One of my mother's neighbours has a similar layout. They had to trench from their house to their garage, so all electricity registers on their meter.

Is that feasible for you?

 

You can put a charger anywhere you can run the cable to. You'd probably want to run it from your supply - although it may be initially easier to run from your neighbour's house with its own meter, you never know when you might fall out with them, or thay may move, causing complications.

 

There's also no legal reasons to prevent you arranging for another metered supply, but the cost of installation and the ongoing costs of an additional standing charge would make it very costly. If your property doesn't adjoin the block then you'll need to get a permanent permission for a trenched supply across their land agreed with the relevant neighbours (and any mortgage lenders) which will incur initial costs. As an alternative, is there an option to seek a "lamppost" charging point from the Council?

 

Thanks for the ideas.
I'm interested in sources of info about regulations regarding electrical connections in en bloc garages if anyone has any?

There are two properties and two other garages between us and our garage, so not keen on connecting our existing supply across that lot. Maybe it would be possible to extend along under the pavement, if the council would let us...
Lamppost might be an option, although council policy not yet tested and the post is sited across the pavement, so trailing cables :-(
Hadn't thought of using neighbours connection, but yeah doesn't sound very future-proof!

 

Oh goodness. The sooner the building regulations mandate EV charging provision the better ?

Sadly I am not sure there is a cost viable way to achieve charging just for your garage. To get wayleave to dig up your neighbours gardens probably isn't going to work and the pavement route would be even more expensive. You could get a quote for a separate supply to the garage but it will expensive and you then have another standing charge.

The main possibility I see is the council land and perhaps convincing them to put in a community supply and a shared solution. That way each garage gets the grant and you pay your share of electric. You will need a council with a green agenda and focus as a lot of work. Podpoint have a solution for that type of installation, it is intended for flats but would work. See link below.

EV Charging for Apartments | Pod

Pod Point's smart electric car charging points are the most cost-effective and convenient way to charge in apartments and flats.

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Incidentally lampost solutions do work as they just fit a small bollard next to road side - we have those in the trial in Newbury.

 

Is there a potential cable run along the back of the properties?

 

Could you run three cables (or ducts) through your and your neighbours front gardens to the garages. They don’t need to connect their cables to their consumer units yet but would future proof them in case they did want a charger in the future.

So you get what you want and in return for the disruption to their gardens they get a free cable with the potential of electrifying their garages in the future (useful even if they don’t want EVs.

Clearly the above relies on you having a good relationship with the neighbours to get this started.

 

Could you run three cables (or ducts) through your and your neighbours front gardens to the garages. They don’t need to connect their cables to their consumer units yet but would future proof them in case they did want a charger in the future.

Seems a big ask of two neighbours to dig up their gardens for no immediate benefit, but I guess no harm in trying! Also, people move so the OP would need a solicitor and a wayleave agreement to get perpetual permission.

 

An option may be to use a "mole" digger to run the cable under the gardens without disturbing them

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The mole / thrust bore is used around the domestic property or on the smaller jobs where service pipes, electrical cables or ducts need to be installed.

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An option may be to use a "mole" digger to run the cable under the gardens without disturbing them

But what about all the services that may be under them already?

From that plan I honestly can't see getting a feed from house to garage as a real option. Just sorting out wayleave will probably cost a bomb.
I think you'd have to get a new DNO feed into the garage with meter, and budget the standing charges as part of your fuel costs. Obviously you'll need to be using more than a little power to make that worthwhile.

 

Thanks all for the ideas. Current advice is that you can't install an electrical supply inside the garage because it's attached to someone else's property - presume fire regulation issue. Clearly it is technically feasible to lay a cable under the two properties and two driveways but legally not really doable. We could convert most of our lawn into driveway and hope the council will allow us a new drop-curb - but expensive, don't want to lose the lawn and planning permission (given is opposite an existing drive and we already have off-road parking) is uncertain. UKPN state that is possible to brick-up half the garage door and inset the necessary into/onto the new wall. Now checking if that needs planning permission (i.e. potential change of use away from a garage...) sigh. Yes expensive, but as a future 'hedge' and the very uncertain status of any council/community scheme that would apply on our road I think might be worth it. Considering that sometime before 2035 any house without reasonable access to a charge point may be unsaleable!
Also acknowledge that a new connection = 2nd standing charge, but also much easier (no real additional cost) to make it a 3-phase connection compared to doing this for the existing house system and so further future-proofing - is only a 7kW rating going to be acceptable soon? Quote for the connection (not including building/trenching work) is around £3k.
I suppose a final limitation is that the driveway in front of the garage is 7m, which may limit the size of vehicle that can be charged.

 

I suppose a final limitation is that the driveway in front of the garage is 7m, which may limit the size of vehicle that can be charged.

Most cars are about 4.5m.
The longest version of the current Mercedes Sprinter van (L4) is 7.367m. The L3 is 6.967m and the L2 and L1 less obviously.
The longest version of the Ford F-150 pickup is 5.8m.

 

Do your local council have a commercial services department? Reading do garden makeovers, paving etc. I got them to do some tarmaccing at a flat I own, and it was very reasonable. I would get them to quote for the work, then most of the 'jobsworthery' objections fall away.