First feed in tariff on solar PV. If we move house can we keep the income ? Or sell on the system ?

Slammeddeluxe

Hi - in the next couple of years we are thinking of moving to France. We have a the first solar PV feed in tariff which gives us just over 70 pence per KWH generated. Its a 4kw system so gives us just shy of £3k tax free per year at the moment. My questions are.... would anyone buy our tariff ? We did used to get letters through the door asking to buy it. But these have dried up some years ago ? Or is there any way we can somehow keep the tariff when we sell the house. So have the income somehow ? Thanks

Keep_pedalling

It’s unlikely any buyer would agree to purchase your house without getting the FIT payments as in effect they will have someone else’s property sitting on their roof. It would certainly be a problem for any lender involved.

Slammeddeluxe

But the house opposite also has solar panels installed by 'A shade greener'. It was sold a few years back keeping the panels installed and the lease transferring over. The new owners benefit from any generated power. And A shade greener benefit from the feed it tariff. So it can be done. 

Reed_Richards

I think it would certainly be possible to sell the house but keep the panels and the income they provide.  But you would have to make your intention very explicit to the buyer and this might limit the pool of buyers, as many buyers or their mortgage providers might not want to go along with this arrangement.  And how will you provide the readings of solar power generated once you no longer live there?   

Alnat1

Slammeddeluxe said:

But the house opposite also has solar panels installed by 'A shade greener'. It was sold a few years back keeping the panels installed and the lease transferring over. The new owners benefit from any generated power. And A shade greener benefit from the feed it tariff. So it can be done. 

A Shade Greener will have an official contract with the householder which is probably pages of legal blurb. You would  need to have something similar in place and the cost of getting the document drawn up would cost a fair bit. Have you taken this into consideration?

Heedtheadvice

Apart from that above concerns that I agree with.....

Consider how nany years of FIT are left. The scheme started in 2010 so depending upon the contract length you have about 5 or 10 years of payments remaining so that would be potentially £15k or £30k of income over that period.

As well as taking the  readings issue how would you maintain? What if the inverter or a panel failed? What cost to have it replaced whilst you were in France? How much would a new owner wish to charge for renting their roof? Would you have any liability if the system caused any damage  or during a repair or if the new owner looses any generation benefit, or would you be happy if the house roof needed work and generation is lost as a result?

Would you have to pay tax on your income ( not sure but could be a possibility!).

Let's guess £500 per annum to rent the roof (£5k over 10 years) £2k to get an inverter replaced professionally, legal costs to draw up a contract with the new owners (£2k), insurance to cover your liability(£200 per annum say 2K over the period). That would be about £10k for the duration. You could now be down to £5k to 20k income. Take off tax at basic rate so that could be £4k to £16k net.

So what value the system as an asset to a purchaser if system and FIT transferred? A pure guess £10k.

Invested or saved with compound interest gives similar results with no hassles or complications. Plus you have the hard cash available to you ' instantly' .

Obviously figures and risks need refining a lot but is it worth it?

ecraig

Slammeddeluxe said:

Hi - in the next couple of years we are thinking of moving to France. We have a the first solar PV feed in tariff which gives us just over 70 pence per KWH generated. It’s a 4kw system so gives us just shy of £3k tax free per year at the moment. My questions are.... would anyone buy our tariff ? We did used to get letters through the door asking to buy it. But these have dried up some years ago ? Or is there any way we can somehow keep the tariff when we sell the house. So have the income somehow ? Thanks

Would you “maintain” your investment too if this went ahead? Like for example would you pay for the inverter to be replaced? If a panel was to crack would you replace it? What if the roof developed a leak would you pay for the scaffolding to be erected to be able to remove the panel first?

If I was the house buyer I would want you to be liable for the roof.
there is more for you to gain as the fit holder, vs the new home owner. 4000kwh is going to cost not even £1200 from the grid, so if you’re going to net £3k, you should burden some upkeep responsibility.