buying a house with existing photovoltaic panels

firefitter

Hi,
I'm in the process of buying a house which has an existing PV panel array. The original owners (the church of England) had them installed in the very early days and are therefore on a high earning tariff.
I believe the panels were on a part owned basis (rent a roof) with the power company but the CofE are buying out the power company's part and can transfer ownership entirely to me as part of the sale.

My question is, what happens when I take ownership? Do I just find a new tariff? Or do the original feed in terms apply?

Any input would be most welcome. Has anyone else gone through this?

John

EricMears

AFAIK (and it's little more than a guess really) the vendors ought to be able to contact the company making the FIT payments and ask that the contract be amended to make you the payee.

You can't "find a new tariff" - they can only be applied to new installations

firefitter

Thanks for your help Eric. Houses change hands so often that someone must have experienced this. I need to talk to my conveyancing solicitor about the matter but it's hard to have a productive conversation with no understanding of what normally happens.
Anyone with a similar experience?

pinnks

Call one of the big 6 like eon or whatever and say you think the existing fits may be with the and if so what will you need to do to transfer to you. ask if the process is standard across the industry and see what they.

jimjames

Key information that you'll need from the MCS certificate is the installation ID and the meter serial number.

[Deleted User]

firefitter wrote: »

Thanks for your help Eric. Houses change hands so often that someone must have experienced this. I need to talk to my conveyancing solicitor about the matter but it's hard to have a productive conversation with no understanding of what normally happens.
Anyone with a similar experience?

I agree, its happening every day of the week somewhere in the UK. Someones buying a house with panels on the roof. I ve been asked that question a few times on my rounds.A lot of the early panels are on over 50 p a kwhr now, guaranteed for 25 years .So does the new occupier carry on collecting this whopping subsidy or are they back to the piddling 14 p a kwhr of a new installation at the latest rates..I know that the rent a roofers wont be collecting too much but the private installers on the top tariff are making excellent money now.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

pinnks wrote: »

Call one of the big 6 like eon or whatever and say you think the existing fits may be with the and if so what will you need to do to transfer to you. ask if the process is standard across the industry and see what they.

Just a quick heads up. We're currently only offering to support Feed-in-Tariffs for existing E.ON customers or if their present supplier isn't a mandatory FIT Licensee (these are listed on Ofgem's website under Registered FIT Licensed Suppliers). Although we can also support if not connected to the National Grid.

This change came in a couple of years back but doesn't affect customers with us before this time.

Hope this is of interest. Might save a phone call.

Malc

EricMears

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Just a quick heads up. We're currently only offering to support Feed-in-Tariffs for existing E.ON customers or if their present supplier isn't a mandatory FIT Licensee (these are listed on Ofgem's website under Registered FIT Licensed Suppliers). Although we can also support if not connected to the National Grid.

This change came in a couple of years back but doesn't affect customers with us before this time.

Hope this is of interest. Might save a phone call.

Malc

Was this meant to be here or was it actually meant to be in this thread :-
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5317005
where it seems to answer the point well.

What the OP of this thread needs is advice on how to transfer an existing FIT contract to himself. That contract may or may not be E.ON but no doubt the procedure would be similar for all companies.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Not sure Eric. To be honest, I hadn't spotted the other thread so thanks for the link. My intention here was to stop the OP or anyone with a similar question making a wasted phone call. As I said, apart from the exceptions I mentioned, we now only take on Feed in Tariffs for existing customers.

If we are the supplier, there's a bit of information on our website including contact details. Sorry if I've caused confusion.

Malc

pinnks

Mac,

I think the real question from the OP is how do they actually transfer the FIT contract to them on purchase of the house. Can you perhaps shed some generic light on that here as I am sure many people would be interested and the process must be similar for all providers...

firefitter

Hi all,

Thanks for the input and generall discussion around the topic. It's all grist for the mill and all appreciated.
I made a call to E.on, my conveyancing solicitor, the vendor's agent and a couple of others to boot. It seems to me that although the installation of PV's has been commonplace for a few years the transferrence of ownership to others doesn't happen enough to give people the benefit of experience. People who install just stay put, it would seem.

Everyone more or less says the same thing, That the tariff rate for feed in stays with the house for the whole term of the original contract. But every one seems to tag on some sort of conversational proviso "AFAIK" or "I think" or "I'm pretty sure" rather than being able to tell me in convincingly definite terms.

All I can do at this stage is wait to see. I'll fill you all in as the situation develops but any definite input would still be welcome.