MA condo common areas elec. panel necessary?

June 29, 2024 9:01 AM

What does the MA law/building code actually require for condo common areas electrics? I have been unable to find the relevant section. Deets below.

The sitch: My three-unit condo trust has been told by a vendor that we must have a separate electrical panel for common areas. Our units are in an old (1890) house that used to be a single family home, and our condo trust deed specifies that all electric costs are paid by each unit rather than as shared costs from the trust fees.

Currently, the common area (external lights, hallways/staircases lights, shared basement lights/sockets) are variously covered by each units’ three separate electric accounts.

The vendor mentioned a legal requirement for the panel, but did not provide a citation. I can’t find any relevant text online. Are we really obliged to install a new panel and re-wire the areas accordingly, or is this a make-work project? If you know the specific citation, I’d love to see it!

posted by mollymillions to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

There's a few possibilities - it may be a local requirement (either as a law or part of the municipal building code), not a MA one. I'd think the easiest way to find out would be to call the building department that has jurisdiction over the property and ask them. It may also be that it was a law or code requirement that came in after your building was divided into condos so the building has been "grandfathered" in and hasn't required an upgrade yet; it's possible whatever work the vendor would do counts as "working" on the electrical system and ends up requiring things to be brought up to code.

I don't know of many cases where a building specifically being a condo rather than any other kind of multifamily residence would be relevant to the building code - that's mostly an ownership and contract/property law kind of issue. Buildings with more than 2 living units are generally going to be occupancy type R-2 whether they're apartments or condos.
posted by LionIndex at 9:18 AM on June 29 [1 favorite]

Best answer: When you say vendor, are you referring to a contractor or someone else?

Under National Electrical Code 210.25 (B). (MA adopted the 2023 NEC but I don't have a copy of that to check if it changed) it looks like they would be write but MA state code specifically overrides this line in common areas in existing dwellings on the same floor as the dwelling unit.

There's a chance local electrical code reintroduces this requirement, so your best bet would be to talk to a local electrician.
posted by drezdn at 2:27 PM on June 29

Putting a house panel in can be immensely expensive. And it's the sort of code rule that us generally only a problem if someone starts complaining. For a few lights and no high power loads like car charging or laundry it is almost certainly not worth doing the work. The association could just reimburse anyone who is being disproportionately impacted and the cost would probably be less than the monthly meter fee a separate house panel would entail.
posted by Mitheral at 9:13 PM on June 29 [1 favorite]

I wonder if the vendor is thinking about a situation where the units are rented individually and the tenants are responsible for paying their own electricity? Because I think in that case it's the landlord's responsibility to cover the electricity for common areas. But that wouldn't be an issue unless one or more of the condos is rented out (and the tenant pays their own electricity).
posted by mskyle at 4:25 AM on June 30 [1 favorite]