louisiana State Legislature ↩
12. La. R.S. 9:1141.6, Establishment, amendment, or termination of building restrictions (Act 158, 2024, enrolled SB 23), Louisiana State Legislature ↩
13. La. R.S. 12:201 et seq., Louisiana Nonprofit Corporation Law, Louisiana State Legislature ↩
14. La. R.S. 45:1622 (Purpose; legislative intent), enacted by Act 762 (SB 460), 2022 Regular Session, Louisiana State Legislature; utility-status result effected by LPSC Docket R-36131 (Phase I order, May 2023; Phase II ruling adopted Aug. 17, 2024) ↩
15. Gracewater LLC and McNabb Properties LLC v. Royal Delta Condominium Ass'n, Inc. (La. App. 4 Cir. 2024) (applying La. R.S. 9:1122.108(B); So. 3d citation pending verification) ↩
16. Fla. Stat. § 718.113(8), Florida condominium EV-charging-station provision (comparison only; not Louisiana law), The Florida Senate / Online Sunshine ↩