OZEV grant for flats and rentals UK 2026: who qualifies, what is paid

The EV chargepoint grant for flats and rental accommodation pays up to £350 toward an OZEV-approved home chargepoint install, covering 75% of the capped cost.

It survived the April 2022 cull that closed the wider Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme to homeowners with off-street parking, and the flats and rental route remained open under amended grant conditions set out by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles.

Why the flats and rentals route still exists when EVHS closed

The Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) closed to owner-occupier houses with off-street parking on 31 March 2022. The carve-out for flats and rentals stayed open because the policy logic was different. Houses had a decade of EVHS support; the population in leasehold flats and the private rented sector had barely started installing, partly because tenants do not own the freehold and partly because landlords had little incentive to pay for a chargepoint a tenant uses.

OZEV restructured the grant in April 2022 into three explicit eligibility routes and rebranded it the EV chargepoint grant. The legal basis sits in the grant terms published on GOV.UK and updated most recently in the OZEV statistics quarterly release for Q1 2026, which tracked roughly 5,400 grant approvals across the three routes for the rolling 12 months to March 2026.

The catch is that "flat" and "rental" are interpreted narrowly. A maisonette with its own front door and a deeded driveway often qualifies. A converted Victorian terrace where the upper-floor flat has a parking space on the title deed but the lower flat does not means only the upper-floor occupant can claim. OZEV reads the title plan.

The £350 cap and what 75% actually means in practice

The grant is the lower of £350 or 75% of the install cost. A typical OZEV-compliant install in 2026 runs £900 to £1,300 for a 7kW tethered unit including labour and standard cable run, so the £350 ceiling bites every time. The customer pays the balance to the installer; OZEV pays the £350 directly to the installer post-commissioning.

Here is where it breaks for many tenants: the grant pays for the chargepoint and a standard install. Anything non-standard (consumer unit upgrade, more than 15 metres of cable run from board to parking space, trenching across a shared driveway, third-party landowner consent) is on the customer.

So a published "free chargepoint" install rarely is. On the ground, most tenants in a 1960s converted block pay £500 to £700 out of pocket after the grant lands.

The three eligibility routes, in detail

Route 1: flat owner-occupier

The applicant must own and live in the flat, hold a leasehold or commonhold title that includes (or grants exclusive use of) a parking space, and have written consent from the freeholder or managing agent if the install affects common parts. The consent letter is the slow step. Block managing agents routinely take 8 to 12 weeks to issue consent for a single chargepoint install because they want to see method statements, RAMS documentation, and the OZEV-approved installer's PL insurance certificate.

Route 2: tenant in private or social rented property

The tenant applies. The landlord signs a one-page OZEV-template consent form. The chargepoint stays with the property when the tenancy ends, which is the trade-off: the tenant funds the resident's share and walks away from the asset.

This route is the one that quietly drives most uptake in London boroughs with high private-rented density. Tower Hamlets and Hackney both ran council communications in late 2025 promoting the route specifically because their on-street EV charging rollout under the LEVI fund was behind schedule.

Route 3: landlord installing for tenants

Landlords can claim the grant for each eligible parking space they install across their portfolio. There is a cap: 100 grants per landlord across residential properties and 100 per landlord across commercial in any given financial year. The landlord must be the freeholder or hold a long lease with the right to alter, and the chargepoint must remain available for tenant use.

In practice, build-to-rent operators (Get Living, Quintain, Grainger) use this route at scale. A 2,000-flat development with 400 allocated parking bays generates a £140,000 grant claim if every bay is fitted, which materially changes the install business case.

OZEV-approved chargepoints and installers: the published lists

Two registers govern eligibility. The OZEV-approved chargepoint model list is published on GOV.UK and currently runs to over 130 distinct units across roughly 30 manufacturers (Andersen, Easee, Hypervolt, MyEnergi Zappi, Ohme, Pod Point, Wallbox, EO, Project EV are the high-volume names in 2026). The OZEV-approved installer list is separate and longer.

An installer not on the list cannot trigger the grant payment. A chargepoint not on the list cannot trigger the grant payment. The two lists are revised quarterly; manufacturers occasionally drop off when a firmware certification lapses, which catches DIY-minded customers who bought hardware on eBay six months earlier.

The smart-charging requirement

Since 30 June 2022, the Smart Charge Point Regulations 2021 require every domestic chargepoint sold in Great Britain to default to off-peak charging windows (overnight on weekdays, all weekend), to randomise start times by up to 600 seconds to prevent grid surge, and to support data reporting back to the manufacturer's cloud. OZEV-approved units comply by definition. The regulations apply UK-wide except Northern Ireland, which sits under DfI Roads jurisdiction.

Devolved-nation differences worth knowing

Scotland runs an additional layer. The Energy Saving Trust administers the Domestic Charge Point Funding Scheme on behalf of Transport Scotland, which can top up the OZEV grant by up to £400 for households in remote and rural island postcodes (defined under the Scottish Government's Urban Rural Classification, classes 5 to 8). A household in Stornoway can stack the £350 OZEV grant and the £400 EST top-up for £750 toward an install where the cable run to an outbuilding might otherwise be unaffordable.

Wales has no equivalent top-up. The Welsh Government's Ultra Low Emission Vehicle Transformation Fund focused on public on-street charging through 2025 and into the current spending review.

Northern Ireland sits outside OZEV entirely for chargepoint grants. The relevant scheme is administered through the Department for Infrastructure with its own application route, lower grant value, and different installer list.

The on-street parking carve-out is the silent killer

OZEV defines "dedicated off-street parking" as a space the householder has exclusive legal right to use, physically off the public highway, and either on the property's title plan or covered by a registered deed of grant. An allocated bay in a block where the bay is marked by paint but not deed-registered fails. This is the single biggest reason flat-owner applications get rejected. The DVSA-approved installer's site survey will flag it; the OZEV grant validator will reject it; the applicant finds out after they have already paid the survey fee. Check the Land Registry title plan before booking the survey. The title plan costs £3 to download. The survey costs £75 to £150 and is non-refundable at most installers.

Application timeline: from inquiry to commissioned chargepoint

A clean flat owner-occupier application takes 6 to 10 weeks. A landlord consent process takes 10 to 16 weeks. A managing-agent consent process for a leasehold flat takes 12 to 24 weeks. The installer drives the grant submission; the householder is the named applicant.

• Week 0: householder contacts OZEV-approved installer.
• Week 1 to 2: site survey, quote, eligibility check (title plan, parking, consumer unit photos).
• Week 2 to 6: landlord or managing-agent consent, where needed.
• Week 6 to 10: installer submits grant application to OZEV, books install date.
• Week 10 to 12: install, commissioning, grant payment to installer, balance invoice to householder.

The bottleneck is consent, every time.

Common rejection reasons (and how to avoid them)

OZEV's published rejection notes from grant administration data show the recurring failures: parking space not on the title plan, applicant has a previous EVHS or WCS claim against the same address, chargepoint model not on the approved register, installer not on the approved register, landlord consent not dated and signed, second flat in the same building applying after the first had already claimed the only freeholder consent on file.

The fix in each case is a 30-minute check before the survey. Title plan from Land Registry. Address history of grant claims (the installer can run this through the OZEV portal). Chargepoint model number against the GOV.UK PDF list, dated within the last 90 days because the list changes quarterly.

Frequently asked questions

Can a tenant claim the grant if the landlord refuses to sign?

No. The landlord-consent form is mandatory under the Route 2 application terms. A refusal closes that route entirely. A tenant can ask the landlord to claim under Route 3 instead, where the landlord receives the £350 directly.

Does the grant cover a commercial chargepoint at a residential block?

Not under the domestic flats and rentals scheme. The Workplace Charging Scheme covers commercial sites and pays up to £350 per socket, capped at 40 sockets per applicant. A mixed-use residential block uses the WCS route for landlord-funded chargepoints in shared visitor parking.

What happens if the installer fails to claim the grant correctly?

The grant pays the installer, not the householder. If the installer's submission is rejected, the customer is liable for the full install cost unless the installer agrees to absorb it. Always confirm the grant submission is in flight before the install date.

Can the grant be combined with a Smart Export Guarantee or solar install?

Yes. The £350 chargepoint grant sits alongside the zero-rate VAT on solar and storage that runs until March 2027, and is independent of any SEG export tariff. Same property, different scheme.

Is there a deadline on the flats and rentals grant?

The grant was last extended through to 31 March 2027 in DESNZ funding decisions confirmed in the 2025 autumn statement. Further extension beyond that point depends on the next spending review cycle.

What counts as "dedicated off-street parking" in a shared courtyard?

The space must be marked, allocated by deed or title plan, and exclusively used by the applicant household. Paint markings without a registered deed fail OZEV's validation check. A managing agent's letter alone is not sufficient evidence.

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