Massachusetts HOA EV Charging

Quick-Reference EV Charging Table

The EV provision is codified in the Condominium Act, ch. 183A, but reaches homeowners' associations, community associations, and cooperatives by its own terms. It was added by St. 2024, c. 239, § 86, with a codified effective date of February 18, 2025. Confirm the enacting act, effective date, and current text on malegislature.gov and cite by subdivision.

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

Massachusetts has written an owner-protective electric-vehicle-charging statute. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10A provides that an association "shall not prohibit or unreasonably restrict an owner from installing electric vehicle supply equipment" on or in an area subject to the owner's separate interest or in an area of exclusive use.¹ The provision, titled "Installation of electric vehicle supply equipment," was added to the Condominium Act by St. 2024, c. 239, Senate Bill S.2967, "An Act Promoting a Clean Energy Grid, Advancing Equity and Protecting Ratepayers," signed by Governor Maura Healey, and it defines "Association" to reach condominium associations, homeowners' associations, community associations, cooperatives, and trusts, while also binding historic district commissions and neighborhood conservation districts.^1,2 An association retains meaningful authority: it may impose reasonable restrictions, process the request in the same manner as an architectural-modification application, require use of a licensed contractor or electrician, and place installation, electricity, maintenance, and repair costs on the owner.¹ That structure places Massachusetts among the states that have enacted owner-protective EV provisions binding community associations, alongside mandate states such as California, Civil Code § 4745, and Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8.^3,4 The sections that follow work through the statutory framework, the operational rules, recent legislative and administrative activity, and national context; the page reflects the statute as enacted and codified.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. The ch. 183A EV-charging provision

The controlling rule is Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10A, placed in the Condominium Act between § 10 and § 11.⁵ The provision was added by St. 2024, c. 239, at § 86; the Trial Court Law Libraries' codification records it as "Added by St. 2024, c. 239, § 86, effective February 18, 2025."^6,2 Governor Maura Healey signed the act on November 20, 2024, and the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, or EOHLC, issued a "Notice of Law in Effect" dated February 26, 2025.⁷ Some secondary summaries state the effective date differently — February 15, 2025 or May 15, 2025, for example — but the codified effective date of record is February 18, 2025.⁶

Under § 10A(b), an association "shall not prohibit or unreasonably restrict an owner from installing electric vehicle supply equipment, as defined in section 2 of chapter 25B, on or in an area subject to the owner's separate interest or in an area to which the owner has exclusive use."¹ An association may still set "reasonable restrictions," defined in § 10A(a) as restrictions that don't significantly increase the cost of the equipment or its installation, or significantly decrease its efficiency or specified performance, or effectively prohibit installation; in setting restrictions the association must give substantial weight to climate-change threats and the Commonwealth's greenhouse-gas limits under ch. 21N.¹ Section 10A(c) requires that the equipment be installed at the owner's expense, by a licensed contractor or electrician, and in conformity with applicable health and safety standards, zoning, land use, and permit requirements.¹

Section 10A(d) governs application mechanics. An association may require an application; where it also requires applications for architectural modifications, the EV application "shall be processed and approved in the same manner" and "shall not be willfully avoided or delayed." Approval or denial must be in writing, and "if an application is not denied in writing within 60 days after the date of receipt thereof, the application shall be deemed approved unless the delay is the result of a reasonable request for additional information."¹ The same subsection caps fees: the association "shall not assess or charge the owner any fees for the placement" beyond reasonable fees for processing that apply to all architectural-modification applications.¹

Section 10A(e) allocates ongoing responsibilities to the owner and each successive owner: disclosing the equipment and related obligations to prospective buyers, disclosing whether it's removable and whether the owner intends to remove it, bearing maintenance, repair, replacement, and damage costs, and bearing electricity costs. On metering, the owner "shall connect such supply equipment to the owner's own electric utility account unless the licensed contractor performing the installation deems that to be impossible," in which case the association shall allow connection to the common account but may require equitable reimbursement.¹ Section 10A(f) authorizes an association to install equipment in a common area reserved for all members, provided it develops appropriate terms of use.¹ Section 10A(g) permits EOHLC to promulgate implementing regulations.¹

2B. How the rest of ch. 183A bears on EV charging

Section 10A operates against the surrounding structure of ch. 183A. The application pathway in § 10A(d) borrows the association's existing architectural-review process and its adopted architectural standards; the association approves the application if the owner complies with § 10A and those standards.¹ Common-element governance turns on where the parking sits. Section 10A protects installation in the owner's separate interest and exclusive-use area, including a dedicated parking space — a deeded space, garage space, carport, or space designated for a particular owner — as defined in § 10A(a).¹ Installation by the association in a general common area proceeds under different authority. Section 10(b)(6), as amended by the same act, treats association-caused EV equipment in common areas as an energy measure whose costs are common expenses, and expressly distinguishes solar energy systems, whose installation "shall be governed by section 18."⁸ That distinction matters: the EV provision, § 10A, and the solar amendment, routed to § 18, are separate regimes, and each rule should be cited to its own section.⁹ The EV provision controls over conflicting governing-document language on EV charging, while the general provisions of ch. 183A supply the surrounding procedural structure.

2C. Non-condominium associations, governing documents, and corporate law

Massachusetts has no comprehensive planned-community or common-interest-ownership act. Condominiums are governed by ch. 183A; non-condominium homeowners' associations are governed by their recorded covenants plus general corporate and trust law. Section 10A nonetheless reaches those associations because its definition of "Association" includes homeowners' associations, community associations, cooperatives, and trusts with covenants and bylaws requiring owner compliance.¹ As a result, a declaration, bylaws, or rules may impose reasonable restrictions but may not effectively prohibit an owner's installation in a separate interest or exclusive-use area. The order of precedence for condominiums runs from the non-variable provisions of ch. 183A, including § 10A, to governing documents consistent with the statute, to rules adopted under them; for non-condominium associations, § 10A overrides conflicting covenants on EV charging while the covenants otherwise control. Chapter 180, the nonprofit corporation law, supplies corporate-formality scaffolding for incorporated associations — meetings, voting, governance — but grants no EV-specific authority. Common-law contract and property doctrine fills gaps where statute and governing documents stay silent.

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

A. Installation rights and prohibitions

An association "shall not prohibit or unreasonably restrict" an owner's installation of EV supply equipment in the owner's separate interest or exclusive-use area, § 10A(b) — this is a statutory mandate, not a default that governing documents can override.¹ An association may itself install equipment in a general common area reserved for all members under § 10A(f), and § 10(b)(6) treats such association installation as an energy measure with costs as common expenses rather than as an "improvement" subject to the higher approval thresholds of § 18.^1,8 Reporting by the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center describes the common-area installation as approvable by a majority of unit owners present at a duly noticed meeting rather than under § 18 procedures.¹⁰ The dividing line is between a permitted reasonable restriction — one that doesn't significantly raise cost, cut performance, or effectively bar installation — and a prohibited effective prohibition, § 10A(a).¹

B. Conditions an association may impose

An association may require an application and process it as an architectural modification, and may require adherence to its adopted architectural standards, § 10A(d) — a permitted option, subject to the 60-day deemed-approval clock.¹ A timely denial must be in writing within 60 days of receipt; the clock is tolled only where the delay results from a reasonable request for additional information, § 10A(d).¹ The association may require use of a licensed contractor or electrician and conformity with health, safety, zoning, and land-use standards, § 10A(c).¹ Fees are capped at reasonable processing fees applicable to all architectural-modification applications, § 10A(d).¹ Section 10A contains no owner insurance or indemnification requirement; the honest entry is that insurance isn't specified by statute, and no California-style liability-policy mandate should be imported.¹

C. Cost, metering, and maintenance allocation

The owner bears installation cost, § 10A(c)(i), and electricity, maintenance, repair, replacement, and damage costs, § 10A(e).¹ The metering default is connection to the owner's own utility account; only where the licensed contractor deems that impossible may the equipment connect to the common account, with equitable reimbursement to the association, § 10A(e)(v).¹ The Department of Public Utilities regulates utilities, but an owner charging on the owner's own account isn't thereby reselling utility service; DPU jurisdiction over resale isn't triggered by owner-side residential charging on the owner's own account.¹¹

D. Where the station may be installed

Section 10A protects installation in the owner's separate interest — a lot, unit, or interest to which the owner has exclusive ownership rights — and in an exclusive-use area, including a dedicated parking space defined in § 10A(a) as a space within the separate interest or a common-area space subject to exclusive-use rights, such as a deeded space, garage space, carport, or designated space.¹ A general common area not subject to a single owner's exclusive use isn't covered by the owner's installation right; installation there proceeds under the association-installation rules of § 10A(f) and § 10(b)(6).^1,8

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill in the current 194th General Court (2025-2026) has been identified that amends ch. 183A § 10A. Bills such as H.3558, "An Act relative to electric vehicle charging stations," address other subjects — there, gasoline-station fast-charging under ch. 93E — and were sent to study rather than enacted.¹²

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published decision of the Massachusetts Appeals Court or the Supreme Judicial Court has yet interpreted, applied, or cited ch. 183A § 10A. The provision took effect in 2025 and remains untested in the appellate courts. Trial-level condominium and association disputes proceed through the Massachusetts Trial Court, most often the Superior Court, the Land Court, or the Housing Court depending on the claim; appeals go to the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the intermediate appellate court, with further review by the Supreme Judicial Court. The closest recent appellate authority on association obligations for exclusive-use common areas is the following, which doesn't address § 10A but is analytically relevant to who bears costs for owner-requested changes to exclusive-use spaces.

C. Active legislative debates

The DPU has an open proceeding on right-of-way and pole-mounted EV charging, dockets D.P.U. 25-180, 25-181, and 25-182, for which distribution companies filed plans and a joint public hearing was held on February 11, 2026, with the department required to approve, conditionally approve, or reject the plans by July 31, 2026; EOHLC has stated it will not file regulations implementing the right-to-charge rule at this time.^14,10,7

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Massachusetts sits in the owner-protective category of the national EV-charging landscape. Some states impose EV-charging mandates that void or limit HOA prohibitions, such as California, whose Civil Code § 4745 renders a governing-document provision that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts a charging station "void and unenforceable," and Colorado, whose C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8(2)(a) provides that an association shall not "prohibit a unit owner from using, or installing at the unit owner's expense for the unit owner's own use, a level 1 or level 2 electric vehicle charging system on or in a unit."^3,4 Other states address EV charging more narrowly within a condominium or HOA act, and some have no EV-charging-specific statute, leaving the declaration to control. Massachusetts reached the owner-protective result through its Condominium Act rather than a standalone common-interest statute, extending the rule to homeowners' associations, community associations, and cooperatives by the terms of § 10A.¹ For a multi-state operator entering Massachusetts, the practical implication is that owners hold statutory installation rights, and a playbook built for a silent state understates them. This is a fast-moving area, and the ch. 183A EV provision is worth rechecking against current text every quarter.

HOA Weekly's Massachusetts EV Charging coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and courts act, and we re-verify the ch. 183A EV provision against current text each cycle. Federal incentives may affect installation economics, including the Section 30C refueling-property credit, which the One Big Beautiful Bill Act accelerated to sunset for property placed in service after June 30, 2026, and NEVI infrastructure funding, but no federal law mandates HOA EV-charging access.^15,16,17

Footnotes

1. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10A (Installation of electric vehicle supply equipment), current text via malegislature.gov ↩
2. St. 2024, c. 239 (S.2967), An Act Promoting a Clean Energy Grid, Advancing Equity and Protecting Ratepayers, via malegislature.gov ↩
3. California Civil Code § 4745 (comparison source) ↩
4. Colorado Revised Statutes § 38-33.3-106.8 (comparison source; enacted by SB 13-126, effective May 3, 2013) ↩
5. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A (Condominiums), section listing via malegislature.gov ↩
6. Mass. General Laws c.183A, Trial Court Law Libraries (records § 10A "Added by St. 2024, c. 239, § 86, effective February 18, 2025") ↩
7. EOHLC, Notice of Law in Effect: Electric Vehicle "Right to Charge" Rule (Feb. 26, 2025), including statement that EOHLC will not file regulations at this time ↩
8. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10(b)(6), via mass.gov Trial Court Law Libraries ↩
9. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 18 (Improvements; costs), via malegislature.gov ↩
10. U.S. DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center, Massachusetts Laws and Incentives (common-area vote and DPU deployment-plan timeline) ↩
11. Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities ↩
12. Bill H.3558, 194th General Court, An Act relative to electric vehicle charging stations ↩
13. Geezil v. White Cliffs Condominium Four Association, 105 Mass. App. Ct. 103 (2024), slip opinion via mass.gov ↩
14. Mass. DPU, Public Hearing on EVSE and EV Plans (D.P.U. 25-180/181/182 and 188/189), held Feb. 11, 2026 ↩
15. IRS, Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (Section 30C) ↩
16. Argonne National Laboratory, Refueling Infrastructure Tax Credit (30C credit not allowed for property placed in service after June 30, 2026 per OBBB) ↩
17. U.S. DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center, National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program ↩