Installing an EV Charger at Your Ontario Condo Parking Spot: The Four Documents That Carry Your Request

Ontario’s condo regulation turns an EV charger request into a paper trail: an application, the board’s written reply, an installation agreement, and a registration on your unit’s title. Each one has rules about what it must say.

I’m Arthur Zhao, a Toronto real estate Broker. The car is already in your parking spot. An electrician has walked the garage, looked at the electrical room, and handed you a quote. Now you are sitting at the kitchen table with a blank page addressed to your condo corporation, and the question is simple: what do I actually write?

It is tempting to treat this as a polite request and hope the board is in a good mood. Ontario’s condo regulation does not work that way. Since O. Reg. 114/18 added sections 24.1 to 24.7 to O. Reg. 48/01, an owner’s EV charger request has run on its own track, with a defined list of what the letter must contain, a deadline for the board’s answer, and a short list of reasons the board is allowed to say no. Under s.24.1, those sections are deemed to be part of every corporation’s declaration, and no board can approve amending or repealing them.

The cleanest way to understand the process is to follow the paper. There are four documents: your application, the board’s reply, the installation agreement, and the registration of that agreement on your unit’s title. If you know what each one has to say, you will know where you stand at every step.

Why this is a regulated application, not a favour

Normally, an owner who wants to change the common elements goes through s.98 of the Condominium Act, 1998. That section starts with the board approving the change by resolution, followed by a cost-allocation agreement. The board decides whether to pass that resolution.

EV chargers have a separate route. Under O. Reg. 48/01, s.24.4(2), an owner and the corporation are exempt from s.98 for an electric vehicle charging system if all or part of the system is on the property, the owner makes the installation, and it is carried out under ss.24.5 and 24.6. For this route, “installation” means any addition, alteration or improvement to the common elements that is necessary to set up the system (s.24.4(1)). An “electric vehicle charging system” is the electric vehicle supply equipment defined in Section 86 of the Electrical Safety Code, plus related equipment needed to supply power to the vehicle (s.24.2).

In practical terms: if your charger needs any work on the common elements to get power to your spot, this is the process that applies, and it is the one the rest of this article walks through.

Document 1: the application letter

Section 24.5(2) lists four requirements. The application must:

• be in writing;
• identify you and give your address for service for the application;
• be signed by you; and
• include drawings, specifications or information about the proposed installation, including its location, that are reasonably relevant to any professional report the corporation could obtain.

That last item is where your electrician’s work matters. The board can only reject on the strength of a professional report (more on that below), so the regulation asks you to give the corporation what such a professional would need to look at: where the charger goes, how power gets there, and what equipment is involved.

If you cannot complete the drawings without something from the building, ask in writing. Under s.24.5(4), the corporation must, as soon as reasonably possible, provide information, permission or authorization that you request in writing and that is reasonably required to meet the drawings-and-specifications requirement. Electrical room access or existing panel information may fall into that category; the regulation does not list examples, so frame the request around what your drawings need.

How to deliver it. Section 24.5(3) treats the application as properly delivered if it is sent by prepaid mail, courier, or put in the mailbox at the address for service of the corporation, its condominium management provider or manager, or another person responsible for managing the property (or an address the board has designated by resolution). Email or other electronic delivery counts only if the board has decided by resolution that it is an accepted method, or if you and the corporation agree in writing.

The electrical side of the letter

The professional report that could sink your application can rely on the Electrical Safety Code, so your drawings should be built around it. Under O. Reg. 164/99, s.1, the Electrical Safety Code is the CSA “Canadian Electrical Code Part 1, C22.1:24” as amended by the Electrical Safety Authority’s “Ontario Amendments to the Canadian Electrical Code Part 1, C22.1” dated June 12, 2024. Section 2 requires every act or omission in connection with the use of electricity in Ontario to comply with it.

The specific notification and inspection steps for your job are set by the Electrical Safety Authority’s processes rather than spelled out in that regulation. Before work starts, confirm with a licensed electrical contractor or the ESA what filings and inspections your installation needs.

Document 2: the board’s reply letter

According to O. Reg. 48/01 (2026), once the corporation receives an application that complies with s.24.5(2), the board must reply to you in writing within 60 days, or within another period you and the corporation agree to in writing (s.24.5(5)). If the board thinks your application is incomplete, it must tell you in writing, as soon as reasonably possible, why it does not comply (s.24.5(6)). If you withdraw the application in writing before the deadline, the board does not have to reply (s.24.5(7)).

When the reply arrives, read it for which of three answers it gives.

A rejection. Under s.24.5(8), the board may reject only if a report or opinion from a person whose profession lends credibility to it, obtained by the corporation, clearly states that the installation:

• will be contrary to an Act, regulation or by-law made under an Act, including the Electrical Safety Code, but not including anything in the corporation’s own declaration, by-laws or rules;
• will adversely affect the structural integrity of the corporation’s property or assets; or
• will pose a serious risk to an individual’s health and safety, or of damage to the corporation’s property or assets.

The report must set out its reasons (s.24.5(9)), and the rejection letter must say the application is rejected under s.24.5(8) and include a copy of that report (s.24.5(10)). The one carve-out: parts of the report that s.55(4) of the Act would let the corporation withhold from an owner’s records request can be left out (s.24.5(11)).

Not rejected, but a different manner or location. Under s.24.5(12), the board can require an alternative method or spot only if it would not cause you unreasonable additional costs, and only if it is necessary so that owners, viewed objectively, would not see the installation as materially reducing their use or enjoyment, or so the installation does not conflict with the declaration, by-laws, rules or certain agreements. Even here, a declaration provision that prohibits EV chargers generally on the property, or a by-law, rule or agreement that prohibits or unreasonably restricts them generally, does not count. The letter must say why and include drawings, specifications and information showing how the alternative is to be done (s.24.5(13)).

Not rejected, no changes. The letter must say so (s.24.5(14)).

And if no letter comes within the deadline, s.24.5(16) deems the board to have neither rejected the application nor required a different manner or location.

Document 3: the installation agreement

A non-rejection, a change-of-location reply, or a deemed non-rejection all lead to the same next step. Under s.24.6(1), the corporation and the owner must take all reasonable steps to sign a written agreement within 90 days, or another period agreed in writing.

The agreement’s terms must be reasonable and necessary to facilitate the installation, use and operation of the system, and s.24.6(3) requires it to cover:

• the manner of installation;
• how the installation cost is split between the corporation and the owner;
• each side’s duties and responsibilities, including who pays for use, operation, repair after damage, maintenance and insurance, and who pays to prepare and register the agreement;
• who owns the system or any part of it; and
• what happens when use of the system stops or the agreement ends.

Two cost rules sit around that list. First, under s.24.5(17), each side bears its own costs for the steps it takes in the application process unless the agreement says otherwise; the regulation does not name the professional report specifically, but because s.24.5(8) has the corporation obtain it, reading the two together points to the corporation bearing that cost unless the agreement says otherwise. Second, s.24.6(4) sets a default for installation costs that depends on who does the work, shown below. Under s.24.6(6), if the owner later fails to comply with the agreement, the corporation can add the resulting costs, charges, interest and expenses to the common expenses payable for the unit.

Installation cost defaults under s.24.6(4)

Document 4: the registration on your unit’s title

Signing the agreement is not the end. Under s.24.6(5), the corporation must register the agreement against the title to your unit as soon as reasonably possible (or within a period you agree to in writing), and the agreement does not take effect until it is registered.

That registration is what makes s.24.6(7) work: the agreement binds the owner’s unit and is enforceable against the owner’s successors and assigns. The charger arrangement is attached to the unit, not to you personally.

When the paper trail stalls: mediation, arbitration and a six-month clock

Under s.24.7(1), disagreements between the corporation and owners about ss.24.3 to 24.6 go to mediation and arbitration, and every installation agreement is deemed to contain a provision sending disputes about the agreement to the same process (s.24.7(2)). When a disagreement is submitted, s.132 of the Condominium Act applies (s.24.7(3)). Section 132(1) describes mediation by a person the parties select, followed, if mediation does not produce a settlement, by arbitration under the Arbitration Act, 1991.

The deadline to watch is in s.24.7(4). The application is deemed abandoned and has no further effect if neither side submits the disagreement to mediation or arbitration within six months of:

• the board delivering a rejection letter under s.24.5(10); or
• the end of the 90-day agreement period, if no agreement has been signed by then.

Whether to start that process, and how, depends on the facts of your building; a lawyer who handles condominium matters can assess it case by case.

The other route: the corporation installs chargers itself

Section 24.3 covers a different situation: the corporation, not an individual owner, installs a charging system, and is exempt from the s.97 process if it follows one of two paths. One applies where the estimated cost is not more than 10 per cent of the current year’s annual budgeted common expenses, the board reasonably believes owners would not see a material reduction in their use or enjoyment, notice has gone to owners, and at least 60 days have passed. The other involves notice telling owners they can requisition a meeting under s.46 within 60 days, with the installation going ahead unless owners vote against it at a meeting that achieves quorum. Costs of a system installed this way are a common expense (s.24.3(6)). If you are applying for your own spot, this route is background, not your process.

Your four-document checklist

Grouped by the document in your hands, not by date.