An Owner Sent an EV Charger Request: What Your BC Strata Council Needs to Do

You're reading through council email on a Sunday night when it arrives: an owner wants to install an EV charger in the parkade. The email is long, mentions "section 90.1," and politely but firmly asks for council's approval. Two other council members have already replied-all with different opinions. Your property manager hasn't weighed in. Nobody is sure what the rules are.

Here's what you need to know: under the amended Strata Property Act, owners in BC have a legal right to request EV charger installations, and your council must not unreasonably refuse. You have 3 months from receiving the request to make a decision. The process is spelled out clearly in the legislation, and if you follow it, this doesn't have to be a fight.

When can owners actually make this request?

The right to request an EV charger under section 90.1 of the Strata Property Act doesn't exist in a vacuum. It activates based on your strata's Electrical Planning Report (EPR) status.

There are three triggers, and only one needs to apply:

1. Your strata has completed its EPR. The moment the report is done, owners can submit requests. This is the intended path.
2. Your EPR deadline has passed, even if you haven't done the EPR. For stratas with 5 or more lots in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, or the Capital Regional District, that deadline is December 31, 2026. For the rest of BC, it's December 31, 2028. Miss the deadline, and section 90.1 activates anyway.
3. Your strata has fewer than 5 lots. Small stratas aren't required to get an EPR, but the owner request right still kicks in on December 31, 2026 regardless (Reg 5.4).

That second trigger is the one councils miss. Some think that skipping the EPR means they can also skip dealing with owner requests. The opposite is true. If your strata hasn't completed its EPR by the deadline, owners gain the right to request charger installations and your council has no EPR data to evaluate those requests intelligently. You're flying blind.

If your strata hasn't started its EPR yet, read Your Strata's EPR Deadline Is December 31, 2026 for a full breakdown of timelines and costs.

What does a valid owner request need to include?

Not every email from an owner counts as a formal request under section 90.1. The legislation sets out 7 specific items the owner must provide (Reg 5.3). If any are missing, the request isn't complete, and your 3-month clock hasn't started.

Here's the full checklist:

1. The owner's contact information and strata lot number (Reg 5.3(a)). You need to know who is asking and which unit they own.
2. A description of the proposed EV charging infrastructure (Reg 5.3(b)). Not just "I want a charger." They need to specify what kind of charger, what voltage, what amperage.
3. The proposed location of the infrastructure (Reg 5.3(c)). Where exactly in the parkade or common property is the charger going? Which wall, which conduit path?
4. The number or location of the parking stall where the charger would be used (Reg 5.3(d)). This ties the request to a specific stall.
5. The name and contact information of a qualified contractor (Reg 5.3(e)). The owner needs to have already identified a licensed electrical contractor. Not a handyman. Not their brother-in-law. A licensed contractor.
6. A description of the work required, prepared by that qualified contractor (Reg 5.3(f)). The contractor writes this, not the owner. It should describe the electrical work: conduit runs, panel connections, load requirements.
7. A cost and time estimate, prepared by the qualified contractor (Reg 5.3(g)). Again, the contractor prepares this. It covers both the cost of the installation and how long the work will take.

Count those carefully. Items 5, 6, and 7 all require a qualified contractor's involvement before the request is even submitted. This is by design. The legislation doesn't want councils evaluating vague proposals. It wants councils reviewing a specific, costed, contractor-backed plan.

If an owner sends you an email that says "I want to install an EV charger, please approve," that's not a valid section 90.1 request. You can (and should) write back with a friendly response pointing to all 7 requirements. You're not refusing their request. You're telling them what the legislation says they need to provide before council can formally consider it.

The owner EV charger request form included in the StrataEV Ready roadmap package covers all 7 regulatory requirements, so owners can submit a complete request without guessing at what's needed.

How long does council have to respond?

Three months. That's it.

Under section 90.2(6) of the Strata Property Act, read together with Reg 5.6, your council has 3 months from the date it receives a complete request to make a decision. Not 3 months to start thinking about it. Three months to decide and communicate that decision to the owner.

In practice, that timeline is tighter than it sounds. A typical council meeting cycle is monthly. So you get maybe two or three council meetings to discuss the request, review the contractor's proposal, check compatibility with existing infrastructure, and vote. If your strata only meets quarterly, you might get one meeting.

Here's a rough timeline for a 60-unit condo in Burnaby or New Westminster:

• Week 1: Request arrives. Confirm it includes all 7 items. If incomplete, respond immediately and ask for the missing pieces. (The 3-month clock doesn't start until the request is complete.)
• Weeks 2 to 4: Add to the next council meeting agenda. Review the contractor's proposal against the 4 review criteria (more on those below). If you have an EPR, check it against the building's electrical capacity data.
• Weeks 4 to 8: If conditions are needed, draft them. Get council agreement on the conditions. If there's a compatibility concern, document it specifically.
• By week 12: Communicate approval (with or without conditions) or denial (with documented reasons) to the owner in writing.

Do not let this sit in someone's inbox. Calendar the 3-month deadline the day the request arrives.

What can council say yes or no to?

This is where it gets specific. Section 90.2(3) of the Strata Property Act gives your council 4 criteria to consider when reviewing a request:

• Compatibility with existing EV charging infrastructure (s.90.2(3)(a)(i)). If your building already has chargers, is the proposed equipment compatible? Does it use the same connector standard, the same load management system?
• Compatibility with other planned EV charging infrastructure (s.90.2(3)(a)(ii)). If your strata has an EV Ready Plan or is planning building-wide charging, the owner's individual request should fit within that plan.
• Compatibility with any electricity management system (s.90.2(3)(a)(iii)). If your building uses or plans to use load management (the kind of system that balances power across multiple chargers), the proposed charger needs to work with it.
• Electrical capacity and current and anticipated demands (s.90.2(3)(b)). Does your building's electrical system have enough capacity for another charger without overloading the panel or tripping the main breaker? This is where the EPR data is worth its weight in gold.

But here is the line that matters most: section 90.2(4) says the strata "must not unreasonably refuse" to approve a request. Those four criteria inform your decision, but they don't give you automatic grounds to say no. You need to show that your refusal is reasonable, based on real evidence, not just a general feeling that "we're not ready for EV chargers."

If your building has 200 amps of spare capacity and the owner wants a 40-amp charger, saying no because "we might need that capacity someday" is going to be hard to defend. If your building is already at 95% electrical capacity and the EPR confirms there's no room, that's a reasonable refusal, and you have documentation to prove it.

Councils that don't have an EPR are at a disadvantage here. Without the electrical capacity data from an EPR, you're guessing. And "we guessed that we didn't have enough capacity" is not a strong position if the owner takes it to the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

What conditions can council attach to an approval?

Approving the request doesn't mean you hand over the keys and walk away. Section 90.2(5) of the Strata Property Act lets your council require the owner to agree, in writing, to reasonable conditions.

The legislation names three specific types of conditions:

You can require pre-approval of the specifics (s.90.2(5)(a)). Even after approving the request in principle, council can require the owner to get final sign-off on the exact charger model, the contractor, and the materials before work begins. This means you can say "yes, you can install a charger, but we need to approve the specific equipment and installer first." For a townhouse complex in Langley where one wrong installation could affect the whole row, this matters.

You can require future modification or replacement (s.90.2(5)(b)). If the strata later installs building-wide EV charging infrastructure for all owners, the individual owner must agree to modify or replace their charger to be compatible. This protects the strata's long-term planning. You're saying "yes now, but if we go building-wide in three years, your equipment needs to fit the new system."

Joint and several liability for shared installations (s.90.2(5)(c)). If two or more owners are requesting a shared installation, you can require them to accept joint and several liability for the costs and any issues. So if Owner A and Owner B split an installation and Owner B sells their unit, Owner A is still on the hook.

Beyond the conditions in section 90.2(5), here are the cost rules under section 90.3:

The owner pays all costs unless the strata and the owner agree otherwise (s.90.3(1)(b)). If the strata does the installation work on behalf of the owner, the owner must pay an amount sufficient to cover all expenses in advance (s.90.3(2)(a)). And if the strata collects more than the actual cost, it must refund the difference (s.90.3(3)).

So when a council member asks "who pays for this?" the answer is clear. The owner. Unless you negotiate a different arrangement.

One more thing councils often miss: under Reg 5.101, council can grant the owner exclusive use of a common property parking stall for up to 5 years for EV charging purposes. This only applies to stalls that are common property (not limited common property already assigned to the owner). It requires a majority vote, which Bill 22 lowered from the old 3/4 threshold. If your building has unassigned visitor stalls in the parkade and an owner wants to install a charger there, this is the mechanism.

What does the tribunal say about getting this wrong?

The Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) has already weighed in on strata EV charging disputes. The most instructive case so far is Curtis v. The Owners, Strata Plan EPS4098 (2024 BCCRT 960).

In that case, a White Rock strata imposed a flat $35/month user fee on owners who charged an EV in their parking stall. One owner challenged it. The strata claimed the $35 reflected "average EV usage" but provided zero documentation to support that number. The owner had calculated his own usage at about 6,000 km/year and proposed $14/month instead.

The tribunal struck down the fee. The strata was ordered to stop enforcing it and reimburse the owner for everything he'd paid. The tribunal's reasoning: you can charge a fee, but you need a "coherent, empirical rationale" backed by documented evidence. You can't just pick a number.

What does this mean for your council's handling of owner requests?

It means document everything. If you approve with conditions, put those conditions in writing. If you deny, put the specific reasons in writing, tied to the review criteria in section 90.2(3). If you set a user fee for electricity, show your math.

The pattern from the tribunal is clear: stratas that act reasonably and document their decisions are protected. Stratas that act on gut instinct or general resistance get overturned.

What should your council do right now?

If you've received an owner request, or expect to receive one soon, here's your action list:

• Confirm the request includes all 7 items from Reg 5.3. If it's incomplete, reply within a week pointing to the specific missing elements.
• Calendar the 3-month deadline. Non-negotiable.
• Pull your EPR data (or start the EPR if you haven't). You need electrical capacity numbers to evaluate the request properly. If your EPR deadline is approaching, see our EPR deadline guide for cost ranges and next steps.
• Draft your conditions in advance. Don't wait until the last council meeting. Have your written conditions agreement ready.
• Vote by majority. Under Bill 22, EV-related changes to common property only need a majority vote (SPA s.71(b)), not 3/4. Same for CRF expenditures related to EV charging (SPA s.96(b)(i)(A)(IV)). This is a lower bar than most other common property decisions.
• Put the decision in writing. Approval with conditions, or denial with specific documented reasons tied to the section 90.2(3) criteria.

Your strata will get more of these requests. One in four new cars sold in BC is expected to be electric in 2026. The question isn't whether an owner will ask. It's whether your council will be ready when they do.

Take the free compliance check to see your strata's EPR status, deadline, and what rebates you qualify for. It takes 5 minutes.

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice specific to your strata, consult a strata lawyer or your property manager.