New Hampshire HOA EV Charging

Quick-Reference EV Charging Table

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

New Hampshire has no statute that specifically governs electric vehicle charging stations in condominiums or homeowners associations, and no right-to-charge provision that limits association authority over an owner's installation.¹ No New Hampshire statute overrides the recorded declaration on EV charging. An owner's ability to install a charging station is governed instead by the declaration and, for condominiums created on or after September 10, 1977, by the general alteration and common-area provisions of the New Hampshire Condominium Act, RSA 356-B, with the older Unit Ownership of Real Property Act, RSA 479-A, applying to condominiums created before that date and the declaration plus RSA 292 governing non-condominium associations.² The controlling practical question is where the proposed station would be installed and who controls that space: an owner's unit, a limited common area such as an assigned parking space, or a general common area. This places New Hampshire in the majority of states that haven't enacted EV-charging-station legislation for community associations, unlike states with owner-protective mandates such as California and Colorado.³ The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational limits on what an association may do, and the recent legislative and judicial record.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. EV-charging-specific law in New Hampshire

A review of the New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated confirms that New Hampshire has no EV-charging-specific statute for community associations. Neither the Condominium Act, RSA 356-B, nor the Unit Ownership of Real Property Act, RSA 479-A, contains any electric-vehicle, EV-charging, or charging-station provision.¹ The consequence follows directly: there's no statutory override of the declaration, no statutory approval timeline, no statutory deemed-approval rule, and no statutory cap on the conditions an association may impose. New Hampshire does have EV-charging provisions elsewhere in its code, but they don't limit associations. RSA 236:133 and RSA 236:134 govern the operation of public charging stations, addressing uniform signage, universal access for publicly funded chargers, multiple payment options, and reserved parking, and they clarify that an owner of an electric vehicle charging station isn't a "utility," "public utility," or "public service company" solely by virtue of that ownership.⁴ Those are rules for public and utility-side charging, not rules about an owner's right to install charging in a common interest community. A separate proposal to require EV-ready infrastructure in certain state-funded housing under RSA 155-A was introduced in 2024 but didn't become law, and in any event would not have governed association decisions.⁵ This absence of an association-specific statute places New Hampshire among the states that haven't enacted EV-charging legislation for community associations. As of 2026, Plug In America and multiple state-law surveys count only a minority of states with right-to-charge laws, commonly listing California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia, leaving most states, New Hampshire among them, without such statutes.³

2B. How RSA 356-B's general provisions bear on EV charging

RSA 356-B, the New Hampshire Condominium Act enacted in 1977, is modeled on the Virginia Condominium Act rather than the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it predates electric vehicles entirely; it contains no EV-specific provision.⁶ Its general provisions nonetheless structure the analysis for condominiums. Under RSA 356-B:30, a unit owner may make improvements or alterations within the unit, except to the extent prohibited by the condominium instruments and subject to any restrictions they specify, and no owner may change the exterior appearance of the unit or any other portion of the condominium except as the instruments permit.⁷ Because most parking isn't within a unit, installation typically requires use of or alteration to common areas, where the association's authority is at its strongest. RSA 356-B:19 controls the assignment and reassignment of limited common areas, including assigned parking, and generally requires action reflected in the condominium instruments.⁸ RSA 356-B:42 gives the unit owners' association the power to make additional improvements on the common areas and to grant or withhold approval of any action by an owner that would change the exterior appearance of the condominium, or to appoint an architectural control committee for that purpose.⁹ RSA 356-B:41 allocates maintenance and repair responsibility for common areas to the association and for the unit to the individual owner, except as the instruments provide.¹⁰ Condominiums created before September 10, 1977 are governed by the Unit Ownership of Real Property Act, RSA 479-A, which has a different structure.² RSA 356-B neither compels an association to permit EV charging nor prohibits it; the declaration controls.

2C. The role of CC&Rs, non-condominium associations, and corporate law

In the absence of a statute, the declaration is the operative rulebook for EV charging in New Hampshire. Architectural or design-review provisions are the mechanism most associations use to evaluate a charging-station request, an authority RSA 356-B:42 expressly contemplates for condominiums.⁹ For condominiums, the order of precedence runs from the non-variable provisions of RSA 356-B, to the RSA 356-B default rules as modified by the declaration, to the declaration, then the bylaws, then the rules; where a conflict exists between the condominium instruments and the chapter, RSA 356-B controls, and among the instruments the declaration controls.¹¹ For non-condominium planned-community associations, New Hampshire has no comprehensive statute; the declaration, RSA 292, Voluntary Corporations and Associations, for associations incorporated as nonprofits, and common law govern. RSA 292 supplies corporate-formality scaffolding, such as board action and meeting and notice requirements at the corporate level, and RSA 292:8-m adds narrow homeowners-association provisions on supermajority votes and dissolution, but it confers no EV-specific authority.¹² Where the declaration is 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

Whether an association may prohibit installation outright turns on the declaration, because no New Hampshire statute constrains a prohibition, true across all association types.¹ For condominiums, an owner has a statutory right to make alterations within the unit under RSA 356-B:30, but that right doesn't extend to the exterior or to common areas without instrument authorization, so a declaration that bars exterior or common-area modifications can bar a charging station installed there.⁷ The practical distinction is between prohibiting installation and conditioning it: most associations condition rather than ban, because a station within an owner-controlled space that meets the declaration's standards is harder to refuse than one requiring common-area alteration.

B. Conditions an association may impose

An association may require architectural approval of the method, equipment, and routing, an authority RSA 356-B:42 grants for condominiums and that most declarations replicate for non-condominium associations.⁹ It may require professional or licensed installation and code compliance, aesthetic and location standards, and insurance, indemnification, and allocation of liability to the owner, all as a matter of declaration authority rather than statutory command, true across all association types.¹ Because no New Hampshire statute caps these conditions, the ceiling is whatever the declaration permits, read against general reasonableness principles applied by New Hampshire courts to association action, not a statutory limit.

C. Cost, metering, and maintenance allocation

Who bears installation cost, electricity cost, metering cost, and maintenance, repair, and damage responsibility is determined by the declaration, since no New Hampshire statute assigns these costs for association EV charging, true across all association types.¹ For condominiums, RSA 356-B:41 provides the default backdrop that owners maintain their units and the association maintains common areas, except as the instruments provide, so allocation for a station in a common area will follow the declaration's treatment of that area.¹⁰ On metering, an owner charging a vehicle on the owner's own private meter generally isn't reselling utility service, and RSA 236:133 confirms that owning charging equipment doesn't by itself make a person a public utility, so ordinary owner-side residential charging doesn't implicate New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission resale regulation.⁴

D. Where the station may be installed

Location is the controlling variable. A station within a separate interest, such as an attached garage defined as part of the unit, falls under the owner's RSA 356-B:30 right to alter within the unit.⁷ A station in a limited common area, such as an assigned parking space, or in a general common area falls under association control, because the association generally controls alterations to common areas, including assigned ones, absent declaration language to the contrary.⁸ The declaration's definition of the parking area and its alteration provisions determine the analysis in every case.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted or introduced in the past 24 months creates or amends EV-charging rules for New Hampshire community associations. One related measure illustrates the legislative trajectory. Senate Bill 52 (2023) amended the public-charging provisions of RSA 236, not the Condominium Act; it falls outside the 24-month window and isn't a community-association rule.¹³

B. Recent New Hampshire Supreme Court rulings

New Hampshire has no intermediate appellate court; condominium civil disputes proceed through the Superior Court and, on appeal, directly to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. No New Hampshire Supreme Court decision in the past 36 months addresses EV charging directly, but one recent decision bears on the common-area alteration authority that controls most charging disputes.

C. Active legislative debates

No active New Hampshire proposal would create EV-charging rights or restrictions for community associations. Legislative EV activity in recent sessions has focused on public-charging operation and infrastructure funding rather than owner installations in associations.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

New Hampshire sits at the permissive end of the national EV-charging landscape. A first group of states has enacted EV-charging-station mandates that void or limit HOA prohibitions, led by California, Civil Code § 4745, and Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8. Under Civil Code § 4745(a), any governing-document provision that "either effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts the installation or use of an electric vehicle charging station within an owner's unit or in a designated parking space ... is void and unenforceable," and § 4745(e) provides that an application not denied in writing within 60 days is deemed approved absent a reasonable request for more information.³ A second group addresses EV charging more narrowly within a condominium or HOA act. New Hampshire falls into the third and largest group, with no EV-charging-specific statute for associations, where the declaration controls.¹ For a multi-state operator entering New Hampshire from a mandate state, the practical implication is significant: the owner-protective rules they're accustomed to, such as deemed approval and void-and-unenforceable prohibitions, don't apply, and the recorded declaration governs. Because this is a fast-moving area, New Hampshire's status should be re-checked each quarter.

HOA Weekly's New Hampshire EV Charging coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the New Hampshire Supreme Court act, and the threshold question of whether a statute exists is re-verified each cycle. Federal incentives may affect installation economics, but no federal law mandates HOA EV charging access.¹⁵

Footnotes

1. New Hampshire Condominium Act, RSA 356-B (full chapter text; contains no electric-vehicle or charging-station provision) ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
2. RSA 356-B:2 (Application; RSA 356-B supersedes RSA 479-A for condominiums created on or after Sept. 10, 1977) ↩ ↩
3. California Civil Code § 4745 (void-and-unenforceable prohibitions; 60-day deemed approval); Colorado Revised Statutes § 38-33.3-106.8; Plug In America, "Right-To-Charge Policies" (state count) ↩ ↩ ↩
4. RSA 236:133, Operation of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations; Signage (owner of charging station not deemed a public utility); RSA 236:134, Prohibitions and Restrictions ↩ ↩
5. New Hampshire HB 606 (2024), proposing RSA 155-A:14 EV charging infrastructure for state-funded construction; did not pass ↩ ↩
6. RSA 356-B:1 (Short Title, "Condominium Act"), enacted 1977, 468:1, eff. Sept. 10, 1977 ↩
7. RSA 356-B:30, Alterations Within Units ↩ ↩ ↩
8. RSA 356-B:19, Assignments of Limited Common Areas ↩ ↩
9. RSA 356-B:42, Control of the Common Areas ↩ ↩ ↩
10. RSA 356-B:41, Upkeep of the Condominium; Warranty Against Structural Defects ↩ ↩
11. RSA 356-B:6-a (chapter controls over conflicting declaration or bylaws) and RSA 356-B:13 (declaration controls among condominium instruments) ↩
12. RSA 292 (Voluntary Corporations and Associations); RSA 292:8-m, Homeowners' Associations ↩
13. New Hampshire SB 52 (2023), amending RSA 236 charging-station provisions; Chapter 66, effective Aug. 6, 2023 ↩
14. Moda v. Fernwood at Winnipesaukee Condominium Ass'n, 2024 N.H. 65 (docket 2023-0268, Nov. 26, 2024) ↩
15. IRC § 30C Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit; terminates for property placed in service after June 30, 2026 (P.L. 119-21, One Big Beautiful Bill Act) ↩