Solar panels as a tenant

WestonDave

Your status as a lone parent is irrelevant - these panel schemes work by the supplier getting enough from the FiT payments to make a living from buying panels and putting them on other peoples rooves.

You will have an additional generation meter fitted if they are put in but modern meters installed last year shouldn't need changing. Mine did but that was because it was a very old meter that went backwards when generation was higher than use - funnily enough the elec co weren't very happy with the idea of my meter numbers going down rather than up!

bubblegumcola

Doesn't sound right if the landlord is using your details to obtain a grant for free solar panels. Surely that's fraud? You shouldn't have to sign anything, it's the home owner who should be signing up to the contract and ultimately it's their decision not yours but good they asked you because installation obviously will affect you as the tenant. It's not right if they are receiving a grant by giving false information about who they are and their income. If they can afford to be paying for installation and do not qualify for a freebie then they shouldn't.

Apologies if I have got the wrong end of the stick here.

G_M

bubblegumcola wrote: »

Doesn't sound right if the landlord is using your details to obtain a grant for free solar panels. Surely that's fraud? You shouldn't have to sign anything, it's the home owner who should be signing up to the contract and ultimately it's their decision not yours but good they asked you because installation obviously will affect you as the tenant. It's not right if they are receiving a grant by giving false information about who they are and their income. If they can afford to be paying for installation and do not qualify for a freebie then they shouldn't.

Apologies if I have got the wrong end of the stick here.

Properties can often qualify if the occupant (even a tenant) meets the criteria.

Tenant would need to sign to verify qualification for the scheme.

Landlord/owner would also need to sign to agree to works to their property.

carnation86

Thanks for your input, everyone. I wasn't under the impression that I needed to sign anything since it's not my house, I just rent it, but it didn't sound like the landlady is going to be here when the surveyor comes, so I'm assuming she plans on speaking to them afterwards to do whatever paperwork would be necessary.

It would not surprise me in the least if she thought it was a way to make money for nothing and hasn't done enough research to learn that it's not the case. I've got no idea what details she's using for the scheme. She knows that I'm a single parent but I'm not sure if she knows what benefits I'm on aside from LHA. She doesn't even know the post code of the house (she called me last week to ask me what it was) so it's unlikely she knows enough to use my information.

I definitely won't be signing anything and hadn't planned to, but thank you all for the emphasis on the importance of not doing so-- I definitely feel better going into the situation armed with more info!

vectistim

G_M wrote: »

Properties can often qualify if the occupant (even a tenant) meets the criteria.

Tenant would need to sign to verify qualification for the scheme.

Landlord/owner would also need to sign to agree to works to their property.

The tenant would only be verifying qualification for CERT/ECO type grants which are means tested which would be mostly for insulation (and occasionally a new boiler). For the FIT payments the status of the occupant is completely irrelevant, the property merely needs to achieve a certain minimum EPC rating post installation in order to qualify for the payments.

datlex

My landlord (housing association) installed solar panels. I have noticed my bills have gone down. You get free electricity during the day (obviously more during the summer), you take advantage of it by using things during the day. If you are at work during the day you can still gain by making use of timers - particularly necessary in the winter. For example using a slow cooker or setting a timer to have your dryer work during day light hours, it means also that you can charge up items free of charge such as a lap top. You may want to do some things at weekends as well in winter whilst it is light eg housework. Just try not to do everything at once, for example if you leave the tv, use your microwave and hoover as well as run the washing machine at the same time you probably won't save but do a couple of these at the same time eg tv and microwave you probably will.

You get a small unit which fits in a cupboard so you shouldn't be inconvenienced. When they fitted mine, they took no long than a couple of hours to put in the wiring and connect the solar panels up (putting the actual solar panels on doesn't require entry to the property though they will likely want to put up scaffolding for safety reasons).

Yes your Landlord will benefit as well. Is that such a bad thing?

ValHaller

With my cynic's hat on, I wonder if she will use your status as single parent etc to get the panels installed and then issue you with a S21

carnation86

I didn't mean to imply that I didn't want my landlady to benefit from them-- I really don't care one way or the other-- I just wanted to find out if they'd be beneficial to me since the idea of free electricity sounds almost too good to be true.

I don't know how she'd benefit from serving me notice because it's unlikely she could charge much higher rent than she already does, but I suppose anything is possible. Having not protected my deposit, however, she wouldn't be able to actually get me out in any short period of time.

stagey_2

If the LL gets a green deal loan it will be added to the electricity bill over several years and the tenant will pay for the installation anyway - so I believe!

carnation86

That's the sort of thing I'm worried about! Would it be immediately obvious to me during this survey that that's what the intentions are? I'm already very wary of signing anything, even just confirming what benefits I get, so I'm hoping that by not signing anything else I wouldn't be at risk of trapping myself into something I was misled about. I would not put it past my landlady to purposefully do this as she's tried to finagle more rent out of me at the very beginning by changing the wording of the agreement from "calendar monthly" to "4-weekly" without notifying me (luckily I caught it because I read everything), so I really need to be on guard.