Purchasing a home with Solar Panels

HardQs

Currently a buyer and looking at purchasing a home with solar panels after researching, I have found out that the panels have been bought outright with invoice paid. I have seen the MCS certificate and is currently with Eon with whom he gets his FIT paid quarterly and there is a Hies Certificate of the original installer.
I have also seen that the 10 year warranty is with the original installer however I found out myself that this company has gone into liquidation. I’m not sure the current owner or the Estate Agent know of this fact or are keeping it hidden. Getting information relating to the warranty through the agent is like getting blood out of a stone plus I find the EA very conniving and pushy trying to get the sales process moving whereas I am trying to find out all the necessary information required before proceeding.

Reading up info on websites and forums I find that the warranty will be underwritten by Hies should there be any issues after the company went bust.

I am wondering if there is anything to be concerned about after learning of this also is there any other questions that I should ask for before proceeding?

Hexane

You have done the most important part, which is to ensure that the system is MCS registered and wholly owned by the vendor and also registered for FiT. And, by implication, that the FiT will be handed over to you when you purchase the house. We've had a number of people in this forum who've found themselves in various extremely uncomfortable positions either as house buyers or as sellers, not knowing who owns the panels or discovering that they were never MCS or FiT registered and all manner of other nonsense. In my opinion, avoiding such a situation is the top priority, so you are in a good position.

Never underestimate the incompetence of some estate agents - they don't know or care anything about solar installations other than knowing that some potential buyers think they look ugly. So they may just not care or not know, as opposed to being deliberately hiding anything. When solicitors get involved, some of them are the same - it's up to you to make sure they include mentions of everything appropriate in the appropriate documentation.

Looking at the HIES website, it seems that they provide insurance backed guarantees (IBG) and presumably this is the certificate you've seen. I have one of these from my installer, who provided it as a standard part of his service (unmentioned in the sales pitch) and made clear that he had no plans still to be in business in 20 years' time. I have never claimed on this IBG and have seen no mention in these forums of others having done so, so I don't know how valuable it is. Others may be able to provide more detail.

One item in particular on which others may be able to advise, is whether if the inverter fails after 9 years from the original installation, will the IBG cover both the cost of a replacement inverter and the cost of fitting it? Or is an IBG only a guarantee that the original workmanship was to an acceptable quality?

pinnks

I agree that you have done a lot of the legwork. My FiT is dealt with by EON and they are very good. You might want to speak to their FiT team at an early date to ensure the transfer to you goes smoothly. Malc from EON on this forum also chips in to help people when necessary.

I don't know but I doubt that the warranty would cover normal failure of components outside the manufacturer's own warrantee - imagine if you could get such warranty on your car... But some manufacturers offer their own extended warranties on their inverters which might be worth looking at.

That said, I don't think it will cost a fortune to replace an inverter when the time comes - there are only a couple of DC cables feeding the inverter, an AC cable coming out and a few screws fixing it to the wall. If it takes more than a couple of hours to swap one out I would be asking what the installer is doing...

Do you know when the system was fitted and therefore what the FiT payments are? Probably worth establishing as it can be almost anything from 50p per kWh to virtually zero. Also, what size is the system and how much has it generated year on year to date? The vendor should know because EON sends a detailed statement each quarter and the online account you can set-up details all generation readings that have been entered so it should be easy to check that the system is working as expected.

Finally, you might ask the vendor for sight of the original quote and installation documentation. They may not have it but many people who go down the PV route would be likely to stick it in the cupboard as "that is what we are like". Again, would give you further clarity and confidence. Something to ask your solicitor to pursue perhaps - if you don't ask, you don't get...