California Insurance for charging station at condo

[AlBenedict]

Couldn't find an existing topic for this.

I don't have condo owners insurance because, well, I'm perfectly capable of replacing my stuff out of pocket. CA law requires a $1 million insurance policy for a charger in a "Restricted common use area". I've called around a couple of places to ask "How much for a policy that insure the charger and just that". All responses are the same: "We can write you a general policy for the entire house for $500,000 and then you can pay extra to bring the coverage to $1,000,000."

Do not want. For one thing, the payee has to be the HOA, so I'm not sure that would work at all.

Has anyone actually managed to get insurance for their EV under the CA law? It seems a bit of a showstopper.

 

[jpadc]

Couldn't find an existing topic for this.

I don't have condo owners insurance because, well, I'm perfectly capable of replacing my stuff out of pocket. CA law requires a $1 million insurance policy for a charger in a "Restricted common use area". I've called around a couple of places to ask "How much for a policy that insure the charger and just that". All responses are the same: "We can write you a general policy for the entire house for $500,000 and then you can pay extra to bring the coverage to $1,000,000."

I'm a bit confused by your statement/question. I get that you believe you can afford to replace your personal property "out-of-pocket," but the issue here is liability not theft. I don't know your condo arrangement, but if you have a shared building that your condo is a part of, I think you would want to carry liability insurance because if something in your part started a fire or water damage or ... whatever that damaged other people's parts of that building you can bet you could (and likely would) be held liable for that, I doubt you could afford those damages out of pocket. I'm surprised your condo association does not REQUIRE every owner to carry at least $500K liability insurance.

The point is they are pricing you liability insurance which is what is required, not personal property theft insurance (although that might be included in the cost of the $500K part, but that part would be trivial $s). As for California requiring liability insurance of $100K on the charging equipment [called an EVSE] that seems high, but a fire can do a lot of damage... Am I misunderstanding something?

 

[AlBenedict]

Couldn't find an existing topic for this.

I don't have condo owners insurance because, well, I'm perfectly capable of replacing my stuff out of pocket. CA law requires a $1 million insurance policy for a charger in a "Restricted common use area". I've called around a couple of places to ask "How much for a policy that insure the charger and just that". All responses are the same: "We can write you a general policy for the entire house for $500,000 and then you can pay extra to bring the coverage to $1,000,000."

I'm a bit confused by your statement/question. I get that you believe you can afford to replace your personal property "out-of-pocket," but the issue here is liability not theft. I don't know your condo arrangement, but if you have a shared building that your condo is a part of, I think you would want to carry liability insurance because if something in your part started a fire or water damage or ... whatever that damaged other people's parts of that building you can bet you could (and likely would) be held liable for that, I doubt you could afford those damages out of pocket. I'm surprised your condo association does not REQUIRE every owner to carry at least $500K liability insurance.

The point is they are pricing you liability insurance which is what is required, not personal property theft insurance (although that might be included in the cost of the $500K part, but that part would be trivial $s). As for California requiring liability insurance of $100K on the charging equipment [called an EVSE] that seems high, but a fire can do a lot of damage... Am I misunderstanding something?

It's not $100K, it's $1,000,000 (6 zeroes. As Dr. Evil would say "One Million Dollars"), payable to the HOA for any damage caused by the EVSE. It's not a standard insurance policy thing at all. As I said, condo insurance peaks at $500,000, which is half that, so this gets into rarified, custom underwritten insurance air.

 

[mjblazin]

Liability insurance is relatively cheap, $20/month in the million dollar range, if it is a rider on your car or home policy. It would be tough in TX to get $500k, never mind $1 MM in damages, from what is basically an outlet fire in garage. You are essentially running a clothes dryer for a few hours. Then it is CA, enough said.

 

[billg]

Just install a 240V outlet, and use something like EVSE Upgrade. Surely there won't be any outrageous insurance requirements for an electrical outlet.

 

[philip]

Just install a 240V outlet, and use something like EVSE Upgrade. Surely there won't be any outrageous insurance requirements for an electrical outlet.

A homeowner shall not be required to maintain a homeowner liability coverage policy for an existing National Electrical Manufacturers Association standard alternating current power plug.

Not sure about the "existing" part, but maybe this is a way around the liability coverage?

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB880

 

[davewill]

Just install a 240V outlet, and use something like EVSE Upgrade. Surely there won't be any outrageous insurance requirements for an electrical outlet.

A homeowner shall not be required to maintain a homeowner liability coverage policy for an existing National Electrical Manufacturers Association standard alternating current power plug.

Not sure about the "existing" part, but maybe this is a way around the liability coverage?

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB880

That means if there's plug already there, the homeowner doesn't need to maintain liability. Since were talking about something the homeowner is putting in, the previous line applies:

(3) The owner and each successive owner of the charging station, at all times, shall maintain a homeowner liability coverage policy in the amount of one million dollars ($1,000,000), and shall name the association as a named additional insured under the policy with a right to notice of cancellation.

Honestly this stuff isn't expensive. I own a number of rental units, so have a rider to cover liability on all of them. It's a couple hundred a year.