OZEV renter and flat owner chargepoint grant

The EV Chargepoint Grant for Renters and Flat Owners, usually called the OZEV (Office for Zero Emission Vehicles) grant, pays 75% of the cost of buying and installing a home chargepoint socket, up to £500. OZEV runs it. The installer claims the money and deducts it from the invoice rather than paying cash to the applicant. As at 22 July 2026, the grant is open until 31 March 2027 and applies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but not in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. The government reserves the right to change or end it and says it will aim to give four weeks’ notice.

What the grant pays and what it leaves you to fund

From 1 April 2026 the grant covers 75% of the combined cost of the chargepoint and its installation, capped at £500 per socket. That is up from the previous £350 cap, part of a set of changes announced on 25 February 2026 that also cut the number of OZEV grant schemes from eight to five. Because the grant is a 75% share, the full £500 is only reached once the installed price is around £667 or more. Below that figure the 75% limit is what applies and the grant is smaller.

The amount left to pay depends on the quote. The current scheme permits one grant per eligible applicant; someone who has already claimed this grant or one of its named predecessor schemes cannot claim again.

Several things commonly sit outside the grant and are charged on top:

Cable runs beyond about 15 metres.
A DNO supply upgrade where the property needs three-phase power.
Trenching across hard landscaping.
Drilling through the external walls of a listed building.
Structural alterations.

A freeholder who insists on a particular installer or a more expensive charger than the cheapest compliant option can also push the price above what the grant offsets.

Who can claim: renters and flat owners, not homeowners

The grant is aimed at two groups: people who own and live in a flat, including flats bought through shared ownership, and people who rent and live in any residential property, house or flat.

Several groups cannot claim:

People who own and live in a house, unless it has been converted into flats and they occupy one of them.
Lodgers, meaning tenants who rent a room in a property where the landlord or owner also lives.
Anyone moving house or planning to move.
Anyone who has already claimed this grant, or its predecessors the EVHS or the Domestic Recharge Scheme.
Homes where a chargepoint is already legally required under the new-build building regulations.
Holiday lets, Airbnb properties and second homes.

An owner-occupier of a house with private off-street parking does not qualify for this renters-and-flat-owners grant. A household with on-street parking may instead qualify for the separate cross-pavement chargepoint grant.

The parking space has to be private and off-street

The applicant needs a parking space that is off-street, private and clearly defined. It has to be available to them at all times and either owned by them or something they have a legal right to use. It does not have to be part of the property itself, but the legal right to use it does have to be documented, including consent from the freeholder where the space sits within a block of flats. The installer assesses whether the space allows a vehicle to charge safely.

On-street parking does not qualify here. A household that has only on-street parking uses a separate scheme, the EV chargepoint grant for households with on-street parking, which funds a cross-pavement solution such as a channel or gully that lets the cable cross the footway. Whether a bay in front of a property counts as private off-street parking or as a public space is a recurring point of dispute, and installers sometimes ask for evidence, up to and including property deeds, that the space is genuinely private.

Which vehicles qualify for the grant

The applicant has to own, lease, run as a company car or hold on a salary sacrifice scheme an eligible EV, or have one on order. A lease or company car arrangement has to run for at least six months. The vehicle has to appear on the OZEV list of eligible vehicles. Every fully electric model qualifies. A plug-in hybrid qualifies only if it emits less than 50g/km of CO2 and has at least 10 miles of electric-only range.

Where a vehicle lease bundles in a chargepoint, the lease has to state that the applicant owns the chargepoint once payments finish and list the cost of the chargepoint and installation including VAT. The warranty also has to meet the grant’s requirements.

Permission from the landlord, freeholder or management company

The grant is harder for renters and flat owners than it would be for an outright homeowner, because someone else usually controls the parking and the building.

A renter needs written permission from the landlord. The letter should name the applicant and the property, and confirm that the chargepoint can be installed and can stay after the tenancy ends. Verbal permission is not accepted.

A flat owner, being a leaseholder, usually faces the most involved route. The parking space and the building services are typically owned by a freeholder or a management company rather than the leaseholder, so a Licence to Alter or equivalent written consent is needed, and some leases bar electrical alterations without express permission. Where the parking space is part of the demised property, meaning it is written into the lease, the leaseholder generally has the right to install once the freeholder consents. Where the space is part of the common areas, such as a shared car park run by a residents’ association, the route is more involved and can require a building-wide assessment of the electrical infrastructure. A charger that would mount on a communal wall, or cabling that would run through communal areas, adds further approvals.

Applying through Find a Grant, and the do-not-install-first rule

Since April 2026 the applicant applies directly, through the government’s Find a Grant service on gov.uk. This is a change from the older process where the installer applied on the applicant’s behalf, and some manufacturer guides still describe that older route. The broad sequence is:

Check that the property, parking and vehicle all qualify.
Get written permission from the landlord, freeholder or management company.
Get a dated quote from an OZEV-authorised installer.
Gather the supporting documents.
Submit the application through Find a Grant.
Wait for approval before any work starts.
After installation, the installer claims the grant with photographic evidence, and OZEV pays the installer directly.

The chargepoint must not be installed before the grant has been approved. Installing early can lose the grant even where the property and charger would otherwise have qualified.

The documents the application asks for are:

A dated installer quote.
Written permission from the landlord, freeholder or management company.
Written permission from the local authority if the property is a listed building.
A utility bill showing the applicant’s name and the property address.
A copy of the tenancy agreement, for renters.

The form also asks for the installer’s email address and OZEV number, which the installer supplies.

The chargepoint and installer both have to be OZEV-approved

The chargepoint has to be a model on the OZEV list of eligible chargepoints, which is kept updated. Every approved model is a smart charger, able to communicate with other devices and the grid. The work has to be done by an OZEV-authorised installer. To hold that authorisation an installer belongs to an accepted Competent Person Scheme (CPS), such as NICEIC, NAPIT or SELECT, or to the Electrical Contracting Association (ECA), and carries public liability insurance of at least £2 million.

As part of the claim the installer submits photographs: a close-up of the installed chargepoint, its model and serial number, the chargepoint in relation to the parking space and a wide-angle shot of the building.

VAT on the installation

An EV chargepoint is not included in HMRC’s list of energy-saving materials, so a standalone chargepoint installation is normally standard-rated for VAT. That is different from installed solar panels, heat pumps and electrical storage batteries, which can qualify for the temporary zero rate. The installer quote and final invoice should show the VAT treatment and the OZEV discount clearly. Where a chargepoint is supplied as part of a wider project, the installer is responsible for applying the VAT rules to the actual contractual supplies; the grant itself does not make the charger zero-rated.

Audits before and after installation

OZEV can audit an application before it approves it and an installation after it is finished, and an audit can include a site visit. An applicant who does not allow the audit or does not answer OZEV’s questions risks having the application cancelled.

The extra Scotland grant for rural and remote homes

As at 22 July 2026, Energy Saving Trust’s Transport Scotland-funded page lists up to £400 for residents in qualifying rural or remote postcode categories whose household income is no more than £50,000. It is subject to available funding, offered first come, first served, and may close without notice during the 2026-27 financial year. Work must not begin before a grant offer letter. Check the live criteria rather than assuming it can be added to every OZEV-funded installation.

Allow time for approval

OZEV does not give a fixed approval time on the current application page. Apply before booking the work and do not let installation begin until the eligibility email and grant letter have arrived. If OZEV asks for more evidence, use the same application account to supply it. The scheme’s support address is published on the Find a Grant page for problems with an application.