Can you charge an electric car at a new Miami condo?

Usually, but on the building's terms, and the terms are in three places the brochure is not. Florida's condominium statute gives an owner the right to install an electric vehicle charging station in a parking space that is a limited common element assigned to their home, at the owner's own cost, with the association able to set reasonable conditions on the installer, the insurance and the metering, and unable to refuse outright. That right is only as useful as the space: a self-park garage with an assigned space is where it applies, and a valet garage, where the building's staff park the cars wherever they fit, is where the answer becomes whatever the building has installed. Two West Palm Beach buildings on our file say something on the sheet: Olara publishes two assigned full sized parking spaces per residence with EV capability, and Alba Palm Beach an EV-ready covered garage. The other buildings say nothing about charging on their sheets, which is not a no; it is a question for the sales team before the space is assigned.

A right, not a charger. The Florida statute on condominiums says an association may not prohibit an owner from installing an electric vehicle charging station, or a natural gas fuel station, within the boundaries of a limited common element parking area assigned to that owner's unit, and that the installation is at the owner's expense, including the electricity, the maintenance, the removal and any insurance the association reasonably requires. The association may require a licensed installer, may approve the location of the wiring and the meter, and may set the standards the equipment must meet, and the owner is responsible for damage the installation causes. What the statute does not do is reach a space that is not assigned to the home, or a garage the owner does not park in, and it does not oblige the association to upgrade the building's electrical capacity so the charger can draw. Counsel reads the clause against this building's declaration. Read do you own your parking space in a new Miami condo, the five sections of the condominium documents and parking, EV and storage at Olara.

Because the owner has no space to install anything in. Many new Miami towers park by valet, which means the space is not a limited common element assigned to the home, the car is moved by staff, and the statute's right to install does not attach. In that garage the question is what the building has already built: how many chargers, at what power, who may use them, whether the valet will plug a car in overnight and at what charge, and how the electricity is billed back. Fouquet's Miami publishes below grade valet and self parking, which is the one sheet on our file that names both; Kempinski Residences publishes house cars; Waldorf Astoria, Delano and Six Fisher Island say nothing about parking or charging in the material we hold. A buyer who arrives in an electric car asks the sales team, before the contract, whether the garage is self-park or valet and what is installed, and asks for the answer in writing. Read parking, EV and storage at Fouquet's, parking, EV and storage at Kempinski and how do deliveries and packages work at a Design District or Wynwood condo.

Less than a charger and more than nothing. In the trade's usage, EV capable usually means the panel capacity and the conduit are in place so a circuit can be run to the space later; EV-ready usually means the circuit and the outlet are installed and a charger can be plugged in or mounted; EV installed means the charger is there. The words are not defined by statute and developers use them loosely, so the buyer treats Olara's "EV capability" on two assigned spaces per home and Alba's "EV-ready covered garage" as invitations to ask the next question: is there a circuit to my space today, at what amperage, and who pays to finish it. The answer belongs in writing before the parking space is assigned in the closing documents. Read parking, EV and storage at Alba, what a new Miami condo requires before you can move in and which new West Palm Beach condo is pet-friendly, which reads the same West Palm Beach sheets for a different line.

The owner, by one of three routes, and the route is the question. A charger on the owner's own metered circuit bills through the home's electricity account like the dryer. A charger on the association's house meter bills the association, which then recovers it from the owner by a sub-meter, a flat charge in the rules, or, badly, not at all, so that every owner pays for one owner's car through the fee. A charger run by a network operator bills by the session on a card. The statute lets the association require the owner's installation to be separately metered, and a well drafted rule says how. The buyer who reads the rules for the metering clause is reading how the building thinks about cost, which is a useful thing to know before the contract for reasons beyond the car. Read what a Miami HOA fee covers and what makes it rise, what it costs to own a condo in Miami each year and how to read the developer's estimated budget for a new Miami condo.

Five things, in writing. Whether the garage is self-park or valet, and whether the home's space is a limited common element assigned by the declaration or a licence that can be moved. What is installed today at that space, and at what amperage. What the building's electrical capacity allows if a third of the owners install chargers, which is the question the engineer answers and the sales team does not. How the electricity is metered and billed. And what the rules say about installation, the installer and the insurance, because the statute's right arrives with conditions. A buyer with two cars reads Olara's two assigned spaces per home differently from a building that publishes one, and asks whether both carry the circuit. Read questions to ask a sales team, documents a Miami pre-construction buyer should request and how to read the amenity rules before buying a Miami condo. The desk reads the parking assignment, the rules' charging clause and the metering with the buyer before the contract.