Townhouses change the shape of a lot of EV charger installation Caulfield jobs. The 2021 Census counted 38 per cent of Caulfield’s occupied homes as semis, terraces or townhouses, almost as many as the 40 per cent that were separate houses, with flats making up most of the rest. When two or three homes share one driveway, the charger question quickly becomes a question about who owns what.
Caulfield is a small suburb in its own right, separate from Caulfield North, Caulfield South and Caulfield East, and home to Glen Eira Town Hall, Caulfield Library and Caulfield Hospital. Its electricity network is United Energy. Jobs here are run from our Brighton premises at 99 Bay St, about 4 km south-west of the suburb’s centre. REC 35838 is our Victorian contractor registration; our A-grade electricians carry out the work and fit chargers we supply or ones you have already bought.
Townhouses, shared driveways and owners corporation rules
Think of a pair of Caulfield townhouses built on what used to be one house block, with a common driveway running down the side to two garages. The garages may be part of each lot. The driveway, the side fence and sometimes the meter enclosure are often common property, which means an owners corporation is involved even when it only meets once a year.
If that owners corporation has not made its own rules, the model rules in the Owners Corporations Regulations 2018 apply, as Consumer Affairs Victoria explains on its page about which owners corporations have rules. Three of those model rules matter for a charger:
- Rule 4.3: an owner must not damage or alter common property without the owners corporation’s written approval, and that approval can set conditions on the works.
- Rule 5.2: changes to the external appearance of your lot need written approval, which cannot be unreasonably withheld.
- Rule 5.3: you must notify the owners corporation of works that may affect the common property.
In practice, a charger inside your own garage, fed from your own switchboard, rarely touches common property. A cable run along the shared driveway, or a charger on a common wall, almost certainly does. We map the route against the plan of subdivision on the site visit, then give you a short scope you can send to the other owners. For bigger complexes, our apartment and strata EV charging service handles shared supplies.
The council’s public charger is in Caulfield
Glen Eira City Council’s offices sit on the corner of Glen Eira and Hawthorn Roads, and the heritage-listed Town Hall (HO106) is in Caulfield. The council’s page on its EV charging stations lists a public charger at Glen Eira Town Hall, near Caulfield Library, alongside sites at Murrumbeena and Carnegie. They carry time limits of two to four hours on the signage, and since 1 October 2026, as the council’s notice on its new charging fees explains, they have been a paid service run through the Chargefox app, with an overstay fee beyond the limit.
That is handy for a top-up during a library visit. It is not a substitute for charging at home, and we would not plan a daily routine around a public bay with a time limit. The council’s climate strategy for 2025 to 2029 plans more public charging in off-street locations, with sites to be identified in 2025 to 26 and a tender to follow, while its kerbside permit question remains open.
A busy zone substation on Caulfield’s doorstep
United Energy’s distribution annual planning report for December 2025 is candid about the local network. Its Caulfield zone substation is fed by sub-transmission lines from the Malvern Terminal Station, and it covers Caulfield, Malvern and Glenhuntly, including the Monash University Caulfield campus precinct. Maximum demand there in summer 2024 to 25 was 50.89 MVA, which United Energy says was above the substation’s N-1 rating, the level it can carry with one of its two transformers out of service.
For summer 2025 to 26 the report puts the load at risk, if a transformer fails, at 10.1 MVA, managed in the meantime by contingency transfers to neighbouring substations. The report’s least-cost option is a new switchboard with three new feeders at the East Malvern zone substation. The Elsternwick zone substation supplies Caulfield as well.
What does that mean for one townhouse with one car? Not much on its own, and United Energy’s EV guidance does not set a cap on home chargers. But it is a good reason to buy a schedulable charger, or one that responds to network signals, and to set it to run away from the evening rush, overnight or around the middle of the day if you have solar, rather than the moment you get home. A 7 kW smart charger used that way is a considerate neighbour on a stretched substation.
Heritage in Caulfield is mostly property by property
Caulfield has far less blanket heritage control than St Kilda or Elwood. Measured roughly against the state’s overlay mapping, only a small share of the suburb is in a Heritage Overlay. The main precincts are HO70, around the Glenhuntly Tram Depot and nearby Glen Huntly Road, part of HO73 along Glen Eira Road and part of the Caulfield South Shopping Centre precinct (HO66). The rest is individual places: the Town Hall, and a handful of individually listed properties on Neerim Road, Kooyong Road, Kambrook Road, Murray Street and Edinburgh Avenue.
If your home is one of them, a charging station needs a Heritage Overlay planning permit when passers-by in a street or public park could see it; lanes are excluded. Out of view, no permit is needed for the charger under that clause, and where one is needed it runs through VicSmart. Glen Eira’s heritage policy also asks owners to conceal mechanical equipment where possible, so a garage wall usually beats the front porch.
Where the meters are decides the cable run
In a townhouse development, the distance from meter to garage varies more than owners expect. If the development groups every meter in one cabinet near the street, the charger circuit may have to start there and travel the length of the driveway, crossing common property on the way. If each townhouse has its own meter box and switchboard on its own wall, the run can be a few metres inside your garage.
The other variables are familiar: whether the switchboard has space, how far the cable must travel, and which charger you choose. A wall shared with the next garage is not a problem in itself, but it is not somewhere we drill through, so the cable stays on your side of it. We price all of that after the site visit, not before, because a townhouse at the front of a block and one at the back can be very different jobs.
Solar panels on a townhouse roof
Some Caulfield owners plan the charger and rooftop solar together. On a townhouse, the roof may be part of your lot or common property, so the owners corporation rules matter again. Model rule 5.2 stops an owners corporation from unreasonably banning sustainability items on the outside of a lot, and a ban on looks alone counts as unreasonable. The Owners Corporations Act gives solar panels, solar hot water and roof colours as examples. EV chargers are not named, so do not assume the same protection covers a wall charger.
Once the panels are up, a smart charger can follow their output and put midday sunshine into the car. New and upgraded solar systems in Victoria must also meet the state’s emergency backstop requirements, which means an approved inverter that stays connected to the internet so output can be reduced when the grid needs it. Most of Caulfield’s heritage-listed properties carry solar energy system controls too, so street-facing panels may need a permit. Our solar EV charger installation team can plan the panels and the charger as one job.
EV charger installation Caulfield, from the street to the socket
Every charger depends on a chain of capacity, and the weakest link sets the speed:
- The network. United Energy’s substations and the street supply. You do not control these, but a scheduled charger helps.
- Service and meter. Single-phase or three-phase, and the rating of the supply to your lot.
- Main switchboard. Spare space, condition and the main switch. A tired board can call for a switchboard upgrade for EV charging.
- Circuit and cable. A dedicated circuit, with cable sized for the distance to the garage.
- Protection. A safety switch matched to the charger. Type AC devices may not be used in new installations, a rule in force since 1 May 2023.
- The charger and the car. The car’s onboard charger caps AC charging speed, whatever the wall unit says.
On the paperwork side, myEnergy registration with United Energy is part of every install we do, and the network expects a registered electrical contractor to carry out the work. For help choosing the unit itself, see home EV charger installation in Melbourne.
Frequently asked questions from Caulfield owners
If my townhouse garage is on my own lot, do the other owners get a say?
Not usually, as long as the cable stays within your lot as well. If the cable crosses a common driveway or the charger goes on common property, model rule 4.3 needs written approval, unless your owners corporation has its own rules.
Is the Town Hall charger enough for everyday driving?
For occasional top-ups, perhaps. It became a paid bay on 1 October 2026 and is limited to between two and four hours depending on the signage, so most drivers still need a home charger for routine charging.
Which electricity network supplies Caulfield?
United Energy, and only United Energy, according to the distributor finder’s data for Caulfield. United Energy’s planning report names its Caulfield and Elsternwick zone substations as suppliers of the suburb.
Will United Energy limit my charger because the local substation is busy?
United Energy’s EV guidance does not set a cap on home chargers. What it does require is a registered contractor for the installation and a myEnergy registration. Choosing a smart charger and charging overnight is the sensible way to go easy on the local network.
How close is your nearest premises to Caulfield?
The Brighton one, at 99 Bay St, around 4 km south-west of central Caulfield. We also cover Caulfield North and the surrounding suburbs.
When you are ready to plan it, ask our team for a Caulfield quote or call 1300 003 853 (open 7am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday). The team behind our Brighton EV charger installations will check the driveway, the switchboard and any owners corporation paperwork before the first cable is run.