The driver who charged pays — but only if the building set it up that way. In a shared garage, who pays for the electricity is decided by two things: where the charger’s energy is measured, and the allocation rule the association or landlord has written down. Where neither exists, the chargers sit on the building’s house meter and every owner shares the cost through common charges, whether they drive an EV or not.
Key Takeaways
- Who pays is decided by the metering arrangement plus the building’s written allocation rule — not by the charger alone.
- Four structures cover almost every garage: own meter, session records, sub-meter, or unmetered common cost.
- Unmetered charging defaults to every owner paying through common charges — the outcome most buildings retrofit away from.
- Energy allocation and the demand charge are separate problems; the peak follows the meter.
The Four Structures
| Arrangement | How charging energy is measured | Who pays the utility | How the driver settles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charger on the resident’s own meter | The bay’s circuit runs from the unit’s own metered supply | The resident, on their own utility account | Nothing further — it is on their home bill |
| House meter + per-user session records | The charger records each session against an RFID card or app account | The association, on the building’s bill | The association bills each user back from the session records |
| House meter + sub-meter per bay or circuit | A private meter behind the building’s meter reads the chargers’ consumption | The association, on the building’s bill | Users are charged from sub-meter readings, at the rate the building’s rule sets |
| House meter, no measurement | It is not separated from the building’s other loads | The association | Nobody settles individually — the cost is spread across all owners in common charges |
The first structure is cleanest and least common in older garages, where unit meters are rarely near the parking. The middle two are how most buildings retrofit fairness. The fourth is chosen by nobody — it is the default until a measurement arrangement is agreed, which is why our guide to apartment and condo charging in shared parking treats metering as a first-order decision.
Who Chooses the Arrangement
The association or landlord chooses, inside the limits of local metering rules. Two of those limits matter. First, session records or a sub-meter reading are accepted as evidence for internal allocation almost everywhere, but whether they may be used to charge for energy — and at what rate — is a local-rules question to confirm in writing before the first bill. Second, the records only exist if the hardware keeps them, which is a purchasing decision made once. Our article on whether you need a smart meter for an EV charger works through the home-scale version.
The Separate Problem: Peak Demand
Allocation settles the energy — the kilowatt-hours — not the demand line. On a commercial tariff the building also pays for its highest peak, and garage charging behind the house meter adds to that peak whether or not the energy is billed back fairly. Sharing the peak cost is a second policy choice, and it follows the meter, not the session records — the mechanics are in our overview of how commercial charging stations work.
Hardware That Produces the Records
Session-record structures stand or fall on the charger’s logging. The EV-AC03201T dual-connector AC station (two Type 2 connectors, up to 43 kW shared, OCPP 1.6J, RFID, IP54; its screen is the driver display) records every session per authorised user — the raw material of a bill-back rule. At single-bay scale the EV-ACT3204PE (22 kW, Type 2, RFID and app, IP66, CE) does the same, and our explainer on RFID and user management for shared chargers shows how the records are organised.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the association simply fold charging into common fees?
It can choose to — a policy decision, and the usual starting position before metering exists. What it cannot do is fold the cost in invisibly while claiming drivers pay their own way; the arrangement in force should be the one written down.
Can residents be billed per kilowatt-hour from the charger’s records?
Local metering and resale rules decide when charger or sub-meter readings may be billed from, and on what basis. Buildings confirm it with the utility and the local authority before setting a rate — the records are the easy part.
What settles a dispute about who used what?
The session log: start and stop times, energy delivered, the card or account that authorised it. It is the same record set used for billing — which is why this arrangement needs user-identified chargers, not anonymous ones.
Related Reading
- Apartment and Condo EV Charging: Solutions for Shared Parking
- Do You Need a Smart Meter for an EV Charger?
- RFID and User Management for Shared EV Chargers
- How Do Commercial EV Charging Stations Work?
