North Dakota HOA EV Charging

Quick-Reference EV Charging Table

Section 47-04.1-16 was added by HB 1310 (2023) and governs condominiums under ch. 47-04.1 only; North Dakota has no comprehensive planned-community or HOA act, so a non-condominium association's authority over EV charging turns on the recorded declaration.

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

North Dakota has a detailed, owner-protective EV-charging statute for condominiums, N.D.C.C. § 47-04.1-16, that renders void and unenforceable any covenant, restriction, condition, or bylaw that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts the installation or use of an electric vehicle charging station in an owner's unit or a designated parking space.¹ The section sits within the North Dakota Condominium Ownership Act, N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1, and was added by House Bill 1310 during the 2023 regular session of the 68th Legislative Assembly.²

The statute's reach is the single most important fact about it: it governs condominiums organized under ch. 47-04.1 only. North Dakota has no comprehensive planned-community or homeowners' association act, so a non-condominium association's authority over EV charging turns on its recorded declaration rather than on this section.³

Even in a condominium, the association retains meaningful authority. It may impose reasonable restrictions on the number, size, location, and manner of an installation, require compliance with its architectural standards, require a licensed contractor and code-compliant work, require insurance naming the association as an additional insured, and place the costs of installation, electricity, maintenance, and repair on the owner.¹ North Dakota therefore sits among the right-to-charge states for condominiums, with a defined approval timeline and a civil penalty, while leaving other community types to their governing documents. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the operational rules, and the recent legislative and judicial record.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. N.D.C.C. § 47-04.1-16

Section 47-04.1-16, titled "Electric vehicle charging station installation — Penalty," is a section of the North Dakota Condominium Ownership Act, N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1.¹ It was created by HB 1310, which the 68th Legislative Assembly passed and Governor Doug Burgum signed on April 27, 2023, with the enrolled bill filed with the Secretary of State on April 28, 2023; the bill's title states that it enacts "a new section to chapter 47-04.1 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to electric vehicle charging station installation in condominiums; and to provide a penalty."² As a law enacted during a regular session without an emergency clause, it took effect August 1, 2023, and this page reflects the current operative text.⁴

The core rule is in subsection 2. Any covenant, restriction, or condition in a deed, contract, security instrument, or other instrument affecting the transfer or sale of an interest in the property, or any bylaw, that either effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts the installation or use of a charging station within an owner's unit or in a designated parking space — a deeded space, a space in the owner's limited common area, or a space specifically designated for that owner — or that conflicts with the section, is void and unenforceable. The subsection expressly doesn't apply to a bylaw imposing reasonable restrictions.¹

"Reasonable restrictions" is defined in subsection 1(b) as restrictions on the number, size, location, and manner of placement or installation on the common or limited common area that don't significantly increase the cost of the station or significantly decrease its efficiency or specified performance.¹

Subsection 3 sets the approval mechanics. A station must meet all applicable health and safety standards. If approval is required, the application must be processed by the administrative body governing the condominium and may not be willfully avoided or delayed, and approval or denial must be in writing. If an application isn't denied in writing within sixty days of receipt, it's deemed approved, unless the delay results from a reasonable request for additional information.¹

Subsection 4(a) governs installation in a limited common area. The association shall approve the installation if the owner agrees in writing to comply with the association's architectural standards, engage a licensed contractor, provide within fourteen days of approval a certificate of insurance naming the association as an additional insured, pay the installation and electricity costs, and comply with other reasonable regulations.¹ Subsection 4(b) places on the owner and each successive owner the costs of damage, maintenance, repair, replacement, electricity, restoration of the common area after removal, other costs that may arise, and disclosure to prospective buyers of the station and the related responsibilities. Subsections 4(c) and 4(d) require a liability policy not to exceed the value of a typical condominium owner's policy, with a certificate provided within fourteen days of approval and annually thereafter, and provide that no such policy may be required for an existing NEMA-standard alternating-current power plug.¹

The section also gives the association options and defenses. Under subsection 4(f), it may deny an installation based on bona fide safety requirements consistent with an applicable building code or recognized safety standard. Under subsection 5, if installation in the owner's designated space is impossible or unreasonably expensive, the association may authorize a station for the owner's exclusive use in a common area by license agreement. Under subsection 6, it may install a shared station in a common area for all members, and under subsection 7 it may create a new parking space to facilitate an installation.¹ Finally, subsection 8 provides that an association that willfully violates the section is liable for actual damages and a civil penalty to the applicant not to exceed one thousand dollars, and subsection 9 requires the installing owner to indemnify the association, including reasonable attorney's fees, for claims arising out of the station.¹

2B. How the rest of the Condominium Ownership Act bears on EV charging, and the limit of the statute

Section 47-04.1-16 operates against the backdrop of the association's general authority. Under § 47-04.1-07, unit owners or their administrative body provide for administration through recorded bylaws covering maintenance of common and limited common elements, assessments, and similar matters, and § 47-04.1-08 requires each owner to comply strictly with the bylaws, rules, and recorded covenants.⁵ Those provisions supply the ordinary rulemaking and enforcement machinery, and § 47-04.1-16 layers a specific, owner-protective overlay on top of it for charging stations. An association may still adopt reasonable regulations and architectural standards and enforce them, but only to the extent they don't cross into an effective prohibition or unreasonable restriction.¹

Where a governing document and § 47-04.1-16 would conflict on EV charging in a condominium, the statute controls: subsection 2 voids any conflicting covenant, condition, or bylaw, so a board can't rely on older declaration language to defeat a compliant request.¹

The limit is jurisdictional. Section 47-04.1-16 reaches condominiums organized under ch. 47-04.1 and no further. North Dakota hasn't enacted a comprehensive planned-community or homeowners' association statute, so the section doesn't protect owners in non-condominium associations, and for those communities the recorded declaration is the operative rulebook.³ This is the central scope point on the page: the strong statutory right to charge is a condominium right, not a general HOA right, in North Dakota.

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

For a non-condominium association, no state statute governs EV charging, so the recorded declaration and any architectural or design-review provisions are the operative authority, together with general contract and property law.³ A board and an owner in such a community must read the declaration itself; whether charging may be limited or conditioned depends on its terms, not on § 47-04.1-16.

For a condominium, the order of precedence runs from the non-variable provisions of ch. 47-04.1, including § 47-04.1-16, to the recorded declaration and bylaws where consistent with the statute, and then to rules and regulations adopted under that authority.¹

Most North Dakota community associations, whether condominium or not, are incorporated as nonprofit corporations under the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act, N.D.C.C. ch. 10-33, which supplies corporate-formality scaffolding such as board action, meetings, notice, and recordkeeping.⁶ That act creates no EV-specific authority; it governs how the association acts as a corporation, not what it may decide about charging stations. Where the statute and the governing documents are silent, common-law contract and property doctrine fills the gaps.

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

A. Installation rights and prohibitions

For condominiums, the association may not enforce any covenant, condition, or bylaw that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts the installation or use of a charging station within an owner's unit or in a designated parking space; such provisions are void and unenforceable under § 47-04.1-16(2).¹ The line runs between a reasonable restriction, which is allowed, and an effective prohibition, which isn't: a rule that significantly increases cost or significantly decreases efficiency or performance isn't a permitted reasonable restriction under § 47-04.1-16(1)(b).¹ For a non-condominium association, whether installation may be prohibited is governed by the declaration, because no statute constrains it.³

B. Conditions an association may impose

For condominiums, the association may require compliance with its architectural standards, a licensed contractor, and applicable health and safety standards under § 47-04.1-16(3) and (4)(a).¹ It may require a liability policy naming the association as additional insured with a certificate within fourteen days of approval and annually, subject to the exception that no policy may be required for an existing NEMA-standard AC power plug, and the owner must indemnify the association under § 47-04.1-16(4)(c), (d), and (9).¹ It may impose reasonable regulations on number, size, location, and manner that don't significantly increase cost or decrease efficiency under § 47-04.1-16(1)(b).¹ An application not denied in writing within sixty days is deemed approved, so a timely denial must be written and issued within the clock, absent a reasonable request for more information, under § 47-04.1-16(3).¹ The association may also deny an installation on bona fide safety grounds consistent with a building code or recognized safety standard under § 47-04.1-16(4)(f).¹ For a non-condominium association, these conditions are set by the declaration.³

C. Cost, metering, and maintenance allocation

For condominiums, the owner and each successive owner bear the costs of installation, electricity, maintenance, repair, replacement, and resulting damage under § 47-04.1-16(4)(a)(4) and (b).¹ The owner is also responsible for restoring the common area after the station is removed under § 47-04.1-16(4)(b)(2).¹ On the utility side, the North Dakota Public Service Commission regulates public utilities; an owner charging a personal vehicle on a private or submetered connection generally isn't reselling utility service, so owner-side residential charging generally isn't a matter of utility-resale regulation. For a non-condominium association, cost and maintenance allocation is governed by the declaration.³

D. Where the station may be installed

For condominiums, a station may be installed in the owner's unit or in a designated parking space, meaning a deeded space, a space in the owner's limited common area, or a space specifically designated for that owner, under § 47-04.1-16(2).¹ If installation in the owner's designated space is impossible or unreasonably expensive, the association may authorize a station for the owner's exclusive use in a common area by license under § 47-04.1-16(5); it may install a shared station in a common area under § 47-04.1-16(6); and it may create a new parking space to facilitate an installation under § 47-04.1-16(7).¹ For a non-condominium association, permitted locations are governed by the declaration.³

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

The 2025 regular session of the 69th Legislative Assembly convened January 7, 2025, and adjourned May 3, 2025; a review of the chapter file and session record shows no bill in that session amended, renumbered, or repealed § 47-04.1-16, and the 2026 special session didn't alter it. The 2023 text remains operative.¹

B. Recent North Dakota Supreme Court rulings

No North Dakota Supreme Court opinion in the past 36 months addresses EV charging, § 47-04.1-16, or a condominium dispute over installation of owner equipment or alteration of common elements. In North Dakota, civil disputes proceed in the District Courts and are appealed directly to the North Dakota Supreme Court; there's no standing intermediate appellate court, and the Temporary Court of Appeals, N.D.C.C. ch. 27-02.1 and Supreme Court Administrative Rule 27, hears only matters the Supreme Court assigns to it and is rarely convened.⁷ The district court dispute that prompted HB 1310, between Dana Woodruff and the Elm Terrace Condominium Association in Fargo over a submeter for her Tesla Model 3, was resolved without a North Dakota Supreme Court opinion; Woodruff had been ordered to remove her charging station and garage heater and pay a bill of $3,250.80 before the matter drove the legislation, which Rep. Josh Boschee of Fargo introduced.⁸

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal to amend § 47-04.1-16 or to extend EV-charging rules to non-condominium associations has been identified. North Dakota's Legislative Assembly meets biennially in odd-numbered years, and the next regular session, the 70th Legislative Assembly, convenes in January 2027.²

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

North Dakota sits in the group of right-to-charge states, alongside California, Civil Code § 4745, and Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8, but its protection reaches condominiums only, not non-condominium associations.⁹ Nationally, three broad categories exist: mandate states that void effective prohibitions on charging, including California, Colorado, and North Dakota for condominiums, among others; states that address charging more narrowly; and states with no EV-charging statute where the declaration controls. Within the mandate group only a small set — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Oregon, and the District of Columbia — extends protection to renters as well as owners, while most, including North Dakota, protect owner or condominium installations.⁹ For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is that in North Dakota condominium owners hold strong statutory installation rights while owners in non-condominium associations do not, so the community type drives the analysis. This is a fast-moving area, and North Dakota's statute should be re-checked each quarter.

HOA Weekly's North Dakota EV Charging coverage updates quarterly as the Legislative Assembly and the North Dakota Supreme Court act, and § 47-04.1-16 is re-verified against current text each cycle. Federal incentives may affect installation economics, but no federal law mandates HOA EV charging access.

Footnotes

1. N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1 (Condominium Ownership of Real Property), § 47-04.1-16, current chapter text via ndlegis.gov ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
2. HB 1310 Overview, 68th Legislative Assembly (2023), ndlegis.gov (status "Governor signed"; filed with Secretary of State 04/28) ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
3. N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1 section list, ndlegis.gov (condominium act scope) ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
4. Effective Dates of 2023 Legislation, ndlegis.gov (regular-session laws effective August 1) ↩ ↩
5. N.D.C.C. §§ 47-04.1-07, 47-04.1-08, ndlegis.gov ↩
6. N.D.C.C. ch. 10-33 (Nonprofit Corporations), ndlegis.gov ↩
7. North Dakota Supreme Court Administrative Rule 27 (Court of Appeals); N.D.C.C. ch. 27-02.1, ndcourts.gov ↩
8. "Fargo woman takes condo association to court over power bill for electric vehicle, inspires new law," InForum (C.S. Hagen) ↩
9. Plug In America, "Right-To-Charge Policies" (state-by-state scope, including owner-only versus owner-and-renter protection) ↩ ↩