As the President of a Condominium Board and a Tesla Owner (and a Volt), I encourage you to work collaboratively with your Board if at all possible. They have a fiduciary duty to the entire Association and that forces them to be fairly conservative and cautious with stuff like this.
In my building, One of the biggest issues is the total amount of power available. If we start allowing 50 AMP L2s (we have one right now), we will quickly run out of power as more people want one. So, your Board may also have to consider similar constraints. If they allow you to pull power from the Association's mains, what's the impact on the Association downstream?
Try not to go all legalistic out of the gate. That will only force the Board to go legalistic back and then no one wins. Try to build a relationship with them. Ideally, you've been participating in the Association activities such as Board meetings so they already know you. If not, I recommend trying to establish some relationships. It's always frustrating as a Board member when people pop out of the woodwork making demands and they've never bothered to participate in any other way. Maybe try to talk with the general manager if you have one. If not, reach out to a Board member and ask to work with them to develop a proposal. Use that process to work through some of the questions and details and then give the presentation to the whole Board. Education and thoughtfulness can go a long way. You indicated earlier you see yourself as being on the vanguard of the issue. If true, your goal is to not only "win" for yourself but position your Association to win.
A Condominium trade magazine "Common Ground" had a feature article on electric vehicles in its June 2019 issue. Someone in your Association may have a copy of the June issue laying around. If you hit me up in a Private Message, I'd be happy to share that article with you. It has a lot of good info on it regarding the complexities of installing charging in Associations.
It sounds like you are willing to pay to get the power pulled. That can go a long way to getting to yes. Our owner who I helped get the L2 had to pay about $3k in total and we didn't even have to pull the power very far (only about 100 feet from an existing circuit breaker).
Excellent post, and very informative (rated thusly).
I should clarify that my thoughts here don't reflect my communication with them. Here, I'm being a bit more plain-spoken about my concerns with the HOA being slow, unresponsive, blocking me through inaction, unconcerned, recalcitrant, and there may be anti-EV bias from any of the links in the chain. This is a concern with anyone I depend on whose interests don't align with mine. I've read the HOA horror stories, and there are lawyers who specialize in helping HOAs realize the rights of their owners, especially in an EV-friendly state like California.
As far as the HOA and my writing to them, I'm extremely polite and professional. I've been an owner since 2004 and have had a pretty good relationship with my main point of contact for at least 5-7 years now, perhaps longer. To reveal a bit more, he was extremely understanding when I was struggling financially and I never forgot that. I thanked him as such and haven't had issues in a while, but this may have helped our relationship before I ever asked about adding new power.
With my emails to them, I was mostly just covering all bases, in part doing a sales pitch but also pre-empting any pushback by quoting relevant law pertaining to California's status as a 'right-to-charge' state. This was just to get everyone on the same page, and to show I had done my due diligence. It's also helpful to let someone know that you know your rights, which reduces any exploitable weakness. It's also a genuine provision of information for those who may not know better.
That said, the board has approved the work in concept. All I need to do now (a process I've already started) is to get a qualified electrician out who can also do architectural plans and write a spec sheet for the work to be approve by the HOA before work commences. I've agreed to the terms and we're off to the races! I think my concern about pushback was the worst bit. In reality they're being quite accommodating.
I braced for an impact that never arrived. Good problem to have.
Considerations for power draw are well-noted. I'll see if I can get at least 32a, but I don't necessarily need 50a. Either way, I'm going to absorb the cost of installation and electricity-usage and I'm happy to do it. It's also going to be a good test case for the HOA to get through this process as there are sure to be others who will want a charging solution in the nice private garages we have. This is SoCal, and EV adoption is huge here. Although I'm the first (as stated by my contact), I certainly won't be the last.
Thanks so much for your information. Your perspective is uniquely helpful given your role as President of a Condo Board (and Tesla owner).
