Who gets FIT payments after my demise?

Misslayed

Slightly complicated situation, I'm thinking about this after Mr. M and I completed the LPA forms today. 

I own the house we live in, mortgage free, with PV panels paying me an income (we have only been married for 8 years, both bereaved after long marriages). My will, drawn up by a solicitor, leaves my house to my two (step) children, but my husband has the right to live here, paying all expenses, until he no longer needs to. He gets any money I may have when I die. Just wondering if anyone knows who would get the FIT payments, or how I could make sure he does? I know I could ask Eon, but I'm just impatient, if anyone happens to know!

MWT

I would simply add that to your will...

As you have it now the payments would go to your step children as part of the ownership of the house.

Reed_Richards

Normally the owner of the panels has the right to FIT payments.  I have read that it is possible to assign payments to somebody else (as @MWT indicates) but whether you can do that in such a way that the assignation of payments persists after a change of ownership I don't know.  Therefore if you wrote it into your will it might work, up until the point where your husband moves into a retirement home and your step children sell the house.

Cardew

There are probably about a million house owners with Rent-a-Roof solar panels who have signed legally binding agreements that the FIT payments go to a third party.

So if you are making it a condition of your will that your husband has the right to remain living in the house, it would be easy to add the FIT income to the will. You might need to think about who is responsible for any repairs to the solar installation - can be expensive.

Reed_Richards

Cardew said:

There are probably about a million house owners with Rent-a-Roof solar panels who have signed legally binding agreements that the FIT payments go to a third party....

But the clue there is in the name, the FIT payments go to a third party because the third party owns the solar panels.  That why they call them "Rent-a-Roof" schemes; a third party rents your roof for their solar panels . 

What you cannot do in a will is grant someone ownership then take it away again later or under certain circumstances.  A will that granted your husband ownership of the solar panels would be ill-advised because many mortgage lenders are wary of houses with solar panels that are not owned by the house owner.  I think it is perfectly possible to write a will that grants your husband the income from the panels for as long as he remains alive and your step children own the house but you really need to run this past your solicitor/will writer.     

MWT

You don't grant him ownership of the panels, just the benefit of the FiT payments, should be trivial for the solicitor to add this to the will.

Reed_Richards

MWT said:

You don't grant him ownership of the panels, just the benefit of the FiT payments, should be trivial for the solicitor to add this to the will.

But in the same way that he will have the benefit of living in a house he does not own for as long as he needs to I think you will need to set limits on the benefit from the FIT payments.  The will says he has to pay the bills whilst living there, maybe it is sufficient to add that he is entitled to the income? 

MWT

Exactly, this is why it will be easy to add as there is already a concept of a time period for the benefit.

Misslayed

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights everyone. I've just looked over my will, written before I bought the panels, and realised my husband would get all my goods and chattels. Now I'm wondering if the panels are a good or a chattel!

Misslayed

All I have found (on Solarcity), is that the panels are 'generally' considered a fixture, but that was in regard to moving house. 

Reed_Richards

Inheriting a house is the same as buying a house for most intents and purposes.  If your will gives your house to somebody other than your husband (as it does) then the panels will go with the house (as a fixture) unless you specify otherwise.  You would be ill-advised to specify otherwise.  This is a fanciful example but suppose after you are gone your husband decides to take on a lodger, who gets the rent money?  Or suppose a film company wants to use the house as a location, who gets the commission?