Who owns my solar panels

manda84b

So I bought a house in November 2017 and have realised recently that it has solar panels on the roof, how do I find out what these are, who owns them etc. The vendor didn't provide any details and I cannot get in touch with them to find more about the panels.

Thanks in advance.

[Deleted User]

Best to ask this in the Green & Ethical board http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=100

But I will say that your solicitor should have given you all this information as part of the legal conveyancing.

manda84b

gsmlnx wrote: »

Best to ask this in the Green & Ethical board http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=100

But I will say that your solicitor should have given you all this information as part of the legal conveyancing.

Thank you, hadn't realised there was a green board. There was nothing from solicitor and the first we knew of them was when we were out walking the dog a different route and seen them on the roof!

Merlin139

manda84b wrote: »

So I bought a house in November 2017 and have realised recently that it has solar panels on the roof, how do I find out what these are, who owns them etc. The vendor didn't provide any details and I cannot get in touch with them to find more about the panels.

Thanks in advance.

Did you not have a survey down? Was this not brought up? When you looked at the house did you not look at the roof?

If it was not brought up in the sale of the house then I would say that they belong to one of the rent a roof companies. Probably the only benefit you will get is the free electricity they produce when the sun is out.

It may also be that they belong to you and are part of the house but unless the previous owner signs over the FIT payments to you then they will continue to be paid to the previous owner.

manda84b

Merlin139 wrote: »

Did you not have a survey down? Was this not brought up? When you looked at the house did you not look at the roof?

If it was not brought up in the sale of the house then I would say that they belong to one of the rent a roof companies. Probably the only benefit you will get is the free electricity they produce when the sun is out.

It may also be that they belong to you and are part of the house but unless the previous owner signs over the FIT payments to you then they will continue to be paid to the previous owner.

They lie flush with the roof so you cannot see unless you are quite a distance from the house. Nothing was in our paper work and the seller even stated in the Property Information that solar panels were not installed.

Farway

Are they perhaps the old water filled type? Pre warms the water for your tank, does not supply any electricity

Or could you be looking at a roof window?

You could check by going into the loft and looking around

manda84b

Farway wrote: »

Are they perhaps the old water filled type? Pre warms the water for your tank, does not supply any electricity

Or could you be looking at a roof window?

You could check by going into the loft and looking around

Definitely not a roof window, as we don't have any. I'll have a poke around the loft, the last time I was up, nothing was evident, but we do have a random on/off switch which we didn't know what it related to. The panels do not look new by any means, I am not technical whatsoever, is there anyone we can get out to have a look to determine what they are?

House_Martin

manda84b wrote: »

Definitely not a roof window, as we don't have any. I'll have a poke around the loft, the last time I was up, nothing was evident, but we do have a random on/off switch which we didn't know what it related to. The panels do not look new by any means, I am not technical whatsoever, is there anyone we can get out to have a look to determine what they are?

There will be a solar panel meter somewhere in the property.
It could be alongside the electric meter, in an outside box, in the loft or occasionally they are built in to the main fuse board with a meter which looks like a relay.
If the main electric meter is an old analogue meter with a rotating ring as in Sangamo Weston meters then the meter will go backwards on a sunny day when little electricity is being used.
A full system usually has 16 panels to produce up to 4 kilowatts
If its a "rent a roof " system then the owner will turn up at some time, usually once a year, to read the meter

sevenhills

manda84b wrote: »

So I bought a house in November 2017 and have realised recently that it has solar panels on the roof, how do I find out what these are, who owns them etc. The vendor didn't provide any details and I cannot get in touch with them to find more about the panels.

Thanks in advance.

I bought my house in September 2017 and I haven't got the first payment yet. You need to find the meter and take a reading and a photo. Depending on how many panels, you might get £100-£200 per quarter.
My meter is on a column in the loft.

[Deleted User]

If the panels were owned by a rent-a-roof, there would be a covenant in the freehold details which would have appeared on the searches by the solicitor at the Land Registry.

Cardew

As suggested in post#6 there could well be solar thermal panels - i.e. used to heat water.