Three years in the same building outside Rochester, upstairs unit, assigned spot in the side lot about sixty feet from the electrical room. When I first asked about charging here, the response I got from the old property manager was basically a shrug and a verbal "sure, go ahead" — never anything in writing, never a real outlet installed, just permission to run a cord out my second-floor window to a plug near the lot. That held up fine for three years on a ten-minute commute. It stopped working when my hospital consolidated services onto a satellite campus and my drive went from about twelve minutes each way to closer to thirty. The cord-out-the-window setup isn't built for that kind of daily mileage, and honestly I've never been fully sure that verbal yes from a property manager who left two years ago even means anything to the company that runs the building now.
So I did this the proper way instead of just running the cord further. Wrote an actual letter to the current property management office asking to formalize it — a real outlet, referenced New York's tenant charging protections, offered to pay for a licensed electrician of their choosing, offered to carry whatever insurance rider they wanted on my own policy, offered to sign something agreeing to remove the outlet and patch the wall if I ever move out. Three weeks later, one line back: "Building policy doesn't allow tenant electrical work in common areas, sorry for the inconvenience." No counteroffer, no invitation to talk it through, no explanation of what specifically about my proposal was the problem, and no mention of the cord-out-the-window setup I've apparently been running with someone's blessing for three years. I followed up twice since and got nothing back either time.
I don't want to lawyer up over a parking-lot outlet. I like this building, my rent's reasonable, and turning this into a legal fight feels like the wrong tool for the actual problem, which is that management doesn't want to deal with it, not that they have some principled objection to EV charging. But I also can't keep doing thirty-minute round-trip commutes off a cord out my window forever, especially on an approval that might not even be real anymore.
So, for anyone who's actually been on this side of it — what got a landlord's first no turned into a yes? Was there a specific ask, a specific number, a specific way of framing it that worked where mine apparently didn't? And for anyone whose landlord never budged — what did you do instead? Level 1 and just accept a longer overnight charge, find a different lot nearby, start looking at your lease renewal date differently? I'd rather hear the real range of outcomes than just the success stories.
