Not getting the most from solar panels..

strongbow1976

I brought a house last year, the previous owner had solar panels fitted under a 'green scheme' in 2013.  We are told we cannot sell back the unused electricity due to this deal? We only get the benefit of free electric as we use it - ie. Dishwasher used on sunny day is free. Is there a way I can sell the excess energy back to the grid? The company that installed it no longer trades I don't know where to start ?

MWT

The original company may have gone but odds are that the entitlement to the FIT payments from your solar system were passed on to another entity and that is why you don't get to benefit from the export payments.

When you purchased the house, the status of the solar installation should have been documented, most likely it does not belong to you but you have an agreement and an obligation to allow the solar installation to remain on the roof in exchange for the 'free' electricity.

You should be able to check who currently gets the payments though as there is a central register.

Do you currently supply generation meter readings to anyone?

Reed_Richards

These are sometimes referred to as "rent-a-roof" schemes, mortgage lenders can be a bit wary of them so I'm surprised this was not flagged-up during the purchase.  

[Deleted User]

The OP has been let down by his/her solicitor. It should have been made clear in the various searches whether the panels are owned or leased. That said, the latter requires a lease agreement: I would be surprised if this wasn’t picked up by the lender. 

Fully owned panels do not in themselves give a right to FIT and export payments. It is possible that the income from the roof was assigned to a third-party to pay off a loan. It might be worth checking with the FIT Register whether payments are being paid and to whom:

FITRegister@Ofgem.gov.uk

If the panels were not registered for FITs, then this ship has long sailed. The only option then is SEG payments for all energy exported (currently 5.5p/kWh with Octopus). To claim this, the OP will need to provide a MCS or equivalent certification depending on their supplier, and DNO approval. The supplier will insist on a SMETS2 import/export meter and it will apply to the DNO for a second MPAN covering exported electricity.

Reed_Richards

[Deleted User] said:

Fully owned panels do not in themselves give a right to FIT and export payments. It is possible that the income from the roof was assigned to a third-party to pay off a loan. It might be worth checking with the FIT Register whether payments are being paid and to whom:

I find it hard to believe that you can assign future income from an asset and then sell the asset.  Could you sell a house with a sitting tenant and continue to collect the rent from that tenant? Could you own a taxi, sell it but continue to collect the fares?  If such things are possible they would have to be there in black and white in the sale agreement.

On the other hand the whole point about "rent-a-roof" schemes is that you don't own the asset, the solar panels.      

QrizB

Reed_Richards said:

[Deleted User] said:

Fully owned panels do not in themselves give a right to FIT and export payments. It is possible that the income from the roof was assigned to a third-party to pay off a loan. It might be worth checking with the FIT Register whether payments are being paid and to whom:

I find it hard to believe that you can assign future income from an asset and then sell the asset.  Could you sell a house with a sitting tenant and continue to collect the rent from that tenant? Could you own a taxi, sell it but continue to collect the fares?  If such things are possible they would have to be there in black and white in the sale agreement.

On the other hand the whole point about "rent-a-roof" schemes is that you don't own the asset, the solar panels.      

That brings us back to Dolor's previous comment:

[Deleted User] said:

The OP has been let down by his/her solicitor. It should have been made clear in the various searches whether the panels are owned or leased. That said, the latter requires a lease agreement: I would be surprised if this wasn’t picked up by the lender. 

@strongbow1976 did any of this get discussed by/with your solicitor when you bought the house?

[Deleted User]

Reed_Richards said:

Dolor said:

Fully owned panels do not in themselves give a right to FIT and export payments. It is possible that the income from the roof was assigned to a third-party to pay off a loan. It might be worth checking with the FIT Register whether payments are being paid and to whom:

I find it hard to believe that you can assign future income from an asset and then sell the asset.  Could you sell a house with a sitting tenant and continue to collect the rent from that tenant? Could you own a taxi, sell it but continue to collect the fares?  If such things are possible they would have to be there in black and white in the sale agreement.

On the other hand the whole point about "rent-a-roof" schemes is that you don't own the asset, the solar panels.      

At this point, I declare my knowledge to be somewhat sketchy. A basic principle of a Green Deal was that energy home improvements would be paid for from the difference between the original cost of electricity and the cheaper bill. Houses can, and are, sold with the Green Deal still in place. This should have been revealed in the various searches carried out during the purchase. The other option would have been for the purchaser to insist that the seller paid off any loan along with revocation of any assignment.

As I said above, the FIT Scheme Registrar should be able to confirm whether any FIT payments are being made and to whom. It could of course be the case that the seller has moved on and not bothered to sign a FIT Transfer Form.

From a Green Deal website:

Quote: Financing under the Green Deal is limited by the “Golden Rule”. The Golden Rule basically says that for any measure to be financed under the Green Deal, its repayments must be less than the amount of energy saved.  FIT payments do not count towards meeting the Golden Rule but savings on your electricity do.  The impact is that the portion of your installation that can be financed under the Green Deal is limited to the predicted savings on your energy bills. The balance of the installation costs would have to be financed from other sources but could of course be repaid through FIT payments. Unquote

MWT

Reed_Richards said:

I find it hard to believe that you can assign future income from an asset and then sell the asset.

You can only sell the interest that you own in the asset, and that is where the solicitors are dropping the ball on occasions by not clearly establishing what the status of the solar system is and what interest is being sold with the house.

Keep_pedalling

The only way you could get more benefit from those panels would be to install batteries to store some of electricity generated for your own use, or buy an EV.

MWT

Keep_pedalling said:

The only way you could get more benefit from those panels would be to install batteries to store some of electricity generated for your own use...

The contracts often don't allow you to do that as it can result in lower generation figures if it is a DC-coupled battery...

strongbow1976

Many thanks for the replies.  I'm trying to find documents, but I don't believe it's rent a roof scheme, so surely I now own these panels? I have normal smart meters that just send the readings off...