Michigan HOA EV Charging

Quick-Reference EV Charging Table

The Homeowners' Energy Policy Act (2024 PA 68, MCL 559.301 et seq.) supplies a no-prohibition and no-approval rule for member installation of EV supply equipment outside common areas and shared roofs, but its detailed machinery — approval timelines, cost caps, mandatory written policy statement, deemed-proceed remedy — is keyed to solar energy systems and doesn't clearly govern EV supply equipment. For condominium common-element locations, the Condominium Act and master deed control. Whether the Act reaches condominium associations at all is unsettled.

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

Michigan gives association members an owner-protective rule for electric vehicle supply equipment through the Homeowners' Energy Policy Act (2024 PA 68), which makes invalid and unenforceable any governing-document provision that prohibits, or requires association approval for, a member to install it, except in a common area or on a shared roof.¹ The rule sits in an energy-modification statute, not a dedicated EV statute: the Act, MCL 559.301 et seq., lists "electric vehicle supply equipment" as one item in a broader list of protected "energy-saving improvement or modification" items alongside solar water heaters, heat pumps, insulation, and clotheslines.² The limits matter as much as the rule. The no-prohibition protection doesn't reach common areas or shared roofs,³ and the Act's detailed machinery, including approval timelines, a written policy requirement, a deemed-proceed remedy, and production and cost caps, is written for solar energy systems rather than EV equipment.⁴ For condominium common-element locations, the Michigan Condominium Act, MCL 559.101 et seq., and the recorded master deed continue to control.⁵ Nationally, Michigan occupies a middle position: it reaches EV charging through a broad energy statute rather than through a dedicated "right to charge" law of the California or Colorado type, and it isn't a no-provision state where the declaration alone governs.⁶ The sections that follow work through the statutory framework, the operational rules for boards and managers, recent legislative activity, and Michigan's national positioning.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. The Homeowners' Energy Policy Act and EV supply equipment

The Homeowners' Energy Policy Act was enacted as House Bill 5028 and signed on July 8, 2024, becoming 2024 Public Act 68, codified at MCL 559.301 through 559.317.⁷ The Michigan Legislature's compilation states the Act took effect April 2, 2025, ninety-one days after the Legislature adjourned the 2024 regular session sine die.¹ Section 3, MCL 559.303, defines "electric vehicle supply equipment" as "a machine or other device located within this state that is supplied with electricity and designed or used for placing or delivering electricity into the battery storage system of a motor vehicle," and includes that equipment within the list of "energy-saving improvement or modification" items covered by the Act.² The operative rule is in Section 5, MCL 559.305: any provision in a homeowners' association agreement that prohibits, or requires association approval for, a member to replace, maintain, install, or operate an energy-saving improvement or modification is invalid and unenforceable as contrary to public policy, as is any provision requiring approval for the auxiliary changes needed to install it.⁸ Section 13, MCL 559.313, then removes common-area and shared-roof locations from the Act: it provides that the Act doesn't apply to the replacement, maintenance, installation, or operation of an energy-saving improvement or modification in a common area or on a shared roof.³ "Common area" is defined broadly to include a garage owned or managed by the association and generally accessible to all members, and "shared roof" means a roof that serves more than one home or unit.² The exclusion is the analytical hinge for condominiums, because it can route common-element charging locations back to the master deed.

The single most consequential point for EV analysis is that the Act's detailed machinery is solar-specific. The mandatory written policy statement to be adopted within one year, MCL 559.309, the 30-day and 120-day approval windows and the deemed-proceed remedy, MCL 559.311, the ban on solar prohibitions, MCL 559.307, and the standards limiting conditions that would reduce production by more than 10% or increase cost by more than $1,000 all use the defined term "solar energy system," not "energy-saving improvement or modification."⁴ The Act therefore supplies no EV approval timeline, no EV deemed-approval clock, no EV insurance requirement, and no EV cost cap. A separate, unresolved question is whether the Act reaches condominium associations at all: the Act operates on a "homeowners' association agreement" and a "member" but never defines "homeowners' association" or mentions condominium associations. Michigan community-association counsel are openly split. The Meisner Law Group writes that "the legal community is divided over this Act's applicability to condominium projects in Michigan, as it does not specify that it includes 'condominiums'... it may not apply to Condominiums; however, it clearly applies to Subdivision Associations," while Tilchin & Hall takes the position that because the definitions section "does not define the term 'homeowners' association'" and the Act "makes no reference to 'condominium association,'" the Act "does not apply to associations organized under the Condominium Act."⁹

2B. How the Michigan Condominium Act bears on EV charging

Condominiums are governed by the Michigan Condominium Act, 1978 PA 59, MCL 559.101 et seq., together with the recorded master deed and bylaws.⁵ The co-owner improvements-and-alterations section, MCL 559.147, provides that, subject to the prohibitions and restrictions in the condominium documents, a co-owner may make improvements or alterations within a unit that don't impair structural integrity, and that a co-owner may not change the exterior appearance of a unit or any other portion of the project except as the condominium documents allow.¹⁰ Section 147 contains no EV provision. House Bill 5109 (2023-2024) would have added subsections to MCL 559.147 authorizing a co-owner, notwithstanding the condominium documents, to install EV supply equipment at an allotted parking space on the co-owner's unit subject to cost, maintenance, and disclosure conditions, but that bill didn't pass.¹¹ Section 147 therefore remains as it has read since 1987.

The Condominium Act distinguishes the unit from the common elements, and further distinguishes general common elements from limited common elements, which are portions of the common elements reserved in the master deed for the exclusive use of fewer than all co-owners.¹² Assigned parking is commonly a limited common element. Because the energy Act doesn't apply in a "common area," and because most condominium documents prohibit unilateral co-owner modification of common elements, the location of the proposed station is decisive. For common-element locations, including a limited common element such as assigned parking if it falls within the Act's "common area," the Condominium Act and master deed govern, while the energy Act's no-prohibition rule applies most cleanly to equipment installed within the unit itself.³

2C. CC&Rs, corporate law, and the order of precedence

For planned communities and platted subdivisions, the recorded declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions is the operative rulebook, now subject to the Homeowners' Energy Policy Act for protected energy-saving improvements.⁸ The Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act, 1982 PA 162, MCL 450.2101 et seq., supplies the corporate-formality scaffolding for associations organized as nonprofit corporations, including board action, meeting, and notice requirements, but grants no EV-specific authority.¹³ The order of precedence for a protected improvement runs: the Homeowners' Energy Policy Act, which supersedes inconsistent governing-document provisions on protected improvements outside common areas;⁸ then, for condominiums, the non-variable provisions of the Condominium Act; then the declaration or master deed; then the bylaws; then the rules. Where the statute and documents stay silent, common-law contract and property doctrine applies.

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

A. Installation rights and prohibitions

Outside common areas and shared roofs, an association may not prohibit installation of, or require its approval for, a member to install EV supply equipment; any provision that does so is invalid under MCL 559.305.⁸ Within common areas and on shared roofs, the energy Act doesn't apply, and authority returns to the declaration and, for condominiums, the Condominium Act and master deed, MCL 559.313.³ The Act draws a line between prohibiting installation, which is barred outside common areas, and conditioning it, and because the Act's conditioning mechanics are written for solar, how much conditioning latitude survives for EV equipment remains unsettled.⁴

B. Conditions an association may impose

The statute doesn't supply, for EV supply equipment, an approval timeline, a deemed-approval clock, an insurance mandate, a licensed-installer mandate, or a cost cap; each of those, where it exists in the Act, is tied to the defined term "solar energy system."⁴ General building-code compliance still applies, and for common-element locations the declaration's and master deed's conditions still apply.¹⁰ The solar written-policy-statement and timeline mechanics of MCL 559.309 and 559.311 don't govern EV requests.⁴

C. Cost, metering, and maintenance allocation

The Act doesn't allocate EV installation cost, electricity cost, or maintenance responsibility in detail; the member typically bears these, but the specific cost, maintenance, and disclosure mechanics were the subject of HB 5109, which wasn't enacted.¹¹ Whether electricity use is separately metered or submetered is left to the declaration and the utility relationship; a member charging a personal vehicle on the member's own meter is generally not reselling utility service, and the Michigan Public Service Commission's jurisdiction runs to regulated utilities rather than to individual association members.¹⁴

D. Where the station may be installed

Within a member's separate interest, meaning a home or a condominium unit including an attached garage defined as part of the unit, the energy Act's no-prohibition rule applies most cleanly.⁸ Common areas and shared roofs are excluded from the Act, and those locations are controlled by the declaration and, for condominiums, the Condominium Act and master deed, MCL 559.313.³ The pivotal and unresolved question is whether a limited common element assigned to a unit, such as a deeded parking space, is a "common area" under the Act; the answer determines whether the no-prohibition rule or the master deed governs, and it must be verified against the specific master deed rather than assumed.²

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent Michigan appellate rulings

No published decision of the Michigan Court of Appeals or the Michigan Supreme Court has interpreted the Homeowners' Energy Policy Act, including its energy-saving-improvement provisions, its common-area or shared-roof exclusion, or the question of whether the Act reaches condominium associations, as of July 18, 2026. Michigan community-association counsel report that "as of now, no lawsuits have been filed seeking clarification from a court" on the Act's scope.⁹ Given the Act's 2025 effective date, interpreting case law on EV supply equipment specifically doesn't yet exist. Civil disputes over association EV requests would proceed through the Michigan Circuit Courts, with appeals to the Michigan Court of Appeals and discretionary review by the Michigan Supreme Court.

C. Active legislative debates

In the 2025-2026 session, House Bill 4363 proposes to repeal the Homeowners' Energy Policy Act outright; it's a partisan measure with thirteen Republican sponsors whose enacting section reads that "the homeowners' energy policy act, 2024 PA 68, MCL 559.301 to 559.317, is repealed," and it was re-referred to the Committee on Energy on October 21, 2025 without being enacted.¹⁵ No 2025-2026 bill reviving the HB 5109 approach of adding condominium EV mechanics to MCL 559.147 has been introduced.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Michigan sits in the middle of the national EV-charging landscape. A first group of states has enacted dedicated EV-charging-station statutes that void or limit association prohibitions and supply owner-protective mechanics; Michigan practitioner commentary lists "California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington" as states that "have passed some form of legislation that requires community associations to permit electric vehicles," with California, Civil Code § 4745, and Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8, the leading models.⁶ A second group, which is Michigan's posture, reaches EV charging through a broader energy-modification statute rather than a dedicated EV law, protecting installation as one of several energy-saving improvements. A third group has no EV-charging provision, leaving the declaration to control. For a multi-state operator entering Michigan, the practical implication is that members gain a no-prohibition right for EV supply equipment outside common areas, but the detailed owner-protective mechanics of a California-style statute — fixed approval deadlines, insurance ceilings, separate-metering rules — don't apply, and common-area and condominium common-element locations remain governed by the declaration and the Condominium Act. Because a repeal bill is pending and the condominium-coverage question is unresolved, Michigan's status is worth rechecking every quarter.

HOA Weekly's Michigan EV Charging coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature and the Michigan courts act, and we re-verify the statute's scope and any EV-specific amendment each cycle. Federal incentives may affect installation economics, but no federal law mandates HOA EV charging access.

Footnotes

1. MCL 559.301, Homeowners' Energy Policy Act, short title, 2024 PA 68, Eff. Apr. 2, 2025 ↩
2. MCL 559.303, definitions of "common area," "electric vehicle supply equipment," "energy-saving improvement or modification," "member," and "shared roof" ↩
3. MCL 559.313, applicability; act does not apply in a common area or on a shared roof ↩
4. 2024 PA 68, full text, Sections 7, 9, and 11 (MCL 559.307, 559.309, 559.311), solar-specific policy statement, timelines, and remedy ↩
5. Michigan Condominium Act, 1978 PA 59, MCL 559.101 et seq. ↩
6. Michigan Community Association Law Blog (Hirzel Law), listing states with dedicated community-association EV legislation including California and Colorado (May 13, 2024) ↩
7. House Bill 5028 of 2023 (2024 PA 68), Michigan Legislature bill page ↩
8. MCL 559.305, invalid and unenforceable provisions in homeowners' association agreements ↩
9. Michigan Community Association Law Blog (Hirzel Law), 2025 Michigan Condo and HOA Legislative Update (Jan. 14, 2026), noting no lawsuits filed on the Act's scope; see also Meisner Law Group and Tilchin & Hall on the condominium-coverage split ↩
10. MCL 559.147, improvements or alterations by co-owners ↩
11. House Bill 5109 of 2023, condominium EV supply equipment; introduced (summary dated Oct. 24, 2023), did not pass (Introduced - Dead) ↩
12. MCL 559.107, definition of "limited common elements" ↩
13. Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act, 1982 PA 162, MCL 450.2101 et seq. ↩
14. Michigan Public Service Commission, utility regulation ↩
15. House Bill 4363 of 2025, repeal of 2024 PA 68 (MCL 559.301 to 559.317); re-referred to Committee on Energy Oct. 21, 2025 ↩