Halifax mortgage and solar panels

Novastar21

We have a mortgage offer from Halifax. At the time of application we told them the house had solar panels that the owners owned outright. They never mentioned anything. Now my solicitor has raised it with them as she said she wasn't aware of the panels. Have we anything to worry about? We had to appeal out mortgage application, thankfully it was a success so I'm now annoyed that this is now another thing to think about. Has anyone had a mortgage with Halifax on a house with solar panels?

eddddy

I'd guess that the solicitor wants to make some pre-contract enquiries to check that the solar panels are owned by the seller.

If the seller has simply told you that they own the panels (verbally, by email or by letter), you can't rely on that. If it later turns out to be untrue, you'd probably have no legal recourse. 

But if the information comes via solicitors, it will be included in the contract. So if it later proves to be untrue, you can potentially sue the sellers.

In general, you can't rely on anything the sellers tell you. If something is important to you, you must get your solicitor to confirm it in a pre-contract enquiry, so that it becomes part of the contract.

Your mortgage lender shouldn't have any concerns, if the solar panels are owned by the seller.



(I'm intrigued about your successful mortgage application appeal. Were you challenging the valuation figure? My understanding is that challenging a valuation is almost never successful.)

AdrianC

If they are indeed owned, there is no issue. The solicitor just wants to check they aren't leased.

Novastar21

I'm not concerned with if they own or lease as they have now provided evidence of ownership to their solicitor.  Im concerned about halifax not happy with owned solar panels. Although I'm sure I told them and that they were owned not leased.

The appeal, long story short...

Put in application with my existing mortgage provider and added hubby onto it. Passed credit check as an A grade. Just as offer was to be made, we failed another credit check. Mortgage declined. We found a ccjbworth 400 pound that expires in 6 months. We didn't know about it.

I appealed it as we were existing customers borrowing less than current mortgage and borrowing 20% Ltv.

The underwriters looked at everything with a fine tooth comb and granted the mortgage.

AdrianC

Novastar21 said:

I'm not concerned with if they own or lease as they have now provided evidence of ownership to their solicitor.  Im concerned about halifax not happy with owned solar panels.

And that's all the solicitor needs to confirm - remember, the solicitor acts for the lender, as well as for you.

"But I told the lender" isn't good enough - the solicitor needs to confirm that's true.

GDB2222

The panels are quite heavy, and they get bolted to the existing roof, which was not originally specified to take the weight. That can cause issues in the longer term. Of course, the roof may have been over specified in the first place.

Can I ask whether you are getting a full survey done? 

K_S

Novastar21 said:

I'm not concerned with if they own or lease as they have now provided evidence of ownership to their solicitor.  Im concerned about halifax not happy with owned solar panels. Although I'm sure I told them and that they were owned not leased.

@Novastar21 Policy-wise, Halifax is ok (in principle) with lending on houses with solar panels (leased or owned). If leased, the conveyancer just needs to do the necessary work to ensure that it meets standard CML guidelines, it's not a showstopper.