More than a quarter of Woking households live in a flat. The 2021 Census puts 22.7% in purpose-built blocks, and adding converted flats and flats in commercial buildings brings the total to about 26.0% (our sum of the TS044 rows). For those households a home charger is less about amps and more about permission: whose wall, whose car park, whose signature.
This guide is for Woking flat owners, leaseholders and tenants. For drives, fuses and solar charging, see our page on EV charger installation in Woking; for how an EV, a battery and panels fit together in a Woking house, see our earlier post, Woking EV owners: does a battery and solar make sense?.
Who decides in a Woking flat
Three people can be involved before anyone drills: the freeholder or managing agent, who usually owns the structure and the car park; the landlord, if you rent; and the network operator, who is told about the chargepoint after it is fitted. In a block near Victoria Square, where the town-centre scheme added 429 apartments, the managing agent is often the first name on the list. In a house converted into flats, which is about 2.5% of Woking homes on the two converted-flat rows (our sum), the freeholder may be one of the flat owners.
Woking’s tenure figures show how often the landlord is also in the picture. On Census 2021 (TS054), 66.4% of Woking households own their home, 21.1% rent privately, up from 15.7% in 2011, and 11.6% rent socially, 7.2% from the council. For a council tenant the landlord is the council; for a private tenant it is the landlord named on the tenancy, even if a letting agent handles the paperwork.
The bay comes first
A home charger needs somewhere to park that is yours to charge at. An allocated bay in a Knaphill block’s car park, a numbered space under a Woking town-centre block, or a garage in a row of garages behind the flats are all workable starting points. Unallocated parking is harder: a charger fixed to a shared space is a charger for whoever parks there first, which is a question for the freeholder and the residents, not for us.
The bay also decides the grant. The OZEV flat-owner and renter grant, as changed from 1 April 2026, needs private off-street or allocated parking. Without one, the standard grant does not apply, and you can read the full conditions in who qualifies for the EV chargepoint grant.
Asking the freeholder
A Woking managing agent can only agree to what it can see. A useful request names the bay, shows where the charger would sit and how the cable would get there from your flat’s own consumer unit, and says who would look after the charger and pay for the electricity it uses. A charger fed from your flat’s supply puts the electricity on your bill; one fed from a landlord’s supply in the car park is a different arrangement that the freeholder would have to set up.
The cable route is usually the deciding item in a block. A first-floor flat whose consumer unit is three walls and a stairwell away from the car park needs a route through common parts, and that route is what the freeholder is really being asked to approve. We survey it before quoting, and our EV charger installation cost guide shows why a long run moves the price more than the charger does.
Renting in Woking
If you rent your Woking flat, the landlord decides, and in a block the freeholder usually has to agree as well. Renters with private off-street or allocated parking can use the same 75% grant, up to £500 per socket, with the tenancy as evidence. Put the agreement in writing, including what happens to the charger if you move out, before any work is booked.
Landlords with several flats in the borough can use a separate route: the residential landlord grant pays up to £500 per socket, for up to 200 sockets a year across their properties. For a landlord letting several Woking flats in one block, that can make a charger part of the property rather than the tenant’s project.
The grants, line by line
| Who | What GOV.UK offers | Parking needed |
|---|---|---|
| Flat owner-occupier | 75% of cost, up to £500 per socket | Private off-street or allocated |
| Renter (house or flat) | 75% of cost, up to £500 per socket | Private off-street or allocated |
| Residential landlord | Up to £500 per socket, up to 200 sockets a year | Their rental properties |
| On-street only | Up to £500 towards a chargepoint with an approved cross-pavement solution, subject to the council’s rules | On-street |
All four run until 31 March 2027, and the claim must be made through an OZEV-authorised installer; tell us your situation at the quote stage. A home charger is standard-rated for VAT at 20%.
When a home charger will not work
Some Woking flats have no bay at all. A ground-floor flat on an Old Woking street with the car at the kerb meets Surrey County Council’s rule that a cable may not trail across the pavement. Its cable gully is the legal route, but the applicant must own the property or have the landlord’s written permission, the charger must be fittable at the front of the property, and you must be able to park legally on the street in front without parking on the footway. Many flats will not meet all of those.
Where nothing works at home, Surrey’s own page says over 200 public chargepoints have been installed across six Surrey districts, and residents can request an on-street chargepoint through the county’s interactive map. If your Woking flat is one where a home charger is not realistic, we will tell you so rather than quote for it. For the storage side of a flat, our page on battery storage in Woking covers what a block’s consent rules mean there.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, TS044 accommodation type and TS054 tenure (Woking, E07000217), via Nomis, read 19 October 2026; ONS, How life has changed in Woking (Census 2021); GOV.UK, Changes to electric vehicle chargepoint grant schemes from 1 April 2026 (updated 7 July 2026); HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6; Surrey County Council, Electric vehicles and our on-street chargepoint rollout (https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/sustainable-driving/electric-vehicles), reviewed 1 October 2026, read 19 October 2026; UK Power Networks, Smart Connect (read 15 October 2026); UK Power Networks licence boundaries (December 2024) and NESO GB DNO licence areas (May 2024); Victoria Square (completed 2022, 429 apartments), as recorded on our Woking solar page.