The neighbour and the EV charger

[Alittlebit9]

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

Don't do it. Even if she offered to pay there will always be the day that the charger breaks when your neighbour is using it and the cost if repair will fall on you.

Why the rudeness?
They're responding to your own post about it!

My Idea:
So what you'd need is somethjing like "Rent my parking dot co dot uk" where people willing to share their EV charging can register their location and details.

The service operator - like Uber or AirBnB - then arranges taking payments and controlling the internet connected charger via the app, so only the person who rented the slot can use it (you could also use the addional security features of the EV to further ensure only the correct vehicle is being charged).

Obviously the person renting out the EV charger (possibly during the day when they are at work) would be paid an additional %age as well as the intermediary company on top of the electricity used.

ChatGPTs analysis:

Yeah, exactly! This would be like an "Airbnb for EV chargers", allowing homeowners or businesses to rent out their private EV charging points when they're not using them.
A few key features that would make it work well:

• App-based booking & payments (like Uber, so you only pay for what you use)
• Smart charger control (so only the person who booked can access it)
• Vehicle verification (maybe using the car's built-in security or plate recognition)
• Dynamic pricing (to adjust for peak/off-peak electricity rates)
• Incentives for hosts (so it's worth their while to rent out their charger)

This could be a game-changer in cities where public charging stations are scarce or expensive, and it would make use of existing infrastructure. Would you focus this on homeowners, businesses, or both?

I let my neighbour use mine, he pays a small premium to my electricity rate (basically round it up to the nearest 5p). Works out cheaper for him than charging publicly and doesn’t cost me anything.

I would love this. I charge at home and don’t usually go more than 4/5 miles in a day so not an issue to charge at home but am going on a long journey in a few months and reading having to pay up to £0.89 per kw for what i get at home at £0.07. This is why they’ll never take off properly EV cars - if I had to leave my town frequently I’d never have moved away from petrol / diesel. Also the cars themselves need to be cheaper for people to choose electric.

there’s already an app like this but as it’s people on drive chargers only 7kwh so would take all night so not all that convenient. It’s called co charger

'At all' isn't true I should say – but 'not much' is, and in the context for replying to a poster who said their electricity bill ha gone up 'significantly'. I said £8 a month upthread – which isn't true, as I was tired and not typing properly. It's about £38 a month, and I do view that as quite insignificant, but 'significance' is relative obviously.

What a CF.

I'd say I'm sorry but we manage our finances quite tightly and can't afford to be charging additional vehicles.

As others have said, you wouldn't pay for her petrol

Fair enough!

Already exists I’m afraid

First post nails it!

Did she offer any payment?

when you responded to her, did you ask about paying for the electricity?

A big NO...!!

You could rent it out? £5 for a full charge 😆

Definitely don’t share one! It will become a huge inconvenience and cost to you especially when the other neighbours find out! I would be getting some kind of lock over it too bc they will likely use it when you’re not there. Yes you can see them on your ring doorbell but you can actually stop it happening. My friend has had so many problems with random people using hers, she’s currently having some kind of contraption put into the wall that you need a key to open. Like this Ev lockbox

There’s nothing worse than a beggar.

Yes

Do you believe that they had the nerve to complain about you using your own charger and they were being put out. Unbelievable

Yeah 😂 they would ask if we could use it at another time since they needed to use it then and there!

I can't believe there are so many CF electricity thieves someone's created an almost dragons den wonder to lock it

CFs can still take us by surprise. I’d like to respond to her request with “Course you can use our EV! And if you like you can store food in my freezer, you can have my broadband password, bring your wet washing round and I’ll put in my dryer, you can peg your washing in my garden and come round and pop my kettle on when you want a cup of tea…. Anything else I can do for you?”
but some CFs would take you at your word 😀
Glad to read how you dealt with it in your updates.

I would say no. Cheeky beggar!

There may be a house insurance implication,

As someone said upthread, just give them the details of the installer you used.

Make sure you have a lock on yours.

do this - and add on a bit so that you partially recover the cost of installation.

Sounds reasonable but it could end up being an absolute PITA

Please Send us her details and we will say no on your behalf. Cheek