Solar panel glare and house sale

markw999

Hi,

First time user looking for advice please. Be gentle. :-)

We live on a hill overlooking other houses with a nice view over countryside. Well it was a nice view. One of the houses further down the hill has installed solar panels that reflect the sun directly at the front of our house. His roof is in direct line of sight from our living room window and we look down on it from upstairs. For about an hour a day, you literally cannot look out of any of the front windows because the glare is so bright.

Now here comes the tricky bit. Our house has been on the market for a while and now has a buyer. The solar panels weren't up when they viewed and the buyer has no idea there's a problem. We're a bit stuck as to what to do.

If we were staying, we'd have a chat with the home owner and see if he can get his installers to do something to remedy the situation. It's unlikely he's even aware of the issue and certainly we'd want to get something sorted if positions were reversed. Once we do that we're in dispute and would have to declare. Worst case, nothing gets done and we have to declare something that may cause our sale to fall through and devalue our home.

Any advice on what to do and where we stand legally?

Choices I see are:

1) Do nothing, declare nothing and let the buyers sort it out.
2) Declare the glare problem and the let the buyers sort it out, risking the sale falling through and most likely jeopardising other sales too (the estate agent would have to tell other prospective buyers what happened).
3) Have a chat with the home owner and declare regardless of whether he gets anything done.

Obviously 3 feels like the moral thing to do, I just can't see it ending well unless the home owner and his installers are very accommodating.

We're going up the wall with worry at the moment and would appreciate any advice. We haven't asked our solicitors/estate agents because, again, once we go down that road there's no avoiding having to tell the buyers.

Regards,
Mark

markw999

I should add, the buyers have been back since at times of day when the glare wasn't visible. They have seen the solar panels, just not the nasty side effects.

WestonDave

On a practical note, there is very little the installers can do. Panels tend to have a gloss surface and will be aligned with the roof slope - they aren't normally adjustable as to angle. That being the case approaching the home owner will acheive very little because there isn't anything which can be done.

The other thing to consider is whether this is a problem which may hide itself for a while. As winter progresses the sun will be at lower angles in the sky so depending on when in the day this problem occurs it may disappear for a period over the depth of winter. The sun will generally follow similar compass points for any given time of day - however as winter goes on its height in the sky will drop. So at that time of day it might be too low in the sky to be able to shine onto his roof without your house or the hill causing shadow.

DRP

i dont think it is a big issue. I wouldn't mention it.

rpc

markw999 wrote: »

If we were staying, we'd have a chat with the home owner and see if he can get his installers to do something to remedy the situation. It's unlikely he's even aware of the issue and certainly we'd want to get something sorted if positions were reversed. Once we do that we're in dispute and would have to declare.

Having a friendly chat about solar panels does not count as a dispute. It would be a dispute if you demanded he did something, got the council involved, etc.

A simple "Did you know those shine directly at us? Do you think there are any options to minimise glare?" isn't a dispute.

That said, it is unlikely much can be done. It might be possible to change the angle a few degrees but that would cost a bit of money.

markw999

rpc wrote: »

Having a friendly chat about solar panels does not count as a dispute. It would be a dispute if you demanded he did something, got the council involved, etc.

A simple "Did you know those shine directly at us? Do you think there are any options to minimise glare?" isn't a dispute.

That said, it is unlikely much can be done. It might be possible to change the angle a few degrees but that would cost a bit of money.

Not sure on the chat. The buyers will probably have the same discussion and then find out it was something we hadn't declared. Bit of a tricky one. A quick browse shows some anti-reflective coatings to reduce the problem at theecoexperts.co.uk and pveducation.org.

Whether the home owner or installer are willing to foot the bill is another matter and is sure to be a bone of contention. Seems like the problem is fixable at least.

anselld

Surely this can only happen for a relatively short period each day.
There is probably nothing the installers can do anyway, so just keep quiet and treat it as a non-issue.

Soot2006

Sun is unusually bright for its height/time of year, so you might well find this is generally a non issue the rest of the year.
Wouldn't bother me as a buyer x

witchy1066

Why is this an issue ? are you having second thoughts about selling ?
if not,
keep quiet and move on,
why create problems

your buyers may never notice the glare
they may be out at work most of the day
they may not go into the room that shows the glare at the time its prominent,

grifferz

markw999 wrote: »

Not sure on the chat. The buyers will probably have the same discussion and then find out it was something we hadn't declared.

I would think that it would be extremely difficult to persuade a court that the following constitutes a dispute:

You: Hi neighbour, were you aware that your solar panels reflect onto our windows sometimes?
Neighbour: I was not!
You: Yes, it's a bit distracting. Do you think there is anything that could be done about it?
Neighbour: No.
You: Oh well, that's a shame, it was worth asking anyway.

Persuading a court is what they would need to do if they wanted to claim that this a dispute that you haven't disclosed.

The other question commonly asked on a sellers' information from is, "Are you aware of any issue that could lead to a dispute with a neighbour?" If you would not get into a dispute with your neighbour over this, then your honest answer is, "no".

It is the buyer's responsibility to visit when the sun would be blazing onto the property to check they would be okay with that.

I get that you want to do the right thing and not mislead anyone but seriously, you can think up an infinite number of things that a third party might not be keen on, but how many of them are you legally obliged to point out?

You are not currently in a dispute with your neighbour and you presumably do not intend to be, so in my view there is nothing to disclose even if you did have a friendly chat with your neighbour.

ValHaller

Moving the panels a few degrees is not going to alleviate the problem. It is just going to change the time of year for which there is a problem. In a few weeks time, the problem will go away until next year until the same number of days after the winter solstice as we are currently before the solstice.