Homebuyer Survey and solar panels

IngeBrinky

Morning! Just out of curiosity: our homebuyer survey done by e-surv didn't mention the existence of solar panels at all. Is this normal? Nobody ever mentioned them to us and I only found out that they exist by looking at the house on Google maps.
They are not visible form the street, but shouldn't a homebuyer survey include a mention of them?

AnotherJoe

You have now found how useless many surveys are. And also your viewing skills. You say you only found out by looking on google maps?! Did you not look up at the roof when viewing the house ?
Note that depending upon the contract (if any) for these panels, buying the house may vary from no issue at all, to unmortgaable.

eddddy

The key thing you need to find out is whether the seller owns the solar panels.


If they own them, there should be no problem with including them in the sale.

However, if they have leased their roof to a company, and that company has put solar panels on the roof (often called a 'rent-a-roof' scheme), that needs careful investigation. It may stop you getting a mortgage.

ProDave

You NEED to find out more.

Are these panels OWNED by the house owner, and are they on the Feed In Tariff scheme that pays you for the electricity generated?. If so, good. You will be able to take over the remainder of the FIT contract and get the payment, plus the free electricity. However if this is the case, you would think they might have just mentioned them.

OR are they a "rent a roof" scheme. A company would supply you "free" solar panels, but the company, the owner, of the panels collects the FIT payments, furthermore they have taken a 20 or 25 year lease on the roof to have their panels there. Generally these arangements are considered bad. Perhaps that is why they didn't mention them.

Third option is the panels have been removedd for some reason and Google maps is out of date.

Go and have a look, there must be somewhere you can see the roof from if not in the garden,

hazyjo

If they weren't mentioned on the property details, and you didn't spot them and nobody's mentioned them, I would be inclined to guess at ProDave's third option and presume they had them removed.


As above though, this is very important so get your solicitor to look into it. Don't trust all the EA tells you!

IngeBrinky

I know it is a rent a roof scheme, and the panels are still there. and there are invisible from the street.
The key question is: do we have grounds to demand the refund from surveyors? Since it seems to be an important thing to miss

davidmcn

IngeBrinky wrote: »

I know it is a rent a roof scheme, and the panels are still there. and there are invisible from the street.
The key question is: do we have grounds to demand the refund from surveyors? Since it seems to be an important thing to miss

Are they visible from within the property? The survey (probably) wouldn't have included getting a ladder and going up to inspect the roof. What does the survey say about the roof?

IngeBrinky

davidmcn wrote: »

Are they visible from within the property? The survey (probably) wouldn't have included getting a ladder and going up to inspect the roof. What does the survey say about the roof?

outside th eproperty
" the main roof is pitched and covered with interlocking concrete tiles. several tiles are damaged and slipping. the area of the flat roof above the landing has leaked and this should be investigated further"
As for the inside, they just put their upper body through the hatch and looked around.

AdrianC

They're not visible from the street - but are they visible from ground level anywhere? The back of the house?

If they're totally invisible from ground level, what did you expect the surveyor to do?

davidmcn

IngeBrinky wrote: »

outside th eproperty
" the main roof is pitched and covered with interlocking concrete tiles. several tiles are damaged and slipping. the area of the flat roof above the landing has leaked and this should be investigated further"
As for the inside, they just put their upper body through the hatch and looked around.

Is the part with the panels visible from anywhere other than (a) a plane or (b) up a ladder? Do they mention anywhere else that they couldn't view all of the roof?

IngeBrinky

No, just of of the plane or a ladder. Oh well... I guess I was in the wrong to expect a homebuyer survey to be detailed.
I give up
Will be sending our own surveyors to examine the house properly.