AIBU charging electric car without asking at Air BnB

[Needanadultgapyear]

We have an annex, it must remain part of the main property for planning purposes and therefore can not be on long term let as a separate home. We offer it on Air BnB it is near a major tourist attraction and a main road connect several UK ports to central and North England.
Our insurance excludes specifically charging electric cars, we put this in our listing and we are 5 minutes from a super fast charging point. If people ask I politely explain that we do not allow electric car charging and point them to the super fast charger.
We had guests a few days ago and DH noticed a wire from a bedroom to the car. So he went round and asked if they were charging. They claimed they were only charging mobile phones, but the wire did disappear.

I feel like this is CFery, but in RL people have said oh well it’s only a few pence.

I'm an EV owner. Trickle charge (3 pin plug) should only be used in an emergency to give you enough charge to get to the nearest charging point.

It's also insanely slow and really really not worth bothering as a regular way to charge.

This is from my manufacturer (kia)

I have an EV and wouldn’t charge it at an Air BnB unless there was a charging point and the option was given.

Two have caught fire locally to us in the last month - the damaged they cause is immense and the fire brigade almost have to stand and watch them burn whilst they melt concrete

Two ICE cars have caught fire locally to me in this past week, one on a petrol station forecourt and one outside the local chemist. You can imagine the damage that’s done.

This thread is beginning to sound like a scaremongering attempt at EVs tbh

My husband is also anti- electric as knows a lot about it through his profession. He believes hydrogen is the way to go but the infrastructure is very poor. We would also no allow a charging point!

I think you’ve misinterpreted the point you highlighted. Trickle charging relates to using a straight 3-pin plug without the ICCB (big rectangle box attached to the cable). Most EV is sold with one of those and they are (as the instructions you’ve sent suggest) completely fine.

I can see installing a charger might make business sense if facilities were limited locally, but that clearly isn’t the case. I’d avoid the hassle of installation and working out how to ensure guests pay for their consumption given most will be perfectly happy with a fast charger five minutes away and not selfish enough to break clear rules.

How is using a charger supplied with my car anymore of a fire hazard than me plugging in my mobile phone charger, my hairdryer or my blender?? If you say you aren’t sure if it is safe then any of those things might have been tampered with? Doesn’t make sense.

I think it’s rude to use your electricity to charge their car so on that front I think they were out of order, but I’m not convinced your reasoning about it not being safe is correct.

I have an EV and I think your guests are cheeky. I do not agree it is only a little thing either. Depending on the car size, three charges in the daytime over a week (guests will be travelling so this is possible), could easily rack up 90 quid, which could alter the profitability of the let. Possible to set up a separate charging point, but at the moment this would cost 1k or so, so a bit difficult to get this cash back.

Hahaha that charging a car battery is similar to using a hair dryer.

OP: the truth is that AirBnB / holiday cottage guests routinely break all rules. Dogs allowed but not in the sofa or upstairs? I stayed in a cottage with those rules with my (lovely and otherwise reasonable) friend and within minutes the dog was on the beautiful velvet sofas and slept on the bed. I stayed in a cottage every year with those rules and I can tell dogs have been on the sofa. And know they go upstairs.

My Mum used to rent her house out: no household linens / soft furnishings to go outside. I actually saw her guests in the beach with her lovely woollen sofa throws.

So electricity theft / fire risk are doubtless standard these days.

I would tell guests (in the ‘no EV charging’ clause) that you check the smart meter and any unauthorised charging will result in their immediate eviction.

Why should you incur a £1k installation charge because of entitled CF guests?

Personally while I wouldn't charge an EV if specified on the booking that it was not allowed, I would not be happy at having to go 5 mins away to get it charged.

I echo others, upgrade your insurance and get a proper point put in

I don't know about completely fine, Kia still tell you that a cable with an ICCB is not for everyday use

https://www.kiapartsuk.com/kia-ev-charger-cable-12062-p.asp

FWIW when I had my EV charger fitted I phoned my house insurance company, they told me I hadn’t needed to notify them but they’d make a note on my policy anyway.

A petrol or diesel engined car does not burn with anything like the intensity of a battery fire, and the fire brigade can sort them out with foam.

Lithium batteries are almost impossible to extinguish, they pretty much have to watch them burn.

The risk of your ICE car catching fire is far greater.

Because the EV is charging for several hours at a time. If you are using a ‘granny’ charger (3 pin plug) rather than a proper EV charger it puts a huge strain on the house electrical circuit for an extended time. When you get a proper EV charger installed they an extra breakers and stuff.

I can believe this but before others leap in on EVs being a fire hazard it will be the fault of the electric socket or possibly the cable not the car itself. We use the three pin plug sometimes for our car but only because we know its safe as recently installed.

OP - in your shoes I'd consider putting a charger which will make your property more attractive. The occupiers were CF for charging without you asking. We have asked nicely int he past and left a tip to cover the cost. How much it actualy costs will vary wildy. Charging our car overnight costs very little but thats because we have a special EV overnight tariff which most people don't.

The difference is that an ICE car fire can be relatively easily extinguished.

Extinguishing an EV fire can be “challenging”.

My car manufacturer says it should be treated like charging a phone, don’t just plug it in when and where, do it for full charges only 🤷🏼‍♀️

Full charges only?
Is this a full ev? Which manufacturer?
I thought wisdom was keep it between 20 and 80.
A full charge on 3kw would take ages to go to full
Maybe things have changed since I first got my car

Oh, I don't know. I'm happy enough if there's a supercharger within 5-10 miles of where I am. I would always ask the owner if I could charge the car first even if they had a charger, unless it had been advertised to me that I could, and I certainly wouldn't be trickle charging out of a window.

OP - most batteries in EVs now last ten years+ and the technology on recycling batteries is constantly improving. My neighbour feels the same way as your husband (is also in the motor trade) but my view is that EVs aren't going away any time soon and your property would certainly be more appealing to me as a holidaymaker or business traveller if I could charge my car overnight there.

The fire hazard comes from trying to charge off a 3 pin plug - they may or may not be safe (how would you know have they had it tested?) and it going into a standard prob double socket - how is the house wiring!!! This kind of charging is generally older electric cars so could be increased risk. I would put signs by the sockets likely to be used and say not suitable for car charging due to house power rating or something. 95% of people have no clue how to assess whether that is true or not to be fair. I would also make sure that there is a notice on the fridge (the oracle!) that tells them where nearest different types of chargers are - most supermarkets now have good fast chargers so a 30 min shop will get them to 80%. You only have the one let so installing a charger when you don't have an electric is a bit of an extravagance given its 800 to 1k generally. The cost doesn't seem high till you work out what a full charge is on your power rates and multiply that by how many nights you let out the accom - so 8 quid isn't much until you multiply by say 30 for a low key rental and then its 240 quid which is quite alot to take off the bottom line

If you have a point put in, I assume you’d need to charge more, to cover the cost of that plus the electricity.

Ten years? The batteries being made now should go for decades and decades. They are still good for house batteries once they don't hold enough charge for a car.

Ten years plus is what I said 🙄

People are really just shit aren't they....