Vermont HOA EV Charging

Quick-Reference EV Charging Table

Pre-existing communities: § 3-125 reaches common interest communities containing 12 or more residential units created on or before January 1, 2011, which includes pre-1999 condominiums otherwise governed by 27 V.S.A. ch. 15, but only for events and circumstances occurring after June 30, 2026, and it does not invalidate existing declaration, bylaw, plat, or plan provisions.¹

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

Vermont now has an EV-charging statute. Effective July 1, 2026, 27A V.S.A. § 3-125 makes void and unenforceable any covenant or rule that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts a unit owner's installation of electric vehicle supply equipment, EVSE, in a unit, a limited common element, or the owner's exclusively designated parking space.² Vermont enacted the section through H.944, "An act relating to the fiscal year 2027 Transportation Program and miscellaneous changes to laws related to transportation," signed by Governor Phil Scott on June 18, 2026 as Act 168 of 2026.³ This reverses the older status quo in which no Vermont statute addressed EV charging in community associations. The predecessor right-to-charge bill, S.271, 2023-2024, died in committee without being reported to the floor;⁴ its policy re-emerged in the 2025-2026 biennium and was enacted as part of H.944.

Associations retain meaningful control. The statute expressly permits reasonable restrictions, requires a licensed electrician and code compliance, routes applications through architectural review with a 90-day deemed-approval clock, puts installation, electricity, maintenance, and removal costs on the owner, and lets the board assess infrastructure-upgrade costs against benefitting owners. Vermont's version is more association-friendly than California's: it defines "reasonable restriction," adds a cost-allocation tool, and omits the attorney-fee and civil-penalty provisions found in the California model.

Until July 1, 2026, an owner's ability to install EVSE was governed entirely by the recorded declaration and VCIOA's general common-element provisions. Act 168 of 2026 changed that by adding a statutory floor that bars blanket prohibitions while leaving associations broad authority to regulate the manner, cost allocation, and safety of installations. The practical center of gravity remains the same question it always was, where the equipment sits and who controls that space, but the statute now resolves the hardest part of that question in the owner's favor for EVSE specifically: installation is deemed not to be a reallocation of a common element and doesn't trigger the owner-consent requirement that would otherwise apply.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. EV-charging-specific law in Vermont

Vermont's EV-charging-specific law for community associations is 27A V.S.A. § 3-125, "Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment," added to the VCIOA by H.944 and signed as Act 168 of 2026 on June 18, 2026, effective July 1, 2026.² The section makes void and unenforceable any covenant, restriction, condition, or governing-document provision that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts the installation of EVSE within a unit, a limited common element, or the owner's exclusively designated parking space, or the noncommercial use of that EVSE.² It declares a state policy to promote, encourage, and remove obstacles to home charging. The statute preserves an association's power to impose reasonable restrictions, defined in § 3-125(a)(4) as a restriction "that does not significantly increase the cost of the EVSE or significantly decrease the efficiency or specified performance of the EVSE."²

The enacted text is materially narrower than the bill as introduced. The original right-to-charge language, drawn from the California Civil Code § 4745 model, was carried in the standalone bill S.270 and in S.328, then folded into H.944 during the session; the Community Associations Institute's Vermont Legislative Action Committee reported working with lawmakers "on compromise language which aligned more closely with CAI's Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Public Policy," so that the enacted bill "allows for associations to reasonably restrict electric vehicle charging stations and allocate the cost attributable to them to those benefitting."¹³ The Vermont statute doesn't contain the attorney-fee-shifting or civil-penalty provisions found in the California model. Because § 3-125 was signed on June 18, 2026 and took effect July 1, 2026, it's operative but untested in the Vermont courts.

2B. How VCIOA's general provisions bear on EV charging

VCIOA is based on the 1994 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act and is a single comprehensive act covering condominiums, cooperatives, and planned communities under the "common interest community" concept.⁵ By its scope provision, it applies to all condominiums created after January 1, 1999 and to other common interest communities containing 12 or more residential units created after that date, with small-community and pre-existing-community exceptions.⁶ Section 3-125 now sits inside this framework and interacts with the general provisions that predate it.

Two general rules frame every installation. First, a unit owner may make improvements or alterations within the owner's unit that don't impair structural integrity, mechanical systems, or support, but may not change the appearance of the common elements or the exterior of a unit without association permission, 27A V.S.A. § 2-111.⁷ Second, limited common elements, including assigned parking, are allocated by the declaration, and that allocation generally can't be altered without the consent of the affected owners, 27A V.S.A. § 2-108.⁸ The association holds broad powers over common elements, including rulemaking and the authority to adopt and enforce construction, design, and aesthetic standards, 27A V.S.A. § 3-102.⁹ Section 3-125 modifies these defaults for EVSE specifically: it provides that installing EVSE isn't a division or reallocation of a common element and doesn't alter allocated interests, removing the § 2-108 consent obstacle for a charging installation.² For pre-1999 condominiums governed by 27 V.S.A. ch. 15, § 1-204 extends § 3-125 to communities of 12 or more residential units for events after June 30, 2026.¹

2C. The role of CC&Rs, architectural review, and corporate law

Even with a statute in place, the recorded declaration remains the operative rulebook for everything § 3-125 doesn't address. Section 3-125 routes an EVSE application through the association's ordinary architectural-modification process, so architectural and design review is the mechanism most associations will use to evaluate a charging request, subject to the statutory ban on prohibitions and unreasonable restrictions.² The order of precedence runs from VCIOA's non-variable provisions, to VCIOA defaults as modified by the declaration, to the declaration, to the bylaws, to the rules.¹⁰ Associations incorporated as nonprofits are also subject to the Vermont Nonprofit Corporation Act, 11B V.S.A., for corporate-formality matters such as board action and meeting notice; that act supplies governance scaffolding, not EV-specific authority.¹¹ Where the declaration and § 3-125 are both silent, common-law contract and property doctrine controls.

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

A. Installation rights and prohibitions

An association may not prohibit an owner from installing EVSE in the owner's unit, a limited common element, or an exclusively designated parking space; a governing-document provision that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts such installation is void and unenforceable under § 3-125(b), for VCIOA communities and, extended to pre-1999 condominiums of 12 or more residential units, by § 1-204.² The line the statute draws is between prohibiting installation, which is barred, and conditioning it, which is allowed within limits. This is a change from the pre-July 2026 regime, in which the declaration alone controlled.

B. Conditions an association may impose

An association may require compliance with applicable building codes and health and safety laws, installation by a licensed electrician, and compliance with reasonable architectural standards governing dimensions, placement, and external appearance, provided those standards don't prohibit installation or substantially increase its cost, § 3-125(c).² It may require the owner to reimburse the actual increase in the association's insurance premium attributable to EVSE placed in a common or limited common element, payable within 14 days of invoice, § 3-125(c)(4).² The ceiling on conditions is the statutory "reasonable restriction" standard: a restriction may not significantly increase the cost or significantly decrease the efficiency or specified performance of the equipment, § 3-125(a)(4).²

C. Cost, metering, and maintenance allocation

The owner and each successive EVSE owner bear the cost of installation, the cost of electricity, and the cost of maintenance, repair, replacement, and any damage to the EVSE or to a common or limited common element, plus removal and restoration, § 3-125(f).² Where the board determines that cumulative EVSE use requires infrastructure improvements to supply sufficient electricity, it may assess the cost of those improvements against the units of the owners who have installed or will install EVSE, notwithstanding contrary governing-document provisions, § 3-125(d).² The statute doesn't mandate separate submetering; it requires only that the owner bear electricity cost. An owner charging a personal vehicle on a private meter isn't reselling utility service, and Vermont law provides that a person supplying electricity exclusively to charge plug-in electric vehicles isn't treated as a regulated electric distribution utility, 30 V.S.A. § 203,¹² so the Vermont Public Utility Commission's utility-resale jurisdiction is generally not implicated for owner-side residential charging.

D. Where the station may be installed

The permitted locations are the separate interest, the unit, including an attached garage defined as part of the unit, a limited common element such as assigned parking, and the owner's exclusively designated parking space, § 3-125(b)(1).² Ordinarily the association controls alterations to common elements, including limited ones, and reallocation of a limited common element requires owner consent under § 2-108.⁸ Section 3-125 changes that calculus for EVSE by providing that installation isn't a division or reallocation of a common element and doesn't alter allocated interests.²

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Senate Bill S.328, "An act relating to housing and common interest communities," 2025-2026, initially would have voided covenants restricting EVSE installation and several other uses, but the Senate committee removed most community-association provisions; the enacted act, Act 179 of 2026, effective July 1, 2026, directs the Office of Legislative Counsel to study common interest community flexibility and report by November 15, 2026.¹⁴

B. Recent Vermont Supreme Court rulings

No Vermont Supreme Court decision within the past 36 months addresses EV charging or 27A V.S.A. § 3-125, which took effect only on July 1, 2026. HOA civil disputes in Vermont proceed through the Civil Division of the Vermont Superior Court, and appeals go directly to the Vermont Supreme Court, which has no intermediate appellate court beneath it.¹⁵ The leading Vermont precedent on the boundary between units and common elements, though older than the review window, is set out below.

C. Active legislative debates

Two studies are pending: the Office of Legislative Counsel review of common interest community flexibility directed by Act 179, due November 15, 2026, and a Current Electric Vehicle Charger Regulation Working Group report on charger regulation, due December 15, 2026, either of which could prompt follow-on legislation refining § 3-125.¹⁴

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

With the July 2026 enactment of 27A V.S.A. § 3-125, Vermont moved from the majority of states, where the declaration controls EV charging, into the smaller group that limits association prohibitions. It now resembles mandate states such as California, Civil Code § 4745, and Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8, which void governing-document provisions that prohibit or unreasonably restrict owner charging.¹⁷ Vermont's version is more association-friendly: it defines "reasonable restriction," adds an infrastructure-cost-allocation tool, and omits the provisions of California Civil Code § 4745(j)-(k), under which an association that willfully violates the section is liable for actual damages and a civil penalty up to $1,000 and a prevailing plaintiff homeowner is awarded reasonable attorney's fees.¹⁸ For a multi-state operator entering Vermont from a mandate state, the owner-protective posture will feel familiar, but the specific deadlines, cost rules, and the absence of fee-shifting differ and must be read against Vermont's text. This is a fast-moving area; Vermont considered right-to-charge legislation across two biennia before enacting it, and its status should be re-checked each quarter.

HOA Weekly's Vermont EV Charging coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and Vermont Supreme Court act, and the threshold question of whether a statute exists is re-verified each cycle. Federal incentives may affect installation economics; per the IRS Instructions for Form 8911, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, P.L. 119-21, changed the termination date for the Section 30C alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit from December 31, 2032 to June 30, 2026,¹⁹ and no federal law mandates HOA EV-charging access.

Footnotes

1. 27A V.S.A. § 1-204 (preexisting common interest communities), as amended by H.944 (Act 168 of 2026); Vermont Statutes Online, Title 27A, Chapter 1 ↩ ↩
2. 27A V.S.A. § 3-125, Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, added by 2026 Acts and Resolves No. 168 (H.944); enacted text at Vermont General Assembly, Bill Status H.944 ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
3. Office of Governor Phil Scott, Action Taken on Legislation, June 18, 2026 (H.944 signed) ↩ ↩
4. Vermont General Assembly, Bill Status S.271 (2023-2024), An act relating to a right to charge electric vehicles at home ↩ ↩
5. Vermont Statutes Online, Title 27A (Vermont Common Interest Ownership Act), Chapter 1 ↩
6. 27A V.S.A. § 1-102 (applicability); Vermont Statutes Online, Title 27A, Chapter 1 ↩
7. 27A V.S.A. § 2-111 (alterations of units); Vermont Statutes Online, Title 27A, Chapter 2 ↩
8. 27A V.S.A. § 2-108 (limited common elements); Vermont Statutes Online, Title 27A, Chapter 2 ↩ ↩
9. 27A V.S.A. § 3-102 (powers of unit owners' association); Vermont Statutes Online, Title 27A, Chapter 3 ↩
10. 27A V.S.A. § 1-104 (variation by agreement); Vermont Statutes Online, Title 27A, Chapter 1 ↩
11. Vermont Statutes Online, Title 11B (Nonprofit Corporations) ↩
12. 30 V.S.A. § 203(7) (Public Utility Commission jurisdiction; EVSE exclusion); Vermont Statutes Online, 30 V.S.A. § 203 ↩
13. Community Associations Institute, 2026 Vermont End of Legislative Session Report ↩ ↩
14. Vermont General Assembly, Bill Status S.328 (Act 179), An act relating to housing and common interest communities ↩ ↩
15. Vermont Judiciary, Court Divisions (Superior Court Civil Division; appeals to the Vermont Supreme Court) ↩
16. Watson v. Village at Northshore I Ass'n, Inc., 2018 VT 8 (Vermont Supreme Court opinion) ↩
17. California Civil Code § 4745 ↩
18. California Civil Code § 4745(b)(2), (j)-(k) (reasonable-restriction definition; civil penalty and attorney-fee provisions) ↩
19. IRS, Instructions for Form 8911, Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (Section 30C) ↩