Ethics of a planned improvement that will benefit few

You say the five owners have a "jury rigged charger" in their parking spots for their cars - what do you mean by that? That can mean nearly anything so provide a better description for those of us who may not be familiar.

Did these people ask the board for permission to install these chargers before they did it? What happens if they sell their unit - can the chargers be disassembled and go with them? How do your documents classify the parking spaces (yes, you have to read them, so go get them). Usually designated parking spaces are considered an "exclusive use" common area, meaning the HOA owns and manages the space, but specific residents have the right to use it. The homeowner may be responsible for light upkeep, but the association would handle things like repainting the spaces or snow removal. In some HOAs, the documents may consider the parking spaces a "deeded space" that's treated like a separate unit. That may affect what the homeowner can do with it and who would pay for any damages. Check your documents for this as well.

The committee can suggest whatever it wants, but something like this could be seen as a capital improvement to the common area. It won't be cheap, but this isn't the sort of thing you just "pull out of next year's budget." If your parking lots are considered common areas, which are owned by all the homeowners, I suspect a homeowner vote would be necessary to authorize everyone paying a special assessment to cover the installation. You'll also have to add this to other common areas that have to be reviewed in your reserve study.

I think you know the answer to this, but in case it has to be spelled out - read the documents first to get these definitions and what it takes to call for a special assessment. Ask the board to do some research on the pros and cons of doing this, along with the costs. Ask your neighbors to attend so they can also express their opinions - maybe what you really need is a town hall meeting to discuss this. Since the sustainability committee made this suggestion, have them do the research, starting with conducting a homeowner poll to see if anyone's interested in doing this. The committee might also benefit from some education on HOA budgeting and best practices.

Go to the next board meeting and make these suggestions - better yet, you might want to volunteer to help the committee with its research, not to sabotage them, but to bring up issues they may not have thought of. You could also take a look at the current income/expense statements and most recent reserve study to see if there aren't other community needs that should take priority. Finally, a review of teh documents may require something be amended to address the care and feeding of EV charges and the people who want them. That will also require a homeowner vote.

So that's my opinion - do with it what you will (or not) and good luck in whatever you decide to do.

Is your objection based on the actual cost per owner, political conviction or both? What is the estimated cost?

$200 per unit is a $18,000 EV charge station which adds value to all the units in the HOA and makes all the units more marketable. Also why would you want to live with the fire hazard of several jury rigged chargers?

I think I would support the improvement, but ai also think the fee structure to the EV owners should be returning funds to the HOA.

Your primary objection is you don’t want to pay the money and you rationalize it as only benefitting a minority. About every pool at every HOA in the US benefits a minority of owners as do club houses, tennis courts ect.

Hi JeffP14 - my comment on EV charging: it is always better to install individual EV chargers at each parking spot, with power fed from the homeowner's own meter.

This way, the homeowner knows for sure their charger will always be available for them. With shared chargers, you have issues with homeowners leaving their car in the charging spot for hours after it is done, and preventing others from using it.

The chargers with shared billing capability cost much more upfront, PLUS there are going to be ongoing subscription fees for the billing service. Home-style chargers that attach straight to the resident's own meter have no subscription costs.

I assume your electric room is near your garage, so consider these gadgets: https://connectder.com/products/ev/ - they simplify installation because you don't need to do any upgrades to the existing wiring or panels.

If your concern is the jury-rigged nature of having an individual charger at each spot, my suggestion is to enact a policy specifying exactly how/where each homeowner is allowed to run the wiring, and what materials they are to use (eg check your local codes, but probably each wiring run will require its own EMT conduit). With 94 units, if each person's electrician does it their own way, your garage ceiling will turn into spaghetti very fast, and you don't want that. Creating a policy is free.

I know you are against spending any common money - but if it were me, and I had a bit of money to spend - I would pre-install empty conduit from the electric room, to each parking spot. Then leave it up to each homeowner to hire an electrician to pull wiring thru the conduit and install the charger (if they want).

I see, thanks for clarifying! Wow, no individual meters is rare, and must be annoying for you.

Your original post suggests that you think no HOA funds should be spent on these upgrades at all. Lets say you are successful, and you stop the hubs from being added. What next?

Under Colorado's "right to charge" law, the HOA cannot prevent a unit owner from adding a charger:
https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_38-33.3-106.8

So now you are going to get the "spaghetti scenario": each homeowner installs their EV charger their own way, which starts making your garage look really ugly.

Wouldn't you rather have your HOA do this preparatory/infrastructure work in advance, to ensure that the rollout of EV chargers is neat and orderly, not chaotic?

P.S.

The adoption of new tech (such as EVs) usually follows an "S curve". Great chart on page 3, here:
https://www.rewiringamerica.org/research/pace-of-progress-home-electrification-transition

What this means for a condo like yours, that currently has 5 EV owners: over the next several years, EV ownership is not going to go "5 - 6 - 7 - 8". It will more likely go "5 - 7 - 11 - 19".

With this type of growth, I think in several years, condos will reach a tipping point where EV chargers become a baseline expectation of buyers, and condos without them will move down-market, similar to places with no on-site laundry, no central AC, etc.

My position is the electric used would not be the rate paid by the HOA. The rate would be set by the HOA to recover the cost of the up grade. Some electric car owners will squawk, but it’s an added convenience for the minority of owners who have a need to charge their cars and I believe it would mitigate concerns of owners such as yourself.

What does the master insurance policy say about the present EV set-up?

And pay future maintenance costs

The fact that your HOA board has created a Sustainability Committee would lead one to think that the culture of your community would be supportive of EV charging stations as a common element. Since the EV owners will be paying any used electricity AND the installation of chargers would relief capacity on the residential power service, I'd recommend the exploration of an installation IF it's reasonably affordable. I don't fall on the side of EV owners having a "right" to an HOA-installed charging station, but think your community would support it.

If you bought a horse, you'd definitely want outdoor water service so the horse could drink. If your community consisted of equine activities or was a farm, then asking the HOA for outdoor water troughs for the community would make sense. I can't recommend it, though as electric cars will eat less and you can meter the power and bill accordingly!