Four Hemel Hempstead households in ten rent their home. On our sum of the 2021 Census ward figures, 26.7% of households in the town’s thirteen wards rent from the council or a housing association and 15.4% rent privately. For those households, a home EV charger is not only a question of fuses and cable runs. Someone else owns the wall it would be fixed to, and often the parking space as well.
This guide is about that first step: who has to agree, which grant applies to whom, and what to ask for. For the installation itself in HP1, HP2 and HP3, from the charger we fit to the network paperwork, see our page on EV charger installation in Hemel Hempstead.
Who owns the wall decides
A charger is fixed to a building and wired into its consumer unit on a dedicated circuit. That makes it an alteration to the property, and in a rented home the property is the landlord’s. So the order is always the same: the landlord agrees in writing, then the survey, then the installation. In a block of flats, home to a quarter of households in Hemel’s wards, there can be two parties to ask: the landlord who lets the flat and the freeholder or managing agent who controls the building and the car park.
Across Dacorum as a whole, 21.0% of households rent from a social landlord and 14.3% rent privately, on ONS’s Census 2021 tenure figures. Hemel’s wards sit above both district shares, which means the rest of Dacorum, Berkhamsted, Tring and the villages, rents less than the district average (our arithmetic). In the Mark One New Town laid out to Geoffrey Jellicoe’s 1947 masterplan, renting is a mainstream situation, not an edge case.
If Dacorum Borough Council is your landlord
At the 2021 Census, 15.6% of Dacorum households rented from the council or local authority itself, and another 5.5% from other social landlords such as housing associations. If that is you, the council or association is the first conversation, not the installer. Two things usually decide the answer. First, whether you have a parking space you control, on the property or allocated to you in a parking court; a charger has to reach the car without crossing public land. Second, what the landlord’s own policy says about tenant alterations.
Hertfordshire County Council, the highway authority for Hemel’s roads, states plainly that you cannot run private charging cables across public roads, pavements and paths. That rules out the trailing cable from a front door to a car parked in the street, whoever your landlord is.
Private renters: two grants, one charger
The national OZEV schemes were changed from 1 April 2026. If you rent, and have private off-street or allocated parking, you can get 75% of the purchase and installation cost, up to £500 per socket. On a £600 job that is £450 towards it; above about £667 the grant sits at its £500 ceiling (our arithmetic). A residential landlord can instead claim up to £500 per socket under a separate landlord scheme, which covers up to 200 sockets a year, so a landlord with several Hemel properties can do them together. Both run to 31 March 2027.
Which route you use is something to settle with your landlord before the quote; with 15.4% of households in Hemel’s wards renting privately, it is a conversation many HP1 to HP3 tenants share. Grant claims must be made through an OZEV-authorised installer; tell us your situation at the quote stage. Our guide to who qualifies for the EV chargepoint grant sets out each case in more detail.
Flats: the freeholder, the bay and the route
In the same thirteen wards, 25.7% of households live in purpose-built flats (our sum of ONS ward figures), against 20.6% across Dacorum. For a flat, ask the freeholder or managing agent three things: may a charger be fixed to the building or a post in your allocated bay, may a cable run from your flat’s supply across shared areas to reach it, and who is responsible for it afterwards. The cable route from your consumer unit to the bay is usually the longest part of the job in a block, and it is the line on a quote that varies most. Our guide to EV charger installation cost explains why.
Owner-occupiers are 57.0% of households in the thirteen wards. If you are one of them and your Hemel home is a flat, the same 75% grant applies, up to £500 per socket, with the same parking condition.
What to put in the request to your landlord
A clear written request is easier for a Hemel landlord, or for Dacorum Borough Council’s housing team, to say yes to. We suggest it covers:
- where the charger would go, with a photo of the wall or bay;
- the unit: we fit the EnSmart SmartBee-M, a 7 kW smart charger, socketed or tethered;
- the route of the cable from the consumer unit;
- which grant is being claimed, and by whom;
- what happens to the charger at the end of the tenancy: left in place, or removed and the wall made good.
That last point is worth agreeing in writing, because the grant pays towards the charger but the landlord owns the building, and in Dacorum the landlord is a social landlord for 21.0% of households.
If you have no parking you control
Many Hemel terraces have parking in the street rather than a drive, and 34.8% of households in the thirteen wards lived in terraced houses in 2021. Without a space you control, home charging is not available at present. The county’s cross-pavement channel trial is open only to St Albans postcodes AL1 to AL5, so it does not reach HP postcodes.
The public route is slower but real. The county has £6,015,000 of LEVI capital funding for chargepoints, especially for residents without off-street parking, and has awarded the contract for Dacorum, Hertsmere, Three Rivers and Watford to Believ Ltd. It says sites are being assessed, residents will be consulted, and installation will be in phases from early 2027. It cannot provide an on-street chargepoint on demand, but you can propose a location.
Before the survey
Plug-in cars are spreading across the district: DVLA records 4,952 privately kept plug-in vehicles in Dacorum at the end of June 2026, up from 3,690 a year earlier. Bring your landlord’s written agreement to the survey, along with the parking arrangement and the car’s details. We check the main fuse, the consumer unit and the earthing, and confirm the cable route before anything is priced. A home charger carries 20% VAT, unlike panels and batteries. If a battery is part of the longer plan, our page on battery storage in Hemel Hempstead covers where one fits in the town’s homes.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, TS054 Tenure, Dacorum (E07000096), via the Nomis API, read 19 October 2026; ONS Census 2021 TS044 and TS054 categories, May 2022 wards Adeyfield East to Woodhall Farm, via the ONS Census API (our sums); ONS Census 2021 TS044, Dacorum, via the Nomis API; Dacorum Borough Council, Dacorum Local Plan to 2041, Pre-Submission version (November 2024); GOV.UK, Changes to electric vehicle chargepoint grant schemes from 1 April 2026 (updated 7 July 2026); Hertfordshire County Council, Electric vehicle charging in Hertfordshire (https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/highways-roads-and-pavements/news-and-campaigns/electric-vehicles.aspx) and Electric vehicle cross-pavement charging cable licence (https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/highways-roads-and-pavements/changes-to-your-road/cross-pavement-channel/cross-pavement-channel.aspx), both read 19 October 2026; DfT and DVLA, VEH0142 licensed plug-in vehicles, private keepers, Dacorum, 2026 Q2 and 2025 Q2 (published 23 September 2026); HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6; EnSmart SmartBee-M published specification, as listed by its UK distributor.