EV Charging Insurance and Liability: What Manchester Property Owners Must Know
Electric vehicle adoption across Greater Manchester has accelerated sharply over the past two years. The city's Clean Air Zone, tightening fleet regulations and falling battery costs have all pushed more drivers towards electric, and property owners are responding by installing chargepoints at residential lets, commercial premises and mixed-use developments. What many of those property owners have not considered, however, is what the addition of EV charging equipment means for their insurance cover and their legal liability.
An EV charger is not a minor accessory. It is a permanent electrical installation, hard-wired into the building's supply, drawing significant current and operating for hours at a time — often unattended and overnight. Treating it as an afterthought on the insurance front can leave property owners exposed to claims they assumed were covered and liabilities they did not know existed.
Does Your Building Insurance Cover EV Chargers?
The short answer for most standard policies is: not automatically. Building insurance typically covers the permanent structure and fixed installations that existed when the policy was taken out or last reviewed. Adding an EV charger changes the electrical installation in a material way — it introduces new circuits, additional protective devices and, in many cases, a dedicated supply cable running from the consumer unit to an external or car park location.
If you do not notify your insurer when a charger is installed, you risk a gap in cover. Should the charger be damaged by storm, fire, vandalism or electrical fault, the insurer may argue that it was an undisclosed material alteration and decline the claim. The same applies if the charger causes damage to other parts of the building — a fault on an undisclosed circuit that leads to a fire could jeopardise the entire claim, not just the charger itself.
The practical steps are straightforward. Notify your insurer before or immediately after installation, provide the electrical installation certificate issued by the installer, add the replacement cost of the charger (and any associated infrastructure such as cable runs, earthing upgrades or dedicated distribution boards) to your sum insured, and confirm that the charger is included as a fixed installation under the buildings element of the policy.
For landlords with multiple properties, it is worth asking whether the insurer offers a portfolio-level addition for EV charging equipment rather than amending each property individually.
Public Liability and Who Pays When Things Go Wrong
Public liability is where the stakes rise considerably. If a tenant, visitor, employee or member of the public is injured by a faulty EV charger on your property, the property owner is likely to face a claim. The same applies if the charger causes damage to a vehicle — a power surge that damages a car's onboard charging system, for example, or a loose connector that causes a burn.
The strongest defence against liability is evidence that the charger was installed correctly by a competent person and has been maintained in accordance with manufacturer guidelines. Installation should always be carried out by an NICEIC-registered contractor who understands EV-specific requirements, including dedicated circuit protection, appropriate cable sizing, correct earthing arrangements and compliance with BS 7671 (the IET Wiring Regulations). A certificate of compliance issued at installation is the foundation of your liability protection.
Beyond installation, ongoing maintenance and periodic inspection are essential. A charger installed five years ago and never serviced is a liability waiting to materialise. Most manufacturers recommend annual servicing, and your EICR cycle should include the charger circuit so that any degradation is caught before it becomes dangerous.
For commercial car parks and shared residential parking areas, a documented risk assessment covering the EV charging installation is advisable. This should consider cable routing, trip hazards, signage, ventilation in enclosed spaces and access for emergency services.
Fire Risk and EV Charging Equipment
The fire risk associated with EV charging is frequently misunderstood. The charger itself is not the primary risk — modern chargepoints have multiple layers of protection including thermal monitoring, RCD protection and overcurrent devices. The risk arises when installation is substandard, when the building's existing electrical infrastructure is inadequate for the additional load, or when maintenance is neglected.
That said, insurers are paying close attention to EV charging as a fire risk factor, particularly in enclosed or underground car parks where ventilation may be limited. A fire involving a lithium-ion battery is more difficult to suppress than a conventional vehicle fire, and the proximity of charging infrastructure to the building structure adds another dimension to the risk.
What matters in practice is that the installation complies with BS 7671, that RCD protection is correctly specified and tested, that cable routes are fire-stopped where they penetrate compartment walls or floors, and that the fire risk assessment for the building has been updated to account for the charging installation. If your property has a fire risk assessment — and all commercial and multi-occupied residential buildings should — the EV charger must be included. Failing to update the assessment after installing charging equipment is a compliance gap that both the fire service and your insurer will take seriously.
What Insurers Want to See
Insurance underwriters are becoming increasingly specific about what documentation they expect from property owners who have installed EV charging. The baseline expectations typically include an electrical installation certificate issued by a registered competent person at the time of installation, an up-to-date EICR that covers the charger circuit, evidence of regular maintenance or servicing in line with manufacturer recommendations, and confirmation that the installation complies with BS 7671 and, where applicable, the IET Code of Practice for Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment Installation.
Some insurers also want to see evidence that the charger carries appropriate product certification — UKCA or CE marking — and that it has been installed in accordance with Part P of the Building Regulations (notifiable electrical work in dwellings) or under a competent person scheme.
Well-documented compliance can work in your favour. Some commercial insurers are beginning to offer improved terms or reduced premiums for properties where electrical compliance is demonstrably well managed. A clear paper trail — installation certificates, annual service reports, EICR results — signals a lower risk profile. Conversely, a property with EV charging but no supporting documentation presents a higher risk and may attract higher premiums or restrictive policy terms.
Landlord-Specific Obligations
Landlords who provide EV chargers as part of a tenancy take on additional responsibilities beyond those of a standard letting. The charger becomes part of the landlord's fixed electrical installation and must be included in the five-yearly EICR cycle. Any fault found on the charger circuit during an EICR is the landlord's responsibility to remedy, just as it would be for any other part of the fixed wiring.
The tenancy agreement should clearly specify the terms under which the charger is provided. This includes who is responsible for electricity costs (usually the tenant via their own supply), what constitutes acceptable use, the tenant's obligation to report faults promptly, and the landlord's right of access for maintenance and inspection. It is also worth specifying that the charger is for domestic-level charging only and is not to be modified or replaced by the tenant.
If tenants use portable charging cables — the granny cables that plug into a standard 13A socket — these should be included in any PAT testing schedule. They draw sustained high current and are more prone to overheating than most portable appliances, making regular testing particularly important.
Commercial Property Owners and Multi-Bay Installations
Commercial properties with multiple charging bays face a different insurance landscape. Commercial insurance policies generally carry higher liability thresholds, but they also require more rigorous documentation and risk management. An employer providing workplace charging has obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 to ensure that the installation is safe and properly maintained.
Multi-bay installations often involve dedicated distribution boards, load management systems and, in some cases, three-phase supply upgrades. Each of these elements needs to be covered by the building's insurance and included in the EICR scope. The complexity of commercial installations also means that faults can be harder to diagnose and more expensive to repair, so the sum insured should reflect realistic replacement and reinstatement costs rather than the original installation price.
For businesses operating across multiple sites — a logistics company with depot charging, for instance, or a property management firm with chargers at several managed buildings — a consolidated insurance approach that covers all EV charging infrastructure under a single policy or endorsement is usually more cost-effective and easier to manage than site-by-site amendments.
The Manchester Context
Greater Manchester's push towards cleaner transport is not slowing down. The Clean Air Zone continues to encourage fleet operators and businesses to transition to electric vehicles, and local planning policies increasingly require new developments to include EV charging provision from the outset under Building Regulations Part S.
For commercial estates — Trafford Park, the industrial areas around Oldham and Tameside, and the growing logistics hubs along the M60 corridor — EV charging is becoming a standard expectation from tenants and occupiers. Property owners who install charging infrastructure are adding value, but only if the installation is properly documented, insured and maintained. An uninsured or poorly installed charger is not an asset; it is a liability.
Get Your EV Charging Installation Right From the Start
Manchester Compliance installs, tests and maintains EV charging equipment for residential landlords, commercial property owners and managing agents across Greater Manchester. Every installation is carried out by NICEIC-registered engineers, fully certified and ready for your insurer from day one. We also include EV charger circuits in our EICR testing so your compliance documentation is always complete.
Call us for a free consultation to discuss your EV charging requirements, or email hello@manchestercompliance.co.uk. You can also visit us at 25 Holden Clough Drive, Ashton-under-Lyne, OL7 9TH.