New Mexico HOA EV Charging

Quick-Reference EV Charging Table

The Condominium Act, Articles 7A-7D, governs condominiums and the Homeowner Association Act, Article 16, governs planned communities. The two statutes have distinct provisions and different section numbers, and any EV-charging value must be drawn from the correct statute for each column. The Homeowner Association Act doesn't comprehensively regulate architectural review, so exterior-modification questions in planned communities turn on the declaration. Because no EV-specific provision exists, the general provisions of each statute plus the declaration control.

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

New Mexico has no statute that specifically governs electric vehicle charging stations in community associations.¹ A direct review of the New Mexico Condominium Act and the New Mexico Homeowner Association Act confirms that neither contains an EV-charging provision, so the general provisions of those statutes plus the recorded declaration control every charging-station request.²

New Mexico is a comprehensive, non-UCIOA, two-statute state. Condominiums are governed by the New Mexico Condominium Act, Chapter 47, Articles 7A through 7D (§ 47-7A-1 et seq.), and planned communities are governed by the New Mexico Homeowner Association Act, Chapter 47, Article 16 (§ 47-16-1 et seq.), in both cases together with the declaration. The two statutes are separate, with distinct provisions and different section numbers.

New Mexico does have an owner-protective solar-rights regime, the Solar Rights Act, § 47-3-1 et seq., which voids covenants that effectively prohibit solar collectors, but that's a solar provision and doesn't create or imply any parallel right to install an EV charging station.³

Nationally, New Mexico sits in the category of states with no EV-charging-specific statute, unlike California and Colorado, which void or limit association prohibitions on charging stations. The detailed sections below set out how the Condominium Act and the Homeowner Association Act each bear on charging-station installations, what associations can and cannot do, and the recent legislative record.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

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

New Mexico has no EV-charging-specific statute applicable to community associations. A section-by-section review of the Condominium Act, § 47-7A-1 through § 47-7D-20, and the Homeowner Association Act, § 47-16-1 through § 47-16-18, locates no provision that addresses electric vehicle charging stations, charging equipment, or charging-station applications.¹² The consequence follows directly: there's no statutory override of the declaration, no statutory approval timeline, no deemed-approval rule, and no statutory ceiling on the conditions an association may attach. The declaration, read together with the general provisions of the governing statute, is the operative rulebook.

The Solar Rights Act, § 47-3-1 et seq., is a separate regime. It declares solar access a property right and renders void any covenant effective after July 1, 1978 that effectively prohibits a solar collector, while permitting non-prohibitive regulation.³ It doesn't mention electric vehicle charging and doesn't create an EV right by analogy.

House Bill 88 (2025), the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Zoning Act, is the measure most likely to be confused for an association rule, and it isn't one. HB 88 addressed county and municipal zoning treatment of charging stations, designating installation a permitted use and requiring an expedited local permitting process.⁴ It didn't amend the Condominium Act or the Homeowner Association Act, and it was postponed indefinitely in committee.⁵ It's treated in Section 4.

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

The New Mexico Condominium Act, § 47-7A-1 et seq., is based on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act and applies to condominiums created after the act took effect on May 19, 1982.⁶ It contains no EV-charging provision, so charging-station questions are resolved under its general alteration and common-element rules and the declaration.

The central provision is Section 47-7B-11, Alterations of units. Subject to the declaration and other law, a unit owner may make improvements or alterations to the owner's unit that don't impair the structural integrity or mechanical systems or lessen the support of any portion of the condominium, but the owner may not change the appearance of the common elements, or the exterior appearance of a unit, without permission of the association.⁷ A charger and its dedicated circuit installed wholly within a unit, including an attached garage defined by the declaration as part of the unit, generally fall on the owner's side of that line; a charger that requires wiring across, attachment to, or a change in the appearance of common elements requires association permission.

Parking is often the deciding factor. Assigned parking is typically a limited common element allocated by the declaration for the exclusive use of one or more units, and its allocation can't be altered without the consent of the affected owners.⁸ The association generally controls alterations to and use of common elements, including limited common elements, under its statutory powers, and the sale or encumbrance of common elements requires a supermajority owner vote.⁹ Architectural and design review of a charging installation therefore derives from the act's common-element controls plus whatever review scheme the declaration establishes.

Condominiums created before May 19, 1982 may remain under the older Building Unit Ownership Act, § 47-7-1 et seq., unless the owners elected into the Condominium Act by recorded resolution.⁶ The Condominium Act neither compels nor prohibits EV charging; it's silent, and the declaration controls where the statute is silent.

2C. Planned communities: the Homeowner Association Act, plus the role of CC&Rs and corporate law

The New Mexico Homeowner Association Act, § 47-16-1 et seq., is the planned-community statute; Laws 2013, ch. 122 made it effective July 1, 2013, with its first sections originally miscompiled as 47-7E-1 through 47-7E-14 and later recompiled into Article 16.² It contains no EV-charging provision. Its subject matter is governance and disclosure: creation and recording of the association, record access, budgets, board duties, proxy and absentee voting, financial audits, resale disclosure certificates, flags, meetings, and covenant-enforcement procedure.¹⁰ It doesn't comprehensively regulate architectural review or an association's authority over exterior modifications, so a planned-community charging-station request turns on the declaration.

Authority over a lot, driveway, assigned space, common area, and exterior modification comes from the recorded declaration, enforced through the act's covenant-enforcement provision, which also encourages alternative dispute resolution before litigation.¹⁰ The Homeowner Association Act expressly doesn't apply to a condominium governed by the Condominium Act, which keeps the two tracks separate.¹¹

The order of precedence for a planned community is: the non-variable provisions of the Homeowner Association Act, then the act's default provisions, then the declaration, then the bylaws, then board rules. Most New Mexico associations are organized as nonprofit corporations and are therefore also subject to the New Mexico Nonprofit Corporation Act, § 53-8-1 et seq., which supplies corporate-formality scaffolding such as board authority, meetings, and records, but grants no EV-specific power.¹² Where the statute and the declaration are both silent, common-law contract and property doctrine governs the interpretation and enforcement of the covenants.

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

A. Installation rights and prohibitions

Because no EV statute applies, whether an association may prohibit a charging station outright is answered by the declaration, not by a statutory cap. For condominiums, an owner may proceed with an in-unit installation that doesn't alter or change the appearance of common elements, but the association may withhold permission for any installation that touches common elements, subject to the declaration, Condominium Act § 47-7B-11.⁷ For planned communities, the association's power to prohibit or condition a station arises from the declaration and is enforced under the Homeowner Association Act's covenant-enforcement provision, § 47-16-18; no statutory limit constrains a prohibition.¹⁰ No New Mexico statute distinguishes prohibiting from conditioning, so that distinction is governed by the declaration for both community types.

B. Conditions an association may impose

For condominiums, architectural approval of method, equipment, routing, and location follows from the association's control over common elements and exterior appearance, Condominium Act § 47-7B-11, § 47-7C-2.⁷⁹ For planned communities, the same conditions, including professional or licensed installation, code compliance, insurance, indemnification, liability allocation, and aesthetic and location standards, are governed by the declaration, because the Homeowner Association Act doesn't itself set them.¹⁰ The ceiling on conditions isn't statutory in New Mexico; it's set by the declaration and general reasonableness, and, for solar only, by the separate Solar Rights Act, which doesn't extend to EV charging.³

C. Cost, metering, and maintenance allocation

No EV statute assigns cost for either community type, so installation cost, electricity cost, metering, maintenance, repair, and damage responsibility are allocated by the declaration.⁷¹⁰ For condominiums, the Condominium Act's default is that the association maintains common elements and each owner maintains the owner's unit, which informs how charger upkeep is assigned absent a contrary declaration term, § 47-7C-7.¹³ On metering, an owner charging a personal vehicle on the owner's own meter generally isn't reselling utility service; the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission regulates public utilities, and private-meter owner charging is generally outside utility-resale regulation, true for both community types.¹⁴

D. Where the station may be installed

For condominiums, location determines control. A station within the separate interest, the unit, including an attached garage defined as part of the unit under § 47-7A-3, is largely the owner's to install if it doesn't affect common elements; a station in a limited common element such as assigned parking, § 47-7B-8, or in a general common element requires association permission, because the association generally controls alterations to common elements under the Condominium Act, § 47-7B-11, § 47-7C-2.¹⁵⁸⁷ For planned communities, the owner's lot, driveway, or assigned space is the installation site as defined and limited by the declaration and enforced under the Homeowner Association Act.¹⁰

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No 2026 New Mexico bill created or amended EV-charging rules for community associations.¹⁶

B. Recent appellate rulings

No New Mexico Court of Appeals or New Mexico Supreme Court opinion issued in the past thirty-six months squarely addresses EV charging in a community association, condominium common-element or limited-common-element alterations, or a declaration-based limit on owner charging equipment.¹⁷ Trial-level disputes proceed through the New Mexico District Courts, with appeals to the New Mexico Court of Appeals, a single statewide intermediate court with no regional divisions, and discretionary review by the New Mexico Supreme Court.

C. Active legislative debates

There's no publicly identified active proposal that would create EV-charging rights or restrictions for New Mexico community associations; the 2025 and 2026 sessions produced no such measure.¹⁶

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

On EV charging, New Mexico belongs to the group of states with no EV-charging-specific statute, where the declaration controls, rather than the group with charging-station mandates. California voids association restrictions outright: Civil Code § 4745(a) makes void and unenforceable 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," and it deems a complete application approved if the association doesn't act within 60 days; Colorado imposes a comparable prohibition-on-bans rule, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8. New Mexico is nonetheless a comprehensive two-statute state, with condominiums under the Condominium Act and planned communities under the Homeowner Association Act, and it maintains an owner-protective solar-rights regime, even though it hasn't extended comparable treatment to EV charging. For a multi-state operator entering New Mexico, the practical implication is that charging-station intake should be run off each community's declaration and the correct governing statute, not off a California or Colorado template. This is a fast-moving area, and New Mexico's threshold status should be re-checked each quarter.

HOA Weekly's New Mexico EV Charging coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and courts act, and the threshold question of whether an EV-charging statute exists is re-verified each cycle. Federal incentives may affect installation economics: the IRS Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit, Section 30C, for a main-home charger equals 30 percent of the property cost up to a maximum of $1,000 per item for property placed in service between January 1, 2023 and June 30, 2026, after which the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 terminates it. No federal law mandates HOA EV charging access.

Footnotes

1. New Mexico Condominium Act, § 47-7A-1 to § 47-7D-20 NMSA 1978, and New Mexico Homeowner Association Act, § 47-16-1 to § 47-16-18 NMSA 1978 (New Mexico Statutes, nmonesource.com) ↩ ↩
2. New Mexico Homeowner Association Act, § 47-16-1 to § 47-16-18 NMSA 1978 (Laws 2013, ch. 122; effective July 1, 2013; no EV-charging provision) ↩ ↩ ↩
3. New Mexico Solar Rights Act, § 47-3-1 et seq. NMSA 1978 (notably § 47-3-4) ↩ ↩ ↩
4. HB 88, Electric Vehicle Charging Station Zoning Act, 2025 Regular Session (bill text, nmlegis.gov); Fiscal Impact Report at nmlegis.gov/Sessions/25%20Regular/firs/HB0088.PDF ↩ ↩
5. HB 88 legislative action history, 2025 Regular Session — introduced Jan. 13, 2025; action postponed indefinitely Jan. 23, 2025 (nmlegis.gov) ↩ ↩
6. Condominium Act applicability, § 47-7A-2 NMSA 1978 (effective May 19, 1982); Building Unit Ownership Act, § 47-7-1 et seq. NMSA 1978 ↩ ↩
7. Alterations of units, § 47-7B-11 NMSA 1978 ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
8. Limited common elements, § 47-7B-8 NMSA 1978 ↩ ↩
9. Powers of unit owners' association, § 47-7C-2 NMSA 1978; conveyance or encumbrance of common elements, § 47-7C-12 NMSA 1978 ↩ ↩
10. Duties of a homeowner association, § 47-16-6 NMSA 1978; enforcement of covenants and dispute resolution, § 47-16-18 NMSA 1978 ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
11. Applicability, § 47-16-15 NMSA 1978 (Homeowner Association Act does not apply to condominiums governed by the Condominium Act) ↩
12. New Mexico Nonprofit Corporation Act, § 53-8-1 et seq. NMSA 1978 ↩
13. Upkeep of condominium, § 47-7C-7 NMSA 1978 ↩
14. New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (utility regulation) ↩
15. Definitions (unit, common elements, limited common element), § 47-7A-3 NMSA 1978 ↩
16. New Mexico Legislature Bill Finder, 2025 and 2026 Regular Sessions (nmlegis.gov) ↩ ↩
17. New Mexico Court of Appeals opinions (coa.nmcourts.gov); no on-point EV-charging or common-element-alteration opinion, July 2023 to July 2026 ↩