Bought EV - since discovered looped (shared) power supply with neighbour

[mullingitallover43]

Our property shares a looped power supply with our next door neighbour.

Their supply is looped off our supply, which is directly joined to the cable in the street. We have a 60 amp supply, their supply is 100 amp. We recently bought an EV and have found out our supply can't handle an EV charger. So we're having to charge the car via an inside unit with the wire going through our front window - not ideal.

The network operator need do works to separate the set ups to give us and our neighbour our own separate access to the supply cable. This will involve digging up a trench along the neighbour's driveway through to the side of their house.

They have just spent money improving their driveway so are a little annoyed, but they will not have to pay anything for the electrics work.

My questions are: Is this a common situation now and could our neighbours potentially block the works from happening, as they own their house privately? It's very frustrating for us to discover this having bought the car.

We had the exact same problem. Thankfully our neighbours didn't object, but they were disappointed by the trench along the driveway and have tried a couple of ways to disguise it. But it is what it is, and we all have to live with it. But if they ever wanted an EV they'd have to do it anyway!

Very common. The electric company said another way was to dig up the street, obviously from their point of view it’s easier to dig up a drive. Has anyone been out to survey it yet? I’d be surprised if the neighbours drive is the only option for separating.

The surveyor came out and told them he’d need to dig up their drive from the front and that he wouldn’t want that on his own driveway (not helpful) - he hasn’t sent the final design yet though.

This happened when our neighbours had an extension. A man came from the electric company and explained that they would try to dig a trench with a mole but if that didn't work they would need to dig up the drive. He said if we objected it would go to a panel to decide how important it was and permission may not be given for a charging point. In the end they dug it out with a mole, we were left with a small square of dug out drive which they tried to match ( printed concrete) but was a slightly different colour. It didn't really matter as an old drive and the bit they dug out was near the back.

Apparently the power company that supplies us here will not use a mole due to safety issues.

So it sounds like neighbours can object to the work then it goes to a panel

I have absolutely no expertise on this whatsoever other than my own experience and I’m sure each case is different but I suspect the surveyor hasn’t given you the other option purely because it’s more hassle for them and they have to get permission for road closures etc.

Make sure that your inside electrics are safe to use for charging a car. Many are not and will cause overheating and eventually a fire. Also check your insurance, you are usually not covered if a fire starts from charging a car using an indoor outlet. You could end up with a burnt down house/neighbours houses and not able to claim anything back.

@Snoken surely that’s part of the checks the power company have been doing here and the reason behind needing the upgrade?

This happened to us. The works we had done were:

1. New wire connection from the main wire running down the street to our house (the electricity network company dug a trench and made the drive exactly as it was before. Apparently this is standard in the north west? Ours is herringbone block paved and they repaved it exactly the same as it was.)
2. The cable between our house and their house was disconnected. This was done at their doorway close to where the mains box is. I don't think any digging was done.

This was all free to us, it is paid for by the network charges everyone pays their electricity company. They said lots of houses are set up this way but eventually they'll all need to be switched to individual wires rather than shared. The current system won't be able to handle the load of electric heating and EVs. If your neighbour get solar panels and batteries that could avoid having a new wire but otherwise they will probably need one eventually (or you, depending on who has the wire to the main wire).

Yes, but unless I’m misunderstanding you, you are charging you car via an internal outlet until you get the work done to charge it in the proper way?

Ah got you, yes that’s right and a good point