Will RAR solar leases affect mortgage prospects?

[Deleted User]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/mar/23/solar-panels-dim-mortgage-prospects?INTCMP=SRCH

The couple in the article above appear to be having a problem trying to remortgage.

grahamc2003

Deleted_User wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/mar/23/solar-panels-dim-mortgage-prospects?INTCMP=SRCH

The couple in the article above appear to be having a problem trying to remortgage.

At least people who read this forum have been warned that there was a real risk of this sort of thing happening, and yet many were adamant that it couldn't and indeed, insisted their property price would increase (perversly) by having a 25 year lease attached to their property.

I'm afraid that, imo, those with free panels and gaining £100 odd a year will probably lose many times the 25 year benefit to shift their house should they wish to sell with such a legal burden. The lucky ones will be those with some sort of buyout clause, but I expect the buyout price will be greater than any benefit reveived.

Hobbo2006

I'm struggling to see why anyone would agree to renting their roof using the quoted figures. The householder saves £150 a year but the owner of the panels makes £1500. ??? I bet that there are loads of ways of reducing your electricity bill by £150 on this forum, which don't involve a 25 year lease.

I wonder what the additional cost would be if you bought the panels with a loan and sent the FIT payments straight to the finance company? Once the loans was paid off you'd then have at least 15 years of FIT payments!

Cardew

What is even worse is that some people are paying the RAR company £500 for their panels.

EricMears

Hobbo2006 wrote: »

I wonder what the additional cost would be if you bought the panels with a loan and sent the FIT payments straight to the finance company? Once the loans was paid off you'd then have at least 15 years of FIT payments!

Assuming you don't have that sort of cash in your piggy bank, logical thing to do would be to ask for an 'additional advance' from mortgage company. That would spread cost over rest of your mortgage term (probably less than the 25 year FIT contract) and (usually) at same interest rat as the mortgage. At current interest rates, FIT payments should well exceed interest on additional loan and int rates would need to rise a lot before that wasn't true.