Solar panel fit payments

tim_p

Tallerdave said:

On a positive note, if you really do own the panels, could you rip them down and install new ones?

To what end?

[Deleted User]

tim_p said:

Tallerdave said:

On a positive note, if you really do own the panels, could you rip them down and install new ones?

To what end?

You are right? I am not sure that paying c.£4K for a new 4kWp array which generates c.3800kwhs/year at a SEG of 5.5p/kWh or less would make any financial sense when the OP is already getting free electricity from his roof. The issue here is possible misselling and whether there is any legal route to get his FIT payments back. There is normally some form of buyback clause when FITs are assigned but this is likely to be in the £000s. 

tim_p

Difficult to understand what happened here, presumably misselling, but that would have meant the OP took out a loan for, say, £8K, which they’ve just paid back but was getting nothing other than the electricity they could use.  It should have been obvious that this was a pretty duff ‘deal’ particularly after year one when they’d paid out many hundreds yet their electricity bill hadn’t dropped by anything like that amount!

[Deleted User]

The original Green Deal was sold on the basis that the cost of the improvement would be covered by the difference between, say, the present annual electricity cost and the new annual cost. The customer would pay the same amount annually (allowing for tariff inflation) and the ‘savings’ would pay off the loan. The Government underestimated the cost of uncertain 25 year commercial loans with interest rates of 7 to 10% pa. So a £8000 loan ended up costing a lot more. The issue with HELMs appears to relate to the assignment of FIT payments to cover part of the loan repayments with the assignment going to another company other than HELMS which is still trading. The GDFC was I believe set up when the Government pulled the ill thought out scheme in 2015. The OP appears to have paid off his part of the residual loan but not that covered by FITs past and future. It would seem that there is a push to get the Government to repay all the lost FITs but the GDFC has argued that this would leave the purchasers with a free money making array and the GDFC would be out-of-pocket with no impact on the company receiving the FITs.  As I read the case above, the matter has been referred back to the Secretary of State.

MWT

tim_p said:

Difficult to understand what happened here, presumably misselling,...

Potentially but not certain.

There have been cases where the FIT assignment was not justifiable as the loan already covered the costs, or the gap was so small that the assignment of the FIT was disproportionate. Given the size of the array it is entirely possible that the FIT assignment was necessary in this case though, so not clearly mis-sold but a lot would depend on the paperwork and what was promised and explained about the FIT assignment at the time.

northy1927

I have had a decision off the secretary of state as shown in attachment my payments were reduced from £30 per month to £10 per month and since then I have now paid off the solar panel finance ,my question is how do I now recieve payments directly ?

MWT

northy1927 said:

my question is how do I now recieve payments directly ?

Nothing in that ruling gets you back the FIT payments.

Check the documents you have signed, somewhere in there will be the assignment of the FIT payments to a 3rd party.

You may be able to buy back the FIT from the assignee or you may be able to make a case that the FIT assignment was also part of  the mis-selling complaint, but I'm surprised it wasn't raised at the time if that was the case... ?

Is the FIT payment referred to anywhere in your original complaint?

The judgement would seem to have been made on the basis that reducing your payments was enough to balance out the loss you had sustained with the on-going benefit, arguably if the FIT payments had been returned to you as well there would have been a much smaller reduction in your loan payments ...

[Deleted User]

I see nothing in the above that indicates that you are entitled to claim the FITs. As far as I can see, GDFC did not takeover any FIT rights. These appear to have been legally assigned to PV Solar Investments Limited which is still trading. In sum, you appear to own the panels but you may have to approach PVSI  and ask whether you can ‘buy back’ the FIT rights. Ofgem has said that the assignment of FIT payments is allowed. I may well be wrong but the remedy that you now have is that you haven’t paid £8000 for the panels, and you are still getting the benefit of the electricity that your solar panels provide. In your situation, I would still seek advice from an organisation that can review all the paperwork.

northy1927

I was away somebody else was claiming the fit helms I thought but was missold this as it did not reduce my Bill's 

MWT

northy1927 said:

I was away somebody else was claiming the fit helms I thought but was missold this as it did not reduce my Bill's 

Correct, but they included that in the calculation of the reduction and given that the assignment of the FIT payments was clearly considered

They took the assignment into account at the time of the ruling so I don't see any grounds to get that back.

If the FIT has been restored to you, your benefit would have been greater and the loan reduction reduced, so you don't get to have the loan reduction and get the FIT back it seems.

Do try to locate the paperwork for the assignment of the FIT payments and understand your obligations to maintain the solar array and also see what options you have under the agreement to recover the FIT payments by buying back the rights for example...