How to get communal EV charging approved at the owners' meeting in Spain: majorities, costs and steps

Two different routes: the owner who installs and the comunidad that prepares the garage

Before looking at how to get communal EV charging approved at the owners’ meeting, it helps to separate two situations that are often confused. In Spain, a block of flats (apartment building) is run by its comunidad de propietarios, the community of owners, which decides at the junta de propietarios, the owners’ meeting.

• An owner who wants a charger at their own space. No vote is needed: article 17.5 of the Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, LPH) only requires prior notice to the president or the property administrator, and the Supreme Court confirmed in December 2025 that no authorisation is needed even if the cable runs through common areas, unless the impact is disproportionate.
• The comunidad that wants to prepare the whole garage with shared infrastructure: a backbone line, a charging board and a management system so that each owner can connect later in an orderly way. That does go to the meeting, and it is what this guide is about.

Why a shared installation is in the comunidad’s interest

If every owner runs their own cable from their meter, the garage ends up with dozens of separate lines. Take a 40-space garage: with individual installations there would be 40 cables of 6 to 25 mm² along the ceiling and 40 outgoing lines in the meter room. The trays fill up, every crossing of a fire compartment has to be resealed and the meter room runs out of space.

With a shared installation the regulations allow something more: if there is a protection system on the main line with load management, the power allowance is calculated with a simultaneity factor of 0.3 instead of 1 (ITC-BT-52, the Spanish EV charging regulation). In practice, the building does not need to reserve power as if every car were charging at full power at the same time, and the service connection is protected.

Which majority is needed

Shared charging infrastructure falls under article 17.1 of the Horizontal Property Act, which covers the infrastructure needed to access new collective energy supplies. Its rules are clear:

It is a deliberately low majority: the law does not want some owners’ lack of interest to block access for others.

Possible layouts in a communal garage

ITC-BT-52 defines several ways of feeding the spaces. In a community, these are the ones that matter:

An intermediate option is empty conduit throughout the garage with space reserved in the meter room, so that each owner later pulls their own cable along an orderly route.

Step by step to the meeting

1. An owner asks for it in writing to the president or the administrator so it goes on the agenda.
2. Technical study. An installer visits the garage: meter room, available power, possible routes, fire compartments and number of spaces.
3. Quote with alternatives. Backbone with load management, empty conduit or a combination, with the total price and the estimated cost per space.
4. Notice of meeting with the item on the agenda and the quote attached, so owners arrive informed.
5. Vote and minutes, which must record who votes in favour, because they are the ones who pay.
6. Execution, with an installation certificate and technical report. If the charging infrastructure exceeds 50 kW, a project, site supervision and an initial inspection by an accredited inspection body (OCA) are required.
7. Each owner connects, installing only their charger and paying for their electricity through a secondary meter or the manager.

If the garage has more than 25 spaces, it is already subject to periodic OCA inspection every 5 years, so everything must be documented for that inspection.

If you own a flat in Spain but live abroad for part of the year, ask the administrator for the agenda and send your vote or proxy in time: under 17.1, those who vote in favour are the ones who pay, and they decide the project.

What it costs and how it is shared

Rough 2026 market prices, to be confirmed with each garage’s technical study:

A simple example: if a 6,000-euro backbone is approved by 20 owners with similar shares, each contributes about 300 euros and then pays only for their charger and connection. An owner who joins in two years will pay their updated share.

Are there grants for the comunidad?

In 2025 communities could receive up to 70 % of the cost of pre-installation through MOVES III, but the programme closed to applications on 31 December 2025. As of today there is no open call in Andalusia for community charging, and the Auto+ Programme only subsidises vehicles. The quote that reaches the meeting should not count on a grant that no longer exists.

If your building is a new build

In residential buildings licensed after 16 December 2022, the Building Code (CTE HE 6) requires charging conduit to 100 % of the spaces. The conduit is already there. The meeting’s decision is then not whether to lay conduit, but whether to install a shared load manager or let each owner activate their space on their own. In newly formed communities, like many in Sevilla Este and Hacienda del Rosario, Palmas Altas or Entrenúcleos, it is the ideal moment to decide, before the first chargers go in each in its own way. Dynamic load balancing is the piece that lets many cars charge without tripping the building’s power.

Practical conclusion

If electric cars are starting to appear in your garage, propose a shared installation before there are ten different cables along the ceiling. All it takes is one owner asking, a technical study with alternatives and the votes of one third of owners and shares; those who vote in favour pay and the rest can join later. We help with the study and the quote for the meeting on our communal EV charging backbone page, individual owners can see EV charger in a communal garage, and the rest of our work for buildings is in homeowners’ associations.