buying a house with solar panels but no documentation

Rural_Puppy

There are two varieties of solar panels.
1. Solar PV which generate electricity, which is often sold back to the grid, and in return the owner of the panels is paid a Feed in Tariff.
2. Solar Thermal which only heat hot water.

It does look like what you have is Solar Thermal. The documentation seems to also support this. These panels heat up water for later use in the home and which is presumably stored in a hot water cylinder / tank.
Can you check where the pipes and wiring from the panels ends up in the house? That might help you to work out what these are doing.
Also, looking at the age of the house, it is doubtful these were installed when the house was built. So who installed them? Was is the seller?
Were the panels there already when the seller bought the house? What documentation were they given at the point of sale?
Best of luck.

hhhjjj111

Rural_Puppy wrote: »

There are two varieties of solar panels.
1. Solar PV which generate electricity, which is often sold back to the grid, and in return the owner of the panels is paid a Feed in Tariff.
2. Solar Thermal which only heat hot water.

It does look like what you have is Solar Thermal. The documentation seems to also support this. These panels heat up water for later use in the home and which is presumably stored in a hot water cylinder / tank.
Can you check where the pipes and wiring from the panels ends up in the house? That might help you to work out what these are doing.
Also, looking at the age of the house, it is doubtful these were installed when the house was built. So who installed them? Was is the seller?
Were the panels there already when the seller bought the house? What documentation were they given at the point of sale?
Best of luck.

this is the problem, the owner (seller) has nothing at all. Their solicitors have said the same thing. Agree with you that they were not installed when the house was built. All they (seller and their solicitor) have acknowledged is that there are solar panels (hasn't even specified PV or solar thermal) and that's it.


The house was sold in 2008 and is being sold to us. Our reasonable guess is the current seller hasn't got anything as they may not have asked for it at during their purchase back in 2008.


My main concern is the legal implications of it all. Is there a lease or not, are we ok to sort the roof out, can I remove the panels etc.

hhhjjj111

davidmcn wrote: »

There is no feed-in tariff, they're not connected to anything outside your own heating circuit (you can't sell your hot water to somebody else!). There are no complications really other than what condition they're in and how effective they are.

ok great! Would it be worth going into the loft of the house and seeing where the piping or cabling goes from the panels? Is there anything so clear cut that I could look for that would identify what type of panel it is?


I was going to go into the property to check the meters to see if there is a solar panel metre that shows output of the panels (but based on the above everyone says its a thermal panel)

Rural_Puppy

In your shoes, I would be asking the seller these questions. They must know whether the panels heat up their water or not!
It is reasonable to ask them what documentation they received about the panels when they bought the house.
I would have thought that the seller would be anxious to avoid losing a sale over them.

Others might know more than me, but I would doubt that a rent a roof scheme would apply to solar thermal panels. There is no feed in tariff paid for these (as far as I know), so there would not be any incentive for anyone else to want to install them on the roof, apart from the householder who would benefit from cheaper hot water.
You could ask for more details from the Energy Saving Trust, ie what historically was paid to householders who installed solar thermal panels.

Cakeguts

They probably installed them themselves.

ProDave

Definitely hot water heating panels. There is no paperwork as such unless there was any guarantee, but any guarantee has long since elapsed.

Buy the house on the assumption they are not working, and if they are working that is a bonus.

If they don't work get a plumber WHO UNDERSTANDS SOLAR THERMAL to come and have a look.

ComicGeek

ProDave wrote: »

If they don't work get a plumber WHO UNDERSTANDS SOLAR THERMAL to come and have a look.

If the house has gas heating, it is likely that a well maintained solar thermal system would save around £50-60 per year. At that level of saving, it's probably not worth doing anything if they aren't working, and just isolate the system - a plumber will charge more than that just to come out.

It's a great idea having solar thermal but the economics just don't work in the UK.