Once the project is designed, your vendor partner will help you develop a budget and explore funding options. Is your reserve large enough and can it be used to fund all or part of the project? Whether the reserve is available or not there are several options of which your HOA can take advantage.
Your HOA can assess individual homeowners to pay for installation and maintenance. This can be an issue for residents who don’t own EVs.
Your HOA can pay for installation and maintenance itself, then bill residents as it would for other amenities.
The HOA can partner with a vendor to share installation and maintenance cost and revenue.
The HOA can turn over all installation and maintenance costs to the vendor. In that case all access fees and charging fees will go to the vendor (usually for a period of time until costs are recouped, at which point a portion of revenue can go to the HOA).
It’s important to evaluate all funding options to select the best one for your HOA. Then make sure the options, costs, and time frames are clearly spelled out in the contract.
It’s also possible there are programs your HOA can take advantage of to help fund the charging station. Rebates, grants and other incentives vary depending on location and size of the project. The best option is to ask your vendor partner to help you investigate what programs are available for you.
There are also significant tax credits and deductions that your CPA can assist you with. EV charging stations also might be eligible for utility discounts, and your partner can work with the local utility to determine what money-saving programs might be available for your project.