Guide · Charging at home
Right to charge: what tenants and condominium owners may demand
If you rent, you cannot currently demand that your landlord provide a way to charge at your parking space. The Federal Council wants to change that and on 19 June 2026 sent an amendment to the Energy Act out for consultation. It closed on 12 October 2026, and nothing has been decided yet. Here is what the draft provides, what it costs and what you can already do today.
What the draft provides
A new Article 45c of the Energy Act obliges the owner of a parking space that is let together with a dwelling to install the basic charging installation if the person using the space asks for it and the work is reasonable. The basic installation comprises the power line to the parking space and a system that allocates consumption to the individual users. If the parking area has room for more than two vehicles, it also includes load management.
The charging station itself is not part of the obligation. Once the space is connected, the person using it may connect a charging station at their own expense, even if someone else requested the basic installation. The station must suit the installation, which means it has to communicate with the load management and be controllable. The basis is motion 23.3936 by Jürg Grossen, adopted by the National Council on 13 June 2024 and by the Council of States on 11 June 2025.
Who has the right and who does not
- Tenants with a parking space from the same landlord. It does not matter whether the space is in the same contract or was rented later.
- Subtenants. In principle they have the right too. Because of the short duration, however, the report expects the work to often be unreasonable.
- Condominium owners with their own parking space on the property. They first make the request at the owners’ meeting; only if it is rejected does it go to the conciliation authority and the court.
- Not covered: a parking space rented from a different owner than the flat, for example in a nearby car park. The Federal Council examined a broader version and rejected it.
What reasonable means
The law does not define it; the courts will do so case by case. The explanatory report names the criteria: cost, technical feasibility, heritage protection, structural obstacles, major alterations already planned and the remaining length of the tenancy. Anyone who has given notice, has a fixed-term contract or is living in an extended tenancy will hardly be able to rely on the right.
What it costs and who pays
The owner pays for the basic installation at first. Because it increases the value of the property, in a tenancy the owner may pass it on to the rent of the connected parking spaces, under the rules for value-enhancing investments. The report puts the retrofit at 500 to 1’500 francs per parking space. A guide drawn up with the homeowners’ and tenants’ associations estimates the rent increase at 5 to 10 francs per space and month.
If the owner retrofits the whole garage at once, which the report calls the economically obvious approach, the rent of every parking space may rise, including for those who keep driving on petrol. You pay for the charging station yourself. A single-space solution, which the Federal Council deliberately does not prescribe, costs 2’000 to 4’000 francs according to the report and would often have to be replaced after a few years.
In a condominium, the owners’ community splits the costs according to its regulations, for example by ownership share.
Who is for it and who is against
According to the news agency SDA, the SVP, the Centre and the Swiss Homeowners’ Association reject the bill: they see an intrusion into property rights and fear higher housing costs. The SP, the Greens, VCS, Swiss eMobility, auto-schweiz and the homeowners’ association Casafair support it, and almost all of them want «reasonable» to be defined more precisely in the law. VCS and the Greens want the right to cover parking spaces that are not let together with the dwelling. The Federation of Trade Unions wants to prevent the costs being spread across all parking tenants.
What you can already do today
- Ask your landlord in writing. An owner may already retrofit voluntarily today. Several cantons and municipalities support basic installations on private parking spaces; the federal government does not. What the cantons pay for bidirectional charging stations is in the article on bidirectional charging, and the public charging points near you in the Charging tab.
- Bring the guides. SwissEnergy publishes on laden-punkt.ch one guide for rented property, drawn up with the homeowners’ and tenants’ associations, and one for condominiums.
- A building permit is usually not needed. According to guidance from the conference of cantonal building, planning and environment directors, a charging station can in most cases be added to an existing parking space without a permit.
- Do the sums without your own connection. What charging at public stations costs is in the article on the electric car without your own wallbox, and whether an electric car still pays off in Is an electric car worth it.
What happens next
The Federal Council evaluates the responses and submits a dispatch to Parliament. Both chambers debate the bill, after which a referendum can be called. The Federal Council sets the date of entry into force. It has not published a timetable.
What we do not know
- When the law will apply. The Federal Council gives no date.
- Whether Parliament will widen the group. Several responses call for it.
- How many households are affected. The report estimates that the rule covers the vast majority of home charging cases but gives no figure.
Sources: Federal Council, press release of 19.06.2026, with the draft text and DETEC explanatory report (implementation of motion 23.3936), quoted in our translation. Positions: news agency SDA, published among others by watson.ch on 12.10.2026. Guides: laden-punkt.ch, a SwissEnergy programme.
Transparency: the costs and rent increases come from the federal explanatory report, not from our own survey. We report the positions of the parties and associations as given by SDA; we have not read the responses themselves.
