Buying a House with EV panels installed pre-2019, do we retain the access to receive FIT? 5 May 2022 at 5:37PM in LPG, heating oil, solid & other fuels 8 replies 182 views

Mr_Hard_Drive

We recently purchased a house with 4.8MW Solar panels on the roof, installed in 2016 (i.e. in the FIT date range).

Are we able to receive feed-in tariff (FIT), or did the right to access this cease with the last owners?

Secondly, are prices for the FIT fixed, or should we look for a best price? (incumbent is Good Energy)

Thanks

Ectophile

4.8 megawatts!  That must be a mighty big house you're buying to have that much roof.

Was there anything at all mentioned during the sale of the house about transferring - or not - the FIT entitlement?  If you now own the installation outright, then you are entitled to the FIT payments on it, for the remainder of the FIT scheme.

Reed_Richards

Your solicitor should have dealt with this when you were buying the house; after the event it's a bit late.  But assuming the previous owners owned the solar panels (which is not necessarily the case) then the ownership should have passed to you (unless you agreed to a clause that said otherwise).  So if you do now own the panels then you should be entitled to the FIT.

FIT payment rates are fixed.  Usually the amount you export is deemed to be half of what you generate but it might be possible to be paid for what you actually export if you think that would work to your advantage

Kevin_SS

We sold our house with PV panels but specifically did not include the FIT payments.  These are worth over £20,000 ov er the next 15 years and the buyer could not afford to pay more for the house and was happy to have the free electric.

Reed_Richards

...which proves my point that you cannot be sure what your situation is and the solicitor handling your conveyancing should have dealt with it.

JonBr

Would like to chip in here if that's OK. I'm buying a house with soalr panels on the old FIT (50% deemed usage, 50% payment). Having read this thread I have instructed my conveyancer to ensure the "FIT entitlement" is assigned to me but can anyone point me to some information about how it is transferred? Do I have to keep the seller's supplier to benefit from it?

QrizB

JonBr said:

Would like to chip in here if that's OK. I'm buying a house with soalr panels on the old FIT (50% deemed usage, 50% payment). Having read this thread I have instructed my conveyancer to ensure the "FIT entitlement" is assigned to me but can anyone point me to some information about how it is transferred? Do I have to keep the seller's supplier to benefit from it?

The seller will have the FIT registered with a FIT provider. That may or may not be the seller's current energy supplier; they don't have to be, the two contracts are separate and can be switched independently.

When you take over the FIT, you will inherit the seller's FIT provider. That provider will have forms for transferring ownership from seller to you.

By way of example, my FIT is with E.ON Next and all their forms are here:

https://www.eonnext.com/help/feed-in-tariffs

Poppydog62

If the previous owner retains the right to the fit payments, does this mean you lose the right to remove the panels if you wish to. Do you need to pay the cost of maintaining them ?

Ectophile

Poppydog62 said:

If the previous owner retains the right to the fit payments, does this mean you lose the right to remove the panels if you wish to. Do you need to pay the cost of maintaining them ?

That needs to be agreed in a contract between you and them.