By Felix Kong｜Licensed Insurance Agent
Looper Insurance Agency Limited (GA1034)
Published: 2026-08-31｜Last updated: 2026-08-31

Hong Kong now has more than 140,000 electric vehicles, up from roughly 28,000 in 2021, and about 130,000 parking spaces in private residential buildings and estates are already fitted with charging facilities (Legislative Council Panel on Environmental Affairs discussion paper CB(1)139/2026(04), 23 February 2026). Charging points are now a standing item at estate general meetings, yet the agenda usually holds only two questions: which contractor, and who pays. The expensive one rarely gets asked. If a charging bay catches fire and takes several neighbouring cars and a floor slab with it, who settles the bill?

Liability runs along three separate lines, carried by the car owner, the owners' corporation (OC) and the car park operator. Each has a different legal source, a different responding policy and a different gap.

Table of Contents

1. Three separate liability lines

2. The statutory policy does not pay for burnt cars

3. Fire and electrical compliance, and why it decides claims

4. Four things to do once the resolution passes

5. How far the car owner's own policies reach

6. FAQ

1. Three separate liability lines

A claimant will normally name all three parties and let the insurers argue apportionment afterwards. Whoever is uninsured funds their own defence costs meanwhile.

Where a third party runs the car park, the Occupiers Liability Ordinance (Cap. 314) still applies: whoever controls the premises owes visitors a common duty of care, and day to day that is the operator. A management contract saying "charging facilities are the owner's own responsibility" allocates recovery rights between operator and OC. It does not decide who a claimant may sue.

All three lines can run at once. What the car owner pays does not reduce what the OC owes, and the OC holding a statutory policy does not release the operator. The party that ends up paying is not the one who installed the charger, but the one whose policy is wide enough, high enough, and was placed on a disclosed risk.

2. The statutory policy does not pay for burnt cars

Section 28 of the Building Management Ordinance (Cap. 344) requires an owners' corporation to procure and keep in force a third party risks policy in respect of the common parts of the building and the property of the corporation. Regulation 4 of the Building Management (Third Party Risks Insurance) Regulation (Cap. 344B) sets the floor: the amount insured for death or bodily injury arising out of any one event must not be less than HKD 10,000,000. Where the corporation fails to insure, every member of the management committee may commit an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of up to HKD 50,000 (source: Home Affairs Department building management site; Property Management Services Authority).

Here is the feature most committee members do not know about: the statute requires cover for death and bodily injury, and does not require cover for property damage. A charger fire that destroys dozens of cars, burns through a slab and puts residents into hotels produces losses outside the compulsory scope entirely. To have those paid, the corporation buys third party property damage cover separately, or relies on the building property or fire policy.

Two further exposures sit outside that policy as well. Damage to the structure, the electrical supply and the fire services installations belongs to the building's own property cover, and injury to security or cleaning staff during an evacuation belongs to the compulsory Employees' Compensation cover under Cap. 282.

3. Fire and electrical compliance, and why it decides claims

FSD Circular No. 4/2020, "Additional Fire Safety Provisions for Car Parking Facilities with EV Charging Facilities" (issued 31 July 2020), sets three additional requirements. First, a fire detection system using heat or combined response detectors, installed to BS 5839 Part 1 and connected to the fire alarm system, except where the car park already has sprinklers. Second, one dry powder or carbon dioxide extinguisher at every hose reel point. Third, a fireman's emergency switch at the vehicle entrance, the fire control centre or another location acceptable to the Director, capable of cutting power to every charging facility on the premises.

The detail that matters sits in paragraph 4 of the circular: these provisions took effect on 1 September 2020 and apply to all newly submitted building plans. For existing buildings whose plans predate that, the FSD recommends upgrading the fire service installations rather than requiring it. An older estate adding chargers may therefore have no legal obligation to fit detection and an emergency cut-off. Underwriting does not ask whether you broke the law, it asks how large the risk is, and that gap is where a claim gets challenged later.

The electrical side leaves no such room. The EMSD Technical Guidelines for Electric Vehicle Charging Facilities state that charging facilities are fixed electrical installations and must comply with the Electricity Ordinance (Cap. 406) and its subsidiary regulations, and that all electrical work, from installation and testing through to later maintenance and alteration, must be carried out by a registered electrical contractor and a registered electrical worker of the appropriate grade under the Electricity (Registration) Regulations (Cap. 406D).

One document goes missing more often than any other when we review an estate's file. The corporation has the contractor's quotation and photographs of the works, but cannot produce the work completion certificate (Form WR1 under the Electricity (Wiring) Regulations) signed by the registered electrical worker and countersigned by the contractor. That certificate is the first proof an insurer asks for that the installation was compliant.

4. Four things to do once the resolution passes

Notify the insurer in writing. Most commercial policies contain a condition requiring notice of any material change in the nature of the risk. A car park that has moved from petrol vehicles only to batteries charging around the clock is material information. Ask for written confirmation of the cover, and whether any new exclusion or condition now applies.

Get copies of the contractor's policies, not a verbal assurance. Ask for the Contractors' All Risks (CAR) and Employees' Compensation (EC) policies, and check that the period covers the whole programme, the sum insured matches the contract sum, and the corporation is named as an insured. Where a contractor has no valid EC cover, the Employees' Compensation Ordinance allows an injured worker to pursue a principal contractor further up the chain, and failing to insure under section 40(1) is a criminal offence carrying a fine of up to HKD 100,000 and two years' imprisonment.

Record who maintains the installation. Responsibility may sit with the corporation, the operator or the bay owner. Put it in the resolution and the management contract rather than leaving it open.

Work the limit out rather than copying one. No Hong Kong statute sets how much liability cover an estate should buy for charging facilities. The figure falls out of three things: the hard floor (the statutory HKD 10,000,000 and any minimum limit in the management contract, whichever is higher), the worst realistic event (vehicles one fire could reach multiplied by their value, plus structural reinstatement, temporary rehousing and any injury claim), and the basis of the policy (any one occurrence or aggregate, and whether defence costs sit inside the limit). Settle those before you go to market.

5. How far the car owner's own policies reach

Motor third party liability responds to liability arising out of the use of the vehicle. A charger bolted to the bay wall and wired into the building supply is not part of the car under most wordings, so do not assume the motor policy picks it up.

Some EV specific plans do write charging cover into the contract, and insurers differ widely. On one of the private EV plans on our panel, damage to the customer's own charger is covered up to HKD 5,000 any one accident, third party EV charger damage liability up to HKD 20,000,000 any one accident, and battery damage during charging is also covered. That is how one policy is written, not a market standard, so ask line by line rather than compare premiums.

On the home insurance side there is a benefit many owners assume does not exist. The liability section of a standard householder policy is usually tied to "your home", and a parking space falls outside that definition. Some plans offer a priced personal liability extension for the bay: on one of the home plans on our panel, HKD 414 a year for a parking space and HKD 966 a year for a space with an EV charger. Cover of this kind often does not appear in the wording itself, so ask the insurer to state it on the schedule.

FAQ

Q: Does the owners' corporation's statutory policy pay for cars destroyed in a car park fire?

A: Generally no. Section 28 of the Building Management Ordinance (Cap. 344), read with regulation 4 of the Building Management (Third Party Risks Insurance) Regulation (Cap. 344B), requires cover of not less than HKD 10,000,000 for death or bodily injury arising out of any one event, and does not require property damage cover. Burnt vehicles are property damage, so the corporation needs to buy that separately.

Q: Does the OC have to tell its insurer after approving charger installation?

A: Yes, in writing, and keep the reply. Most commercial policies carry a condition requiring notice of a material change in the nature of the risk, and adding fixed charging facilities is material information. If no notice was given and a fire follows, the insurer has a basis to question the terms on which the risk was accepted.

Q: Must an older estate comply with FSD Circular 4/2020 before installing chargers?

A: Not necessarily as a matter of law. The provisions took effect on 1 September 2020 and apply to newly submitted building plans; for existing buildings whose plans predate that, the FSD recommends upgrading the installations. Underwriters and claims handlers look at actual risk, so "not required" is not the same as "makes no difference".

Q: Does my motor policy cover the charger I installed in my own bay?

A: Do not assume it does. Motor cover responds to liability arising out of the use of the vehicle, and a fixed charger wired into the building supply is not part of the car under most wordings. Some EV plans state separate limits for your own charger and for third party charger liability, but the content varies by insurer and needs checking item by item.

Q: My parking space is privately owned, so is the OC out of it?

A: No. You own the bay, but the electrical supply, the fire services installations and the structure are usually common parts managed by the corporation. Once a fire involves those, the corporation can be named as an occupier and manager. How responsibility divides depends on the deed of mutual covenant, the resolution, actual control and the cause of the fire.

Next Step

If your estate has passed the resolution, or the coming general meeting is about to debate chargers, the useful move is not to raise the limit immediately. Check four things: property damage cover on the statutory policy, written notice to the building property insurer, the period and named insureds on the contractor's CAR and EC policies, and where maintenance responsibility is recorded. Send us the documents and we can go through them line by line.

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Looper Insurance Agency Limited (GA1034) offers free policy reviews and quotations for building third party risks, public liability and contractors' all risks cover.
Phone: 2633 6813
Email: cs@looperin.com
Website: www.looperin.com

Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and does not constitute insurance or legal advice. Ordinances and circulars are summarised from the Hong Kong legislation and the latest published guidance of the relevant departments. Actual coverage is subject to policy terms and conditions. Limits and premiums quoted for individual plans are single product data points, not market standards. For insurance advice contact a licensed insurance agent; for legal questions consult a solicitor.

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