HIES insurance or section 75?

h100

We have a Solar PV system with batteries, installed in 2021 - and therefore only 3 years into the 10 year warranty.

We discovered (almost by accident) that the installers are now insolvent. Solar Together (who organised the bidding scheme that awarded the contract to the installer, on behalf of the local authority) simply said contact HIES (as a HIES certificate was part of the spec).

HIES are asking if we paid by credit card as section 75 may be the way forward, rather than the insurance policy (with another company - Safeguard I think), even though HIES is all about insurance - or so I thought.

Question: why is HIES suggesting section 75 (almost recommending it) - do they not want to activate the insurance policy (or want me to) even though I have effectively paid for it within the installation cost?

or am I being unduly cynical? maybe section 75 is genuinely better for us?

Has anyone else also experienced this dilemma? 

I am also interested in how Barclaycard (or an insurance policy) will provide the ongoing support/service provided by the original installer, though funding a direct replacement of components may be more straightforward.

Comments elsewhere suggest dealing with Barclaycard for section 75 is a bit of a nightmare.

If anyone can offer their similar experiences, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

CliveOfIndia

It's not clear from your post whether there is actually a fault with your system?

But, in the event of a fault occurring that would be covered by a warranty/insurance policy, then you'd need to claim off the insurance.  S75 is pretty much a last resort in cases where the installer (or their representatives) have breached the terms of their contract with you and refuse to resolve the issue through their own internal complaints procedure.

Bear in mind that in the event of a successful S75 claim, it'll be your bank/card issuer paying you out of their own pockets - so they'll expect you to have exhausted all avenues with the supplier in the first instance.

born_again

h100 said:

We have a Solar PV system with batteries, installed in 2021 - and therefore only 3 years into the 10 year warranty.

We discovered (almost by accident) that the installers are now insolvent. Solar Together (who organised the bidding scheme that awarded the contract to the installer, on behalf of the local authority) simply said contact HIES (as a HIES certificate was part of the spec).

HIES are asking if we paid by credit card as section 75 may be the way forward, rather than the insurance policy (with another company - Safeguard I think), even though HIES is all about insurance - or so I thought.

Question: why is HIES suggesting section 75 (almost recommending it) - do they not want to activate the insurance policy (or want me to) even though I have effectively paid for it within the installation cost?

or am I being unduly cynical? maybe section 75 is genuinely better for us?

Has anyone else also experienced this dilemma? 

I am also interested in how Barclaycard (or an insurance policy) will provide the ongoing support/service provided by the original installer, though funding a direct replacement of components may be more straightforward.

Comments elsewhere suggest dealing with Barclaycard for section 75 is a bit of a nightmare.

If anyone can offer their similar experiences, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

S75 would at best only cover any issues with the system. It is not a ongoing insurance policy.
If you have HIES insurance then that is the 1st port of call. All they are trying to do with pointing you to your card provider is getting out of their responsibilities. 

h100

CliveOfIndia said:

It's not clear from your post whether there is actually a fault with your system?

But, in the event of a fault occurring that would be covered by a warranty/insurance policy, then you'd need to claim off the insurance.  S75 is pretty much a last resort in cases where the installer (or their representatives) have breached the terms of their contract with you and refuse to resolve the issue through their own internal complaints procedure.

Bear in mind that in the event of a successful S75 claim, it'll be your bank/card issuer paying you out of their own pockets - so they'll expect you to have exhausted all avenues with the supplier in the first instance.

Background: The installer recommended asking the manufacturer to add remote inverter control (back in May/June following some unexpected charging behaviour). This was eventually resolved recently with a remote firmware update, and the manufacturer highlighted a battery SoH of 91% and recommended reporting it back to the installer - that is how I found out they had 'gone'. My emails  bounced and the phone lines were dead. Solar Together confirmed they were insolvent. (The installer was EEC Solar)

The battery SoH is not stopping it working (and the previous charging behaviour has not recurred), but there may be configurations to tweak to handle this, or worst case the batteries may actually be performing sub-par and are faulty in some way.

All other issues to date (maybe 1-2 pa) have been minor, and resolved (often with a switch off/on) but having access to someone with whom to have a conversation about a problem is useful - even if only by email.

On reflection, I agree with you and @born_again that it seems HIES/Insurance should be the first port of call.
Thank you both.