Selling property with Solar Panels on it:

Seanymph

We are thinking of selling our house, and have solar panels fitted.

When we got them fitted it was an unknown because they were so new, I'm hoping that now the transfer is easy and part of house sales - but does anyone know?

Do they add value to the house? Take it off?

Do I sell the income as well or keep it? CAN you keep the income?

I have no idea how this will work....

Cardew

In theory you could keep the income from the Feed in tariffs and export sales; after all that is what happens with the Rent a roof companies.


In practice it will present a lot of difficulties with both sets of solicitors - not least that you will require access to the equipment and roof and be responsible for repairs. Although the question of retaining income has been posed several times on MSE I have not read of anyone who has made such an arrangement.


The question of adding/detracting value from the house has also been posed on MSE. It would appear that it attracts some buyers and deters others. WHICH wrote an article see link below:


https://www.which.co.uk/news/2017/07/do-solar-panels-affect-the-value-of-your-home/

Installing solar panels on your home makes no difference to how much it’s worth, according to two thirds (67%) of estate agents. Just 8% of estate agents said they thought solar panels increased property value. But 17% said that solar panels decrease its value.
The exclusive research for Which?* was carried out to investigate the effect that installing solar panels has on property prices.

matelodave

Its the owner of the solar panels that gets the feed in tariff, so if you retain ownership of the panels (with the responsibility of their maintenance, meter readings etc) then you can keep claiming the FIT.

I suspect that that would introduce some difficulty in trying to sell the house if the new owner had to grant you access, even more so if there were problems with the roof in the future.

Normally you'd sell the house with the panels in situ to the new owner who would then become the owner and register himself as such to get the FIT.

As Cardew says, they are a Marmite thing, some would be glad to have them and might pay a little more and others would not and expect a reduction in the house price.

brewerdave

I suspect that relatively recently installed panels have little or no positive impact on house price because of the much reduced FITs. vs risk of problems.

However it was definitely a positive purchasing point for my daughter and s-i-l a couple of years ago, as they inherited an early installation which has the potential to yield up to ~ £2000 pa for quite a few more years.

Seanymph

Thank you - so I have to wave goodbye to my lovely panels. Oh well.

Mine bring in around £2,500 a year, and have since their installation, I can prove that - so to me they seem a boon, but I understand that others may not be so thrilled. Personally I love it.

matelodave

What else were you going to do with them.

You could always remove them and have them transferred to your new place but I suspect that you'd have to have it done by a registered installer and you've probably have to re-register them at the current rate.

You might be lucky and find a buyer that will love & cherish them and want to pay extra but there's no real advantage to them unless they can transfer ownership and get the FIT.

I doubt that most people benefit by more than a couple of hundred quid a year if they just save the cost of the energy that's been generated by the panels unless you can use all the energy that's being generated by either storing it in batteries or by preheating your hot water. Its the FIT that made it worthwhile.

nigelbb

Solar panels on the roof are definitely a problem for some. There were schemes where people got free or reduced cost solar panels in exchange for effectively leasing the roof to the owner of the panels who then benefited from the feed in tariff. Such schemes can render the house unsaleable so the homeowner then needs to pay a ransom to the owners of the panels to buy them out. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/nov/25/homeowners-trapped-solar-panels

Seanymph

Thanks nigel - ours were bought outright, during the first wave so at a good rate.

I hadn't really thought what to do with them - until we considered selling I hadn't thought about them at all. I did have a recollection of them causing issues, but love them myself, so thought I'd consult the MSE collective.

brewerdave

Seanymph wrote: »

Thanks nigel - ours were bought outright, during the first wave so at a good rate.

I hadn't really thought what to do with them - until we considered selling I hadn't thought about them at all. I did have a recollection of them causing issues, but love them myself, so thought I'd consult the MSE collective.

The only downside that possibly could arise, is that the purchaser's mortgage provider could insist on a roof survey being carried out to guarantee the workmanship of the install. If that happened to me, I would want the seller to bear the cost.
Don't know if that happens tho'.

Seanymph

Just to update - I contacted eon, they send out a form you fill in you are leaving the property, the new people put their details, joint reading - you get paid up to date they take over the benefit.

Easy peasy and nothing to do with the sale or conveyancer........