Councils, landlords and insurers are starting to restrict e-bike storage — is that fair?

What happened

In March 2026, Shetland Islands Council banned indoor storage and charging of e-bikes and e-scooters at council premises, including schools and community facilities, following national fire-safety concerns and a serious fire near Glasgow Central Station. Under the policy, e-bikes may still be stored outdoors on council property, but must be kept at least 10 metres from buildings, waste, smoking areas, and other combustible material.

That sits within a wider pattern reported by the specialist cycling press: some UK landlords and letting agreements now include blanket bans on tenants storing or charging e-bikes in rented homes, and some home insurers are introducing restrictions or exclusions relating to e-bike and e-scooter battery storage. Notably, Cycling Electric's own reporting frames some of these landlord and insurer reactions as based on "misunderstood" fire risks — arguing that outright bans may be a disproportionate response to a risk that can, in most cases, be managed through safe charging practice rather than eliminated through prohibition.

Our read on it

This is a genuinely two-sided story, and we would rather present it that way than pick a side. The underlying safety concern is real and well evidenced: London Fire Brigade and the National Fire Chiefs Council have both documented a real rise in battery-related fires, and shared or communal storage areas in blocks of flats carry particular risk if they are not managed properly. On the other hand, a blanket ban is a blunt instrument, and specialist commentators are right that most fires trace back to specific, identifiable causes — poor build quality, counterfeit parts, mismatched chargers — rather than to the mere presence of a battery in a building.

For tenants, a landlord's approach to fire safety, including how communal charging and storage areas are managed, becomes directly relevant if a fire happens and its cause is later disputed. But the law on landlord fire-safety duties differs across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and no single national rule on e-bike storage currently applies UK-wide. If you are in a dispute with a landlord or insurer over e-bike storage, the wording of your own tenancy agreement or policy is where we would start, not general news coverage.

Read more

• Shetland News, "Council bans indoor storage of e-bikes after fire concerns" (10 March 2026)
• Cycling Electric, "Landlords move en masse to halt e-bikes kept in rentals citing misunderstood fire risks"
• BikeRadar, "Home insurers could ban ebikes due to fire risk, but there is a potential solution"
• How we approach the tenant and landlord picture: lithium battery fire compensation — are you eligible?

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