About one Epsom and Ewell household in four rents its home. The 2021 Census puts 16.1% renting privately and 8.8% renting socially (TS054; the total is our sum), and private renting has grown from 13.3% in 2011. For those households, a home charger starts with someone else’s yes.
This guide is for tenants and landlords in the borough. For drives, fuses and solar, see our page on EV charger installation in Epsom; for how a charger, a battery and panels fit together in an owner-occupied Epsom home, see our earlier post, Epsom EV drivers: charger, battery and panels in order.
Why the landlord’s answer comes first
A charger is fixed to the building, wired into its consumer unit and, for a 7 kW unit, puts a 32 A load on a supply the landlord is responsible for. So whether you rent a semi off College Road or a flat near the town centre, the landlord has to agree before any work is booked. In a flat, the freeholder or managing agent usually has a say as well, because the wall, the car park and the cable route are theirs.
The Census shows how the borough’s rented homes divide. Of all Epsom and Ewell households, 14.6% rent through a private landlord or letting agency, 1.6% rent privately in other ways, and 8.1% rent from a housing association or other social landlord; only 0.6% rent from the council (ONS Census 2021, TS054). So for most Epsom tenants the person to ask is a private landlord or their agent, and for social tenants it is usually a housing association rather than the borough council.
Asking an Epsom landlord
Landlords answer specific requests more readily than general ones. A useful request covers:
- Where the charger would sit: the wall beside the drive or the allocated bay.
- How the cable would run from the consumer unit, and roughly how long it is.
- That the network operator, UK Power Networks for Epsom, is notified by the installer, not by you or the landlord.
- Who pays, whether a grant applies, and what happens to the charger when the tenancy ends.
The last point matters most to landlords. Agree it in writing at the start: whether the charger stays with the property, and whether you or the landlord would pay for any removal and making good. Our home EV charger installation page shows what an installation involves, which helps answer a landlord’s questions about drilling and cabling.
The renter’s grant
If you rent an Epsom home with private off-street or allocated parking, you can claim 75% of the purchase and installation cost of a chargepoint, up to £500 per socket, until 31 March 2027. The claim must be made through an OZEV-authorised installer, and the tenancy is part of the evidence; tell us your situation at the quote stage. The grant does not replace the landlord’s permission, and it does not apply to on-street parking, which has its own route below. Who qualifies for the EV chargepoint grant sets out the full conditions.
If you are the landlord
Epsom landlords have a separate grant: up to £500 per socket, for up to 200 sockets a year across their properties, also until 31 March 2027 and also claimed through an OZEV-authorised installer. A charger the landlord installs is part of the property, which avoids the end-of-tenancy question and can be listed when the home is next let. With privately kept plug-in vehicles across the borough rising from 2,153 to 2,744 in the year to June 2026, about 27% (our arithmetic), more tenants are likely to ask.
A landlord with several flats in one Epsom block can also ask the freeholder about a shared car-park installation rather than one charger at a time. The grant counts sockets, so a landlord-led job can cover more than one bay.
Housing association tenants
With 8.1% of Epsom and Ewell households renting from a housing association or other social landlord, a fair number of tenants will need that landlord’s policy rather than an individual’s agreement. Ask the housing association in writing, with the same details a private landlord would want, and ask whether it has a standard position on chargers. The renter’s grant is for people who rent and have private off-street or allocated parking; tell us your tenancy and parking at the quote stage and we will say whether it looks likely to apply in your Epsom home.
Parking decides more than the tenancy
Whatever the tenancy, the parking sets the limits. 20.9% of Epsom and Ewell households live in purpose-built flats and 13.2% in terraces (ONS Census 2021, TS044), and many of those homes park on the street. Surrey County Council says trailing a cable across the pavement is not allowed in Surrey. Its cable gully, set into the footway, is the alternative, but the applicant must own the property or have the landlord’s written permission, the charger must be fittable at the front, and the footway must be council-maintained and paved to the kerb. The £499 subsidised fee includes a £100 non-refundable deposit. OZEV’s on-street grant, up to £500 towards a chargepoint with an approved cross-pavement solution, is subject to the council’s rules.
The borough has 21 conservation areas, several with Article 4 Directions, and Surrey notes that a charger at a home without off-street parking may need planning permission from the borough council. For a rented terrace in the town centre or Stamford Green, that is a question for the landlord and Epsom and Ewell Borough Council before it is one for us. If the panels side of a rented home is also under discussion, our page on solar panels in Epsom covers the roof.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, TS054 tenure and TS044 accommodation type (Epsom and Ewell, E07000208), via Nomis, read 19 October 2026; ONS, How life has changed in Epsom and Ewell: 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; DfT and DVLA, VEH0142 licensed plug-in vehicles by local authority, private keepers, 2026 Q2 and 2025 Q2 (published 23 September 2026); Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, conservation areas; UK Power Networks licence boundaries (December 2024). Totals and the change in vehicles are our arithmetic.