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Original poster

The neighbour and the EV charger

241 replies

Alittlebit9 · 16/03/2025 21:33

DH has an electric car, and had a charger installed at home on Friday. It cost him £1200.

Today, neighbour (who we are fairly friendly with, in a neighbourly way) has messaged me to ask if we would mind if they used it from time to time. I think she’s being a CF and this will be a slippery slope. Plus it’s on our driveway so we would have to move our cars. Also, I know it isn’t expensive but it’s going onto our bill.

YABU - let them use the charger
YANBU - they need to get their own

OP posts:
Mumof2girls2121 · 16/03/2025 22:41

If she pays upfront for the electric then fine but otherwise no!

ButterCrackers · 16/03/2025 22:40

Tell her no. Yanbu to say no. She can charge elsewhere.

Negroany · 16/03/2025 22:39

Alittlebit9 · 16/03/2025 22:18

@haufbiskiy yes interested in this. DH claims it’ll be £2 per charge, so I imagine averaging about £40 a month.. we shall see.

Feels low. My sister stayed at my house for 2 nights, told me she was ill while here so didn't go anywhere, but managed to rack up £14 of electric costs. It might not all have been the car but I know she did charge it and my daily electricity costs are usually about £1.50.

Treesarenotforeating · 16/03/2025 22:36

Lock it or your electric bill will be rediculous thanks to her

TrickyD · 16/03/2025 22:35

intrepidgiraffe · 16/03/2025 21:38

We used to let our neighbour use ours - app with the charger meant we knew how much each charge cost and we billed her and she paid us back - are you sure this isn’t what your neighbour meant?

Even if this is what the neighbour meant, it would be an unwanted chore for the OP to have to keep track of the usage and bill the neighbour - who may or may not pay back promptly.

CautiousLurker01 · 16/03/2025 22:32

I’d say no - it’s not like fast chargers at stations that only take 20mins - it takes all night on a domestic charger to fully charge a vehicle. Having someone else's car parked on your drive all night is a real imposition - and it might invalidate their insurance as it’s not parked on their own drive.

BobbyBiscuits · 16/03/2025 22:32

Send her an message with links to a map of local public ones and the firm your partner used to install the one you have. Just say sorry, no but here's where to find them or this company installed ours, they were quite good.
Then don't mention it again.

YourAmberPoet · 16/03/2025 22:25

It’s understandable to feel that this could become a slippery slope. It could lead to a huge expense, it's your charger and your driveway, and you’re the one who would be moving cars and potentially covering the costs. So, YANBU – it's totally fair to say they should get their own charger. It’s an investment for you, and you shouldn’t feel pressured to share it.

haufbiskiy · 16/03/2025 22:25

Onlyvisiting · 16/03/2025 22:23

Electric isn't free at all, would she ask to poo over and heat her dinner in your oven so she doesn't have to buy one? Use your hot water? It's a really odd request to me

Definitely charge her if she’s pooing too

childofspace · 16/03/2025 22:25

Say it’s fine but that you’ll be round on Tuesday to charge your devices and cook your dinner seeing as you’re sharing electricity now

Onlyvisiting · 16/03/2025 22:23

Electric isn't free at all, would she ask to poo over and heat her dinner in your oven so she doesn't have to buy one? Use your hot water? It's a really odd request to me

haufbiskiy · 16/03/2025 22:21

haufbiskiy · 16/03/2025 22:19

The app for our car tells us exactly what we pay each month so I’ve been tracking it. It’s clearly much cheaper than diesel but it’s not nothing

Plus we have two days a week when we don’t use the car at all so we are relatively light users

haufbiskiy · 16/03/2025 22:19

The app for our car tells us exactly what we pay each month so I’ve been tracking it. It’s clearly much cheaper than diesel but it’s not nothing

Original poster
Alittlebit9 · 16/03/2025 22:18

@haufbiskiy yes interested in this. DH claims it’ll be £2 per charge, so I imagine averaging about £40 a month.. we shall see.

OP posts:
haufbiskiy · 16/03/2025 22:17

Didimum · 16/03/2025 22:10

Minimally, not noticeable in general. It’s something like £8 a month, charging every day. That poster claims ‘significantly’.

Edited
Show quote history

That’s extremely low. We charge ours overnight every day and we pay 9p per kwh on the overnight rate. It’s averaging about £38 a month

RealEagle · 16/03/2025 22:15

That’s a blatant piss take .A firm no and nip it in the bud now

Justified07 · 16/03/2025 22:15

samarrange · 16/03/2025 22:13

Doesn't everyone who buys an EV also get a charger installed (unless perhaps they live in a flat with communal arrangements)?

Our friends with an EV say that charging at home can be amazingly cheap (the app bids for how much they want to pay, or something, because it doesn't matter when it charges between 9pm and 7am), whereas public chargers tend to be much more expensive. They reckon their home charger paid for itself in a year or so.

Edited

No there are few incentives for charger installation these days. We use a granny charger instead but I don’t charge much. Granny charger being EV charger in a normal outdoor socket.

MrsElijahMikaelson1 · 16/03/2025 22:14

This is where no is a complete sentence

samarrange · 16/03/2025 22:13

Doesn't everyone who buys an EV also get a charger installed (unless perhaps they live in a flat with communal arrangements)?

Our friends with an EV say that charging at home can be amazingly cheap (the app bids for how much they want to pay, or something, because it doesn't matter when it charges between 9pm and 7am), whereas public chargers tend to be much more expensive. They reckon their home charger paid for itself in a year or so.

Ohblahdeeiblahdoe · 16/03/2025 22:13

How does she charge her car atm?

Didimum · 16/03/2025 22:10

haufbiskiy · 16/03/2025 22:03

You do realise.that can’t possibly be true don’t you. All electrical devices (including cars) that use electricity cost money when they are turned on

Show quote history

Minimally, not noticeable in general. It’s something like £8 a month, charging every day. That poster claims ‘significantly’.

whynotwhatknot · 16/03/2025 22:09

she shoul have worked out how to charge an ev before she bought one

cheeky fuck

haufbiskiy · 16/03/2025 22:05

Alittlebit9 · 16/03/2025 22:04

@Shinyandnew1 there’s a couple of chargers in our town, about a 7 min drive. But costs about £20 for a full charge.

Which is why she wants you to pay for it

Tallyrand · 16/03/2025 22:05

That's wild someone would even ask that.

I have an overnight tariff but if some CF neighbour charged during the day it would cost me something like £15 each time.

Would you just dish out £15 to every neighbour that knocked on your door asking for it from "time to time"?

Thisisittheapocalypse · 16/03/2025 22:05

I would make it a firm 'No' and nip any further requests now.