Subsidised EV-charging works stall, leaving owners' pooled funds hard to recover

Even with a government subsidy, each parking-space owner still has to fork out tens of thousands of dollars to install EV-charging facilities — only for the works to stall, less than 10% complete, by the original deadline. Many owners say the contractor kept stalling, citing internal disputes and frozen funds; once payments were made, the works went nowhere, and demands for a refund met a dead end.

The structural problem is that such subsidised works typically go to the lowest bidder, with payment terms front-loaded yet no performance guarantee or bank bond — so once a contractor winds up its limited company and walks away, the funds owners pooled are almost impossible to recover. Pricing transparency is equally questionable: quotes for the same installation can range from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars, with consultant oversight existing in name only, leaving owners to bear most of the risk amid the information asymmetry.