Rent a Roof Scheme - Deed of Variation

Fayyee

We bought a property with an existing solar panel lease (rent a roof) with Homesun, now administered by Anesco. We're now 7 years into a 25 year lease. On trying to remortgage the property, the new mortgage lender highlighted that the solar lease was no longer compliant and asked Anesco to provide a Deed of Variation, to make the lease CML compliant. We didn't agree to several of the new lease clauses that Anesco had added to the Deed of Variation (unrelated to CML compliance), so we refused to sign it. We were then unable to complete the remortgage with the new lender, but managed to agree a new mortgage with our existing lender, without the need to recheck the compliance of the solar lease.

As we now no longer have a compliant lease with Homesun/Anesco and as we have already experienced difficulties in remortgaging the property, do we have a legal right to end the lease early and request Anesco to remove the panels, without having to pay the early termination penalty outlined in the original lease?

Thanks for any advice or recommendations of who to speak to. The Ombudsman and RECC were both sympathetic and made initial complaints on our behalf, but could not proceed as neither Homesun nor Anesco are registered as member companies with the Ombudsman or RECC.

davidmcn

Fayyee wrote: »

As we now no longer have a compliant lease with Homesun/Anesco and as we have already experienced difficulties in remortgaging the property, do we have a legal right to end the lease early and request Anesco to remove the panels, without having to pay the early termination penalty outlined in the original lease?

Nope. You keep to your side of the contract, they'll keep to theirs. Neither party can unilaterally make up new provisions.

eddddy

Fayyee wrote: »

As we now no longer have a compliant lease with Homesun/Anesco and as we have already experienced difficulties in remortgaging the property, do we have a legal right to end the lease early and request Anesco to remove the panels, without having to pay the early termination penalty outlined in the original lease?

Unfortunately, No.

The bottom line is that mortgage lenders have tightened their lending criteria - making your property with its current roof lease unmortgageable.

Realistically, when you decide you want to sell you'll either have to vary the lease, buy out the lease, or find a cash-buyer who's happy with the lease. (Unless mortgage lenders happen to relax their lending criteria.)

What are the new lease terms that you are unhappy with?

REBECCA_HALLAM

We are buying our first home and further on in the chain there is a property with solar panels under a lease. My solicitor has informed me that they are getting a deed of variation sorted because areas of the current lease do not comply.

Can anyone tell me how long this could possibly delay the chain?

Can I also mention that we made the offer on our house in Feb so you can imagine how frustrated we are at this point

Thank you!

eddddy

REBECCA_HALLAM wrote: »

Can anyone tell me how long this could possibly delay the chain?

The solar panel company probably have a standard lease variation document, so in theory, it just needs to be checked over by solicitors and signed.

But, as the original thread shows, people may be unhappy about the terms and want to negotiate.

Reaching agreement by negotiation may take days, weeks, months - or it may never happen (because the parties may never agree).

cheeky-peach

We had to wait for our sellers to arrange the Deed of Variation... it took ages! Only today we have heard that they will receive the deed back today, after 3 weeks of waiting. 3 weeks may not seen long but it has felt like it to us!