Free Solar Panels - Does this affect your House Insurance?

remigius

I contacted AAIS to update our house insurance following the installation of our solar system (which we own outright) and there was no effect on our policy. She merely made a note on the policy that I had reported the change.
Which makes a pleasant change!
JG

Martyn1981

Like other posters on here, our PV made no difference to the insurance. In fact all I've heard of is 2 people saying they were charged a small fee (about £14?) to amend a policy.

PV is treated as being part of the roof structure and is covered in the same way that your roof is. So repairs, scaffolding etc should all be covered.

Without paying for a 'special' policy, I doubt you'd be able to claim for lost income whilst awaiting a repair, but, hey, you never know?

Last thing, and this is a bit of a stretch, but if the PV was hit by an object, that otherwise might have caused serious damage to the roof slates / tiles, then at least you'd be saved any resulting weather damage or intrusion. Am I taking this too far, probably?

Mart.

Martyn1981

pcrosland wrote: »

Thanks for the quick reply! Yeah that is my issue I could get it insured through my standard home insurance. But if I'm investing about £10k on solar panels, I couldn't afford for something to go wrong.

I have found an insurer called Northern Alliance.

Do you think £250 minimum premium is too much? It also has other covers, but I really just need damage cover. Did you look into getting separate cover? Any advice on insurers would be great.

Also do you have any recommendations for installers? I'm unsure where to start when finding a trustworthy installer.

Evening. When you say £250 do you mean insurance for the whole house, i.e buildings insurance, or just for the panels. The panels, shouldn't add anything to the cost of normal house buildings insurance. If it does, shop around.

Regarding installers, best to get as many quotes as possible, and to join as many sites like this and just 'absorb' PV info. If you are very 'country' might have less choice of installers, but try for at least 3 visits, 6 would be better, and google the hell out of every company!

Also, you could pop your approx location on here and ask for recommendations, but watch out for salesmen.

Mart.

Martyn1981

pcrosland wrote: »

I think I understand this better now. Yes my house insurance would cover the panels against damage so thanks for that. This additional cover covers against breakdown and loss of revenue from feed in tariffs. I would post a link to the policy itself but I'm unable to do this because I'm new the forum so sorry about that.

Do you think that would be worth a £250 premium? I think I may just get it covered on my house policy initially and have a think about this extra cover.

As regards to an installer, I will have a good look around. I don't want to get conned by cowboy installers. I live in Huddersfield. Any recommendations form anyone else would also be appreciated.

Cheers

Warranties and insuring against financial loss - you're on your own there. Sorry, but everyone is different and values things accordingly. Having stated my neutrality, I would point out, is that £250 per year (gulp), or for 10+ years (possibly still gulp)? Who by, and will they be around to collect from.

Whilst shopping around for quotes and interrogating salesmen, this might be of use to you:

http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/solar-pv-checklist-pdf-269629.pdf?cmp=W0112_p7_solar

Mart.

pcrosland

You can have a look here:

http://www.northernalliance.co.uk/solar-panel-insurance

Martyn1981

Morning. You've been busy. Thinking hard.

I actually did the same (last August). Quick tip: when your head starts to hurt, and you're running numbers in your sleep, you've probably over thought it!

That cover looks comprehensive, but (you knew there was a but coming ) A lot of the items are / will be fully covered under your buildings insurance - damage, theft, PLI and third party (if properly installed (MCS)) etc.

So really you're just looking at breakdown cover, replacement kit, and loss of income.

I was offered such cover on my install at 1% of install (and index linked each year). Only my opinion, but I couldn't see the point of paying for cover during 1st year as the kit is warranted, then 5years as inverter warranted, then 10yrs, as panels warranted. But my main issue was as the payments are annual, what if they simply decline your business at year 11 when creeping doubts over inverter may be sneaking in.

The link says cover starting from £250, but includes the line "Cover can also include the cost of replacement parts & labour following breakdown". So the important part to you is even more.

Possibly, all items after that line are also not included in the £250?

All kit can go wrong, but PV systems are pretty reliable long term, any major faults should be identified / become obvious in the first few weeks of operation. So I'm personally not convinced by such cover. I'd probably (if worried) put £150pa away in an emergency fund.

Please don't base your decision on my waffling, hopefully somebody else will put a counter argument giving a list of the pluses.

Have a really good think about PV and all the additional issues, but don't get too hung up. Doubt you can go too wrong either way.

Mart.

Kernel_Sanders

'Premiums starting from £250 per annum with low excesses'

That's a shockingly high premium when you consider you can insure a whole house with full rebuilding costs for less.

pcrosland

Any other opinions?

Martyn1981

pcrosland wrote: »

Any other opinions?

Sorry mate, nothing new to add. Given that most of the risks are covered on your buildings insurance, it sounds like quite a lot of money for what is a relatively reliable form of technology.

Now I've said it of course, everything will probably go wrong, but if I was offered similar cover for 1% of install last August, and panel costs have fallen, and quoted inverter lifetimes look like being a little 'conservative', then £250 may be more than a little high?

Of course if you were to get a problem and lose a months generation, then it may make sense, but what are the odds of that happening? Think £2,500 of problems over the next 10 years?

Mart.