Discuss the free solar panel company: A Shade Greener

Cardew

A Shade Greener are a 'Rent a Roof' firm. If they have fitted the panels they will own them. More importantly they will have a lease on your house to enable them to access the panels/inverter and your solicitor should have brought this to your attention as it affects the deeds of the house.

The solar panels should not be 'using' any electricity but be a contributor to the household consumption.

Spooky_uk

Cardew wrote: »

More importantly they will have a lease on your house to enable them to access the panels/inverter /QUOTE]

Absolute codswallop.

Creamy_Goodness

Cardew wrote: »

A Shade Greener are a 'Rent a Roof' firm. If they have fitted the panels they will own them. More importantly they will have a lease on your house to enable them to access the panels/inverter and your solicitor should have brought this to your attention as it affects the deeds of the house.

The solar panels should not be 'using' any electricity but be a contributor to the household consumption.

Huh thats absolute nonsense, the lease doenst cover them coming into the property at all.

They are not using electricity the issue is the electricity going back to the grid is messing with my meter and causing it to read wrong.

Anyway for anyone trying to get hold of them Ive actually managed to get hold of them by going through one of the new companies they have set up since the solar panes are no longer making them money.

If you ring 03451205485 its their energy efficient boiler company but as soon as I rang he passed me on to the person dealing with the panels.

zeupater

Spooky_uk wrote: »

Cardew wrote: »

More importantly they will have a lease on your house to enable them to access the panels/inverter

Absolute codswallop.

Hi

Actually .... they do.

The lease will have been based on the space above the roof for a given period as is(/was) pretty standard in RaR contracts - there will(/should) also be an early get-out (/buyout) clause (usually prohibitively expensive) as well as clauses which grant access to the panels, inverter and any other part of their installation if required for as long as the contract remains valid ... there's also the possibility that there's a 'consequential loss' clause which deems the homeowner as being reasonably responsible for loss of income should an event such as 'accidentally' switching off or disabling the system ... also, with RaR there's usually a clause which allows for the removal and replacement of the panels for roof repairs etc which has a limited number of invocations, each being time restricted before losses are chargeable to the household ...

As Cardew correctly stated, within the conveyancing process the buyer's solicitors should have been aware of the situation and have ensured that the situation was fully understood before exchange & completion ....

There's plenty of information available on this forum and elsewhere to confirm the above, including directly from the CML and BSA ....
( https://www.cml.org.uk/consumers/issues-affecting-lending-decisions/solar-panels/ ) ....

HTH
Z

Cardew

Creamy_Goodness wrote: »

Huh thats absolute nonsense, the lease doenst cover them coming into the property at all.

I understood from your original post you didn't know who installed the 'free' panels; but deduced from a wiring diagram you found in the loft it was A Shade Greener(ASG).

Now you are apparently fully aware of the provisions of the lease, albeit without knowing to whom the lease was granted.

If the panels, inverter or wiring were to develop a fault, how would they be repaired without ASG having access to your property?

Perhaps you can find an answer to that question from ASG and post again indicating why my post was 'absolute nonsense' or 'absolute codswallop'.

zeupater

Creamy_Goodness wrote: »

.... Anyway for anyone trying to get hold of them Ive actually managed to get hold of them by going through one of the new companies they have set up since the solar panes are no longer making them money.

If you ring 03451205485 its their energy efficient boiler company but as soon as I rang he passed me on to the person dealing with the panels.

Hi

Further to Cardew's last post and the quoted text above, having contacted ASG and being passed to the 'person dealing with the panels', what exactly have they agreed to do to assist ? (if anything!) ... importantly, if they do arrange a visit and find that there are no issues, will there be a 'nuisance' based call-out charge to yourself or have they agreed to provide a 'safe operation' introduction (/training) for their installed kit ?

Anyway, seeing that PV generation over the past month has been relatively low (~100kWh for November?) it's unlikely that it'll be an issue with the meter registering export as import or anything similar unless the 'ridiculously high amount of electricity' refers to your usage expectation plus around £15(100kWh) for November...

Being a property you've recently purchased it's very likely that high electricity usage would be related to a more fundamental issue such as cooking with electricity as opposed to gas in a previous property, electric fire as opposed to gas? ... GCH for space and DHW heating, but the water is being heated by an electric immersion heater ? ... etc ... it would be an idea to make a note of the electricity usage on a regular basis (hourly ?) until the source of the excessive usage is traced or better still buy an energy monitor for ~£20! ..

Regarding the 'new companies they have set up since the solar panes are no longer making them money' ... if there's been a restructuring or disposal of a RaR system operator's business it will be to suit the position of the 'owners' through cost reduction, debt restructuring or realising value through business or asset sale (whole or part) - this being due to what is effectively a 'guaranteed' turnover for a fixed period with very little administrative effort, which when related to cost results in a potentially huge profit margin so the business should be 'making them money' .... be assured - that's not the odd pound or two, it's plenty of money ...

HTH
Z

Martyn1981

Creamy_Goodness wrote: »

They are not using electricity the issue is the electricity going back to the grid is messing with my meter and causing it to read wrong.

Hiya. There shouldn't be a problem with this, but do check to see what make of import meter you have. If it's a Siemens model, then there's a chance that it has an anti-fraud setting that adds export on to import.

Check out section 4a of the PV FAQs for more info.

Bluenikky68

I've just moved to a house with these RaR panels installed, so no idea yet if they will do me any favours or not.

Have tracked down their number though as 01226 352791 - Is the Boiler section, but they put me straight through to Panels.

Their website shows KWh generated each day, when you log in - again. no idea yet if is accurate. Still messing around with a couple of OWL monitors and cables, to try and find the right cables to give me the relevant readings :undecided

We'll see how it goes I guess

System

Bunch of !!!!!!. Came round, did the survey and said everything was OK then didn't turn up. When I finally got through to them they said they couldn't do the install because of the cable routing. The cable merely had to come through the wall, go down vertically 12ft and straight into the wall and the meter and fuse box were there. They didn't know what to say when I said they'd managed to install the same system perfectly fine at an identical house 7 doors away.

Super_Stomper

Not sure if you are still having trouble getting info about your panels. I had solar panels from this company in 2014. They have a 25-year lease on my roof and permission to access the solar panels and all the related paraphernalia. (I have some bits & bobs in the meter box with the main panel in the attic.)
The seller of your property should have let you have a copy of the lease and the changes made to the land registry (so your solicitor SHOULD have been aware). You are now the landlord & they are the tenant. Not sure who should have made ASG aware of the change of landlord.
My local branch is based at Sterling House, Maple Court, Maple Road, Tankersley, Barnsley, S75 3DP (originally the HO although I believe that has now moved somewhere down south) & their contact no is 01246 352012. If you give them your postcode they might have some info for you. But don't hold your breath.... I can't get them to get back to me about the problems I'm having with the pigeons that nest under the panels!! Everytime I ring they give me a different excuse and now won't honour their quote on the price from last month!!
WARNING:
They are advertising that they are going to start again with solar panels in 2017. For anyone thinking of signing up I would suggest that you think again.