Buying house with Solar Panels

byeo

I'm a first time buyer and viewed a property on Saturday which has Solar Panels, from what they vendor told us, they're leased. We like the property and are looking to book a second viewing but looking online it seems buying and selling a house with them can be a minefield. The house is freehold which I think makes things slightly less complicated but still not straight forward.

Does anyone have experience buying a home with Solar Panels not owned by the vendor? I'm assuming my Solicitor and mortgage lender will do their checks and advise me if anything looks off or not right in regards to the T&C's to the lease.

But is there anything else I need to ask/be aware of?

Thanks.

lisyloo

One thing to be aware of is that should you need work doing on your roof the you will be liable for removing and replacing the solar panels in good working order.
You’d need to do the same if you owned them but if anything went wrong it would be an easier situation as the owner of them wants the income so wants them up and working.

Personally I don’t think this is a massive deal as you can use the same scaffolding.

eddddy

The mortgage lender needs to be happy with the lease.

Often the problem is:

• The lender requires a break clause in the lease - and many solar panel roof leases don't have them.

• (Essentially, the break clause says that if the mortgage lender has to repossess the house, the roof lease immediately comes to an end, and the solar panel company must remove the panels.)

• So the seller has to find the solar panel company (which is sometimes difficult), and ask them if they will agree to a break clause being added to the lease.

• Sometimes this takes a long time to do - which delays the purchase. Sometimes it seems to prove impossible - which means the sale falls through.

So that keeps the lender happy. But you also need to make sure that you're happy. For example:

• Do you need a survey to make sure the roof is strong enough to take the weight of solar panels?
• Are you happy with the terms of the lease? e.g.

• Who's responsible for insuring the panels?
• Who's responsible for damage to the panels?
• Who's responsible for maintenance of the panels?
• What access do you have to provide to the solar panel company?
• What happens if you need to repair the roof underneath the solar panels? (e.g. because it's leaking)

Karl.P

Further to eddddy's advice, from my own firsthand experience

Land Registry should have a version of the lease agreement, if you look at the Title Register for the house (which you should download if you haven't already with the plan) there should be a entry in the "Charges Register" section, and further down the document under "Schedule of notices of leases", this gives the lease overview including dates and the title number you will need to download to get more information (costs £3).

To download the deeds using lease title number you need to do a detailed search which allows you to put in the title number. I don't have a direct link to it, but you get to it by:

On the HM Land registry site put just the leasehold title number into the request form

Find a Property - Detailed Enquiry https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/DetailedEnquiryInit.do

If you don't have your own deeds you can download a copy from here also.

Also check if the panels are bird proofed , if not the pigeons will probably be turning up any-day to roost. The lease companies won't bird proof for free, can make it difficult to do yourself (not yours to touch) or charge a lot.