Today April 1st 2022 – yes I know and no this is not a joke!
The Office of Zero Emission Vehicles OZEV introduced their new scheme for providing grants to home owners installing EV Chargers.
Until now anybody with off street parking and a new or second hand electric vehicle could claim a £350 government grant towards the cost of installing a new EV Charger.
It has been my pleasure to fit many of these in the last few years.
All you had to do was prove to me that you had off street parking and a qualifying vehicle and then I would simply knock £350 off of your bill and claim it back later (much later) from the government.
As you might imagine this scheme may have been too successful so the government have introduced their new replacement scheme today which makes it harder to qualify.
The “EV chargepoint grant for flat owner-occupiers and people living in rented properties” I know catchy name isn’t it mas three requirements to qualify.
First you must satisfy the vehicle requirements:
- You are a registered keeper of a new or second-hand eligible electric vehicle, or
- You are assigned a company car for at least 6 months, or
- You lease an eligible vehicle for at least 6 months, or
- You are named, by you employer, as the primary user of an eligible electric vehicle for at least 6 months, or
- You have ordered an eligible electric vehicle
Then you must also satisfy the parking requirements:
- You must have designated, private off-street parking. This may be co-located with the property or separate from it.
- Where the parking is separate, you must be able to demonstrate that you have a legal entitlement to the parking space through the provision of land registry title deeds.
- Your parking must be suitable for a chargepoint installation.
- The parking must be able to permit an eligible vehicle to be charged safely.
- You must be able to access the parking space at all times.
- You cannot use an arrangement where charge cables are placed over public land, such as pavements, even if it is temporary.
Finally you must also satisfy the householder requirement and this is where the main change comes:
- If you live in a flat with other dwellings in the same building you can own or rent it that flat and qualify.
- If you live in a single unit dwelling like a house or bungalow you must rent it, to qualify you cannot own it.
- The grant is only for existing lived in properties; it cannot be used for new-builds or properties that are not occupied.
- You must be resident at the property.
So that means that owner occupiers of houses or bungalows are no longer eligible for the grant.
More guidance on how the new scheme will operate in practice is still awaited.
