Purchasing prooerty with solar panels. How do I know if owned or leased?

Cakeguts

hjd wrote: »

Not necessarily true. We are the second owners of our house. All the ones on our side of the road have a couple of panels on the roof. Basically the solar energy is used to heat the hot water so in the summer we use hardly any gas, as the water is already hot and doesn't need to be heated again. There are no FIT payments and no meter readings needed, just lower bills in the summer.

Thats not the same sort of panels. Ours make electricity they don't heat water.

SelfyEmployed

If it is lease it will say on the land registry - register of title info under schedule of notices of leases. Just bought a place with lease solar panels.

ProDave

Have a look at the consumer unit / fuse box area.

The 2 things you are looking for are a second electricity meter labelled "generation meter" and a big rotary switch labelled "AC Isolator" Plus some warning stickers about microgeneration and alternative source of energy.

If you have none of these, you probably have solar thermal panels that just help heat the hot water and have no payments.

Can you post a link to the property details, or at least lift a picture from that showing the panels on the roof?

beckym1987

It doesn't say anything in the land registry form where it asks for details on new leases? Does this automatically mean they're owned?

The house never went to market so there is no property description link. The EA had shown us a few houses and we got on good terms so that she was then showing us any houses before they went to market if they fit our description. We viewed the house before pics etc were taken, they had literally just signed the forms to put it up for sale.

The house has 16 panels on which cover the whole roof. Unfortunately Google earth doesn't show these other than a bird's eye view which is blurry. The house is on a sl8ght hill so it doesn't show on Google earth the panels

pinklady21

If there are 16 of them, the chances are these are Solar PV which will generate a max of around 250w of electricity per panel. The FiT is usually paid on a max 4kw system, which is what it this sounds like it is, rather than a solar thermal panel system which only heats water.

You can proceed without doing the research into the ownership, but you are quite right to be wary.
If they don't know anything about FiT, chances are they are not being paid it, but you need to find out if anyone else is being paid this, as they will own the panels.
Could be the co that installed them or even the previous owner has retained ownership. But for the FiT to be paid, a meter reading would have to be sent in every quarter and there would likely be an annual meter reading check.
I find it quite incredible that someone would have bought a house with solar panels and the gubbins to connect the system to the grid (a meter, inverter and a large on off switch would usually be visible inside the house.)
Not sure how you find out who owns it all - the vendor should be more forthcoming, really.
If they genuinely don't know, you could try contacting the main big 6 electricity companies and asking them if they are paying a FiT on that address. But the chances are they won't speak to you without the seller's permission, as it is their account not yours.
You need to get your solicitor to insist that the vendor sorts this out before exchange, I think.
Good luck.

Merlin139

For the OP you would be better posting this question on the Green & Ethical Moneysaving board. You will get more knowledgeable answers about PV. Having read some of the posts on this thread I can see bits of incorrect information being given.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=100

sevenhills

Cakeguts wrote: »

We have solar panels and you don't get a reduction from you electricity bill what you get is a payment for the electricity that is deemed to have gone into the grid. She would know if she was getting this because you have to read the meter to find out how much the panels have produced.

Not sure I understand what you are saying. What happens to the electricity that is deemed not to have gone into the grid?
That is electricity that you will be using, making your electricity bill lower.

Cakeguts

sevenhills wrote: »

Not sure I understand what you are saying. What happens to the electricity that is deemed not to have gone into the grid?
That is electricity that you will be using, making your electricity bill lower.

The electricity bill is lower than it would have been but it is just an electricity bill it doesn't include what you have produced. You don't get a reduction on the bill. I don't know what happens if the panels are leased.

beckym1987

So I received an email back from our solicitor today confirming that the panels are in fact leased. Not a big surprise there. Now they need a copy of the lease agreement to send to our mortgage lender to see if they will still approve the mortgage.

I'm not very hopeful that they're going to approve it now. This should be exciting time has turned into a nightmare. Might be homeless by next week

Green_hopeful

We have completed today on a house with solar panels and a lease of the roof.

You can check on the Internet what your mortgage provider requires and whether they will accept the situation.

https://www.cml.org.uk/lenders-handbook/englandandwales/question-list/2115/

The issue is usually whether the lease allows the mortgage company to end the lease and the panel company will remove the panels so the mortgage company can sell the house without the panels if you fail to pay the mortgage.

The lease will be registered at the land registry.

Your solicitor will check the terms of the lease and if they meet the bank's requirements then there should be no problem.