ECOVISION are offering free solar panels - is there a catch I ought to know about?

munchkin1976

I am a little uneasy about the lease agreement, can anyone tell me if Ecovision would have any "unseen" rights to part of your property after the agreement ends, if you own your own house?
I have copied the statement they have put up on their website. I am not very clever but I am very cautious when it comes to free stuff...funded from this government!

FORM OF NOTICE THAT SECTIONS 24 TO 28 OF THE LANDLORD AND TENANT ACT 1954 ARE NOT TO APPLY TO A BUSINESS TENANCY
TO: EES OPERATIONS 1 LIMITED
of Barley Court, Highgrove Estate, Doughton, Tetbury, GL8 8TQ
From:
of
IMPORTANT NOTICE
You are being offered a lease without security of tenure. Do not commit yourself to the lease unless you have read this message carefully and have discussed it with a professional adviser.
Business tenants normally have security of tenure – the right to stay in their business premises when the lease ends.
If you commit yourself to the lease you will be giving up these important legal rights.

• You will have no right to stay in the premises when the lease ends.
• Unless the landlord chooses to offer you another lease, you will need to leave the premises.
• You will be unable to claim compensation for the loss of your business premises, unless the lease specifically gives you this right.
• If the landlord offers you another lease, you will have no right to ask the court to fix the rent.

It is therefore important to get professional advice – from a qualified surveyor, lawyer or accountant – before agreeing to give up these rights.
If you want to ensure that you can stay in the same business premises when the lease ends, you should consult your adviser about another form of lease that does not exclude the protection of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
If you receive this notice at least 14 days before committing yourself to the lease, you will need to sign a simple declaration that you have received this notice and have accepted its consequences, before signing the lease.
But if you do not receive at least 14 days notice, you will need to sign a “statutory” declaration. To do so, you will need to visit an independent solicitor (or someone else empowered to administer oaths).
Unless there is a special reason for committing yourself to the lease sooner, you may want to ask the landlord to let you have at least 14 days to consider whether you wish to give up your statutory rights. If you then decided to go ahead with the agreement to exclude the protection of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, you would only need to make a simple declaration, and so you would not need to make a separate visit to an independent solicitor.

grahamc2003

Solarsaver wrote: »

Solar panels create free renewable energy for you to use in your home. Ecovision are offering a government backed initiative to supply free solar panels, free installation, free maintenance and free electricity to those house owners who qualify. The qualification process can be done in minutes online on their website.

The solar panels will be provided, installed and maintained by Ecovision without cost to you at any stage. At no point during the installation and throughout the term of the lease will you be asked for payment. Your only commitment will be to keep the panels on your roof for 25 years.

There's no catch. Over 25 years Ecovision recovers the cost as a result of payment from the government launched Feed In Tariff scheme that began on 1st April 2010.

Why do Ecovision do it - As your solar panel energy provider, Ecovision will be paid for all the electricity that their panels generate. This is called a Generation Tariff and rather than being paid by the Government ‘purse’ which is at risk of cutbacks, Ecovision are paid by the Utility Companies. Every installation’s FIT payments are guaranteed by legislation for the next 25 years and this in turn allows Ecovision to provide you with all the electricity generated entirely free of charge.

At no point will Ecovision ask for payment from you, however during preparation of the lease they may require the consent of your mortgage lender (if applicable).

For more information about receiving free solar panels from Ecovision visit the website or call .

If I have your panels on my roof, what happens when I want to sell, but the buyer doesn't want the panels for some reason? Suppose I instructed my solicitor to continue with the sale even though you objected to having your panels removed, would my solicitor be unable to do so? i.e. do you have a veto on who I can sell my house to?
Do I simply have to lose any buyers who don't want the panels, even 20 years down the line when they will be aging, and probably inefficient compared to the then solar technology?

Also, you say your payment comes from the Utility companies. That is a little misleading because, as you know, the regulator allows any costs assoiciated with fits to be passed onto customers - so it is customers who pay you via loading on their bills.

shaven-monkey

munchkin1976 wrote: »

I am a little uneasy about the lease agreement, can anyone tell me if Ecovision would have any "unseen" rights to part of your property after the agreement ends, if you own your own house?
I have copied the statement they have put up on their website. I am not very clever but I am very cautious when it comes to free stuff...funded from this government!

FORM OF NOTICE THAT SECTIONS 24 TO 28 OF THE LANDLORD AND TENANT ACT 1954 ARE NOT TO APPLY TO A BUSINESS TENANCY etc

This seems to be a business tenancy agreement...
Not entirely sure how it relates to rental of solar PV.

zeupater

Hi Solarsaver

Welcome to the forum .... :think::question:

Could you clarify a few points for the forum readers & members regarding your post ....

Solarsaver wrote: »

.... Ecovision are offering a government backed initiative to supply free solar panels, free installation, free maintenance and free electricity to those house owners who qualify.

Could you please clarify that there is no specific "government backed initiative to supply free solar panels" and this is simply a commercial enterprise to claim the FiT payment available to anyone who would/could install and due to economies of scale available to 'rent-a-roof' operators make a return on investment which is far greater than the level which the tarrif was set to support, therefore returning a substantial profit ......

Solarsaver wrote: »

The solar panels will be provided, installed and maintained by Ecovision without cost to you at any stage. At no point during the installation and throughout the term of the lease will you be asked for payment. Your only commitment will be to keep the panels on your roof for 25 years.

Are there any penalties or costs at all to the homeowner regarding times when the panels need to be removed for roof maintenance etc .....

Solarsaver wrote: »

Your only commitment will be to keep the panels on your roof for 25 years.

Is it not the case that the 'only commitment' that the current homowner is making is not only their own behalf, but also that of all subsequent owners over the 25 years, which could have an effect on the property saleability or value ....

Solarsaver wrote: »

Why do Ecovision do it -

Errrm ... wouldn't it be a little less disingenuous to simply say 'to make a substantial profit' ....

Solarsaver wrote: »

allows Ecovision to provide you with all the electricity generated entirely free of charge.

This should be clarified as it's unlikely that anyone could use 'all of the energy generated' ... perhaps you could explain how much of the generated energy is likely to be consumed within an average home and then put a value on the saving ...

Solarsaver wrote: »

For more information about receiving free solar panels from Ecovision visit the website or call 0845 00x x001.

I do take it that the requisit permission to post on the forum on behalf of a business has been granted ....

Z

spseymour

coment removed by myself

jeanne_100

Cannot recommend this company. Beware. We feel we had a lucky escape, on the day of installation they aborted project after 9 months of waiting to complete the process.

suecoo66

Just wanted to let you know that I had Ecovision panels installed in June 2011 and I've seen a substantial saving in my electric. In fact my DD has been reduced to £45 a month and my electric bill for this month was just £20.
I'm also moving this month and I'd definitely say the new buyers were impressed with the benefit of free electric. I've not had any issues with transferring the lease so far.
I'm actually gutted that I haven't got the panels at my new property but when I rung Ecovision to enquire about getting them they told me a new scheme is being launched this month.
Ecovision ocassionally telephone if there is a problem with the info being sent remotely. They have visited a couple of times to check the equipment.
The installation went well and AVC complete this providing their own fold away scaffolding eradicating the need for scaffolding to be insitu for a few days.

suecoo66

munchkin1976 wrote: »

I am a little uneasy about the lease agreement, can anyone tell me if Ecovision would have any "unseen" rights to part of your property after the agreement ends, if you own your own house?
I have copied the statement they have put up on their website. I am not very clever but I am very cautious when it comes to free stuff...funded from this government!

FORM OF NOTICE THAT SECTIONS 24 TO 28 OF THE LANDLORD AND TENANT ACT 1954 ARE NOT TO APPLY TO A BUSINESS TENANCY
TO: EES OPERATIONS 1 LIMITED
of Barley Court, Highgrove Estate, Doughton, Tetbury, GL8 8TQ
From:
of
IMPORTANT NOTICE
You are being offered a lease without security of tenure. Do not commit yourself to the lease unless you have read this message carefully and have discussed it with a professional adviser.
Business tenants normally have security of tenure – the right to stay in their business premises when the lease ends.
If you commit yourself to the lease you will be giving up these important legal rights.

• You will have no right to stay in the premises when the lease ends.
• Unless the landlord chooses to offer you another lease, you will need to leave the premises.
• You will be unable to claim compensation for the loss of your business premises, unless the lease specifically gives you this right.
• If the landlord offers you another lease, you will have no right to ask the court to fix the rent.

It is therefore important to get professional advice – from a qualified surveyor, lawyer or accountant – before agreeing to give up these rights.
If you want to ensure that you can stay in the same business premises when the lease ends, you should consult your adviser about another form of lease that does not exclude the protection of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
If you receive this notice at least 14 days before committing yourself to the lease, you will need to sign a simple declaration that you have received this notice and have accepted its consequences, before signing the lease.
But if you do not receive at least 14 days notice, you will need to sign a “statutory” declaration. To do so, you will need to visit an independent solicitor (or someone else empowered to administer oaths).
Unless there is a special reason for committing yourself to the lease sooner, you may want to ask the landlord to let you have at least 14 days to consider whether you wish to give up your statutory rights. If you then decided to go ahead with the agreement to exclude the protection of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, you would only need to make a simple declaration, and so you would not need to make a separate visit to an independent solicitor.

When you have the panels you are the landlord and Ecovision are the tenant meaning they have no right for their panels to remain after the 25 yr period. If the panels had to be removed to fix a roof for example you have a 3wk period to do this before you'd need to compensate them for the loss of FIT payment.

bloss0m

Interesting to see how much you save in Winter, not a lot I bet. Also its been in media that these schemes can in some cases put off buyers because of some mortgage companies refusal to grant a mortgage

We all pay for these schemes on our bills so its never free, the only people that really benefit are the companies

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2124938/Homeowners-warned-solar-panel-mortgage-problems.html


Schemes where property owners rent out their roof by having solar panels installed for nothing, with the household benefiting from the energy produced, are now seeing some banks and building societies tell customers they may not be able to switch to a different home loan deal.

suecoo66 wrote: »

Just wanted to let you know that I had Ecovision panels installed in June 2011 and I've seen a substantial saving in my electric. In fact my DD has been reduced to £45 a month and my electric bill for this month was just £20.
I'm also moving this month and I'd definitely say the new buyers were impressed with the benefit of free electric. I've not had any issues with transferring the lease so far.
I'm actually gutted that I haven't got the panels at my new property but when I rung Ecovision to enquire about getting them they told me a new scheme is being launched this month.
Ecovision ocassionally telephone if there is a problem with the info being sent remotely. They have visited a couple of times to check the equipment.
The installation went well and AVC complete this providing their own fold away scaffolding eradicating the need for scaffolding to be insitu for a few days.