Solar Panel FiT ownership issues

TPWS

Hello,
we are in the process of the sale of our property, our property has solar panels installed which was done by the previous owner. The panels were installed via the green deal.

All we were told when we purchased the property was that they had been paid off to green deal and were given proof of a payment made to green deal and the account was closed. But it seems the previous owner signed over a 20 year contract to another company now based in Canada.

We never signed any paperwork or have nothing in our name connected to them or the contract. We were just told it had all been paid off and we can do what we like with them including getting them removed.

Now with the sale and after a lot off digging it seems the Canadian company own the feed-in-tariff. 

Does anyone know where we stand from a legal point of view as we are very relucent to pay the cost of buying the feed in tariff as the 20 year contract is now into year 11.

Any help would be appreciated thanks.

Keep_pedalling

Did your solicitor not query the status of the SPs? We recently sold a property with SP and purchased another one with SP lots of questions were asked on these including the status of FIT payments.  

ThisIsWeird

TPWS said:

Hello,
we are in the process of the sale of our property, our property has solar panels installed which was done by the previous owner. The panels were installed via the green deal.
All we were told when we purchased the property was that they had been paid off to green deal and were given proof of a payment made to green deal and the account was closed. But it seems the previous owner signed over a 20 year contract to another company now based in Canada.
We never signed any paperwork or have nothing in our name connected to them or the contract. We were just told it had all been paid off and we can do what we like with them including getting them removed.
Now with the sale and after a lot off digging it seems the Canadian company own the feed-in-tariff.
Does anyone know where we stand from a legal point of view as we are very relucent to pay the cost of buying the feed in tariff as the 20 year contract is now into year 11.
Any help would be appreciated thanks.

Can you confirm, please; how long have you lived at the property? And in all this time you never received FIT?

The only remaining Q is, why should that change now?

I doubt very much you have a 'case', unless it was clearly sold to you as 'fully-owned and eligible for homeowner FIT'. But that begs the Q - why didn't you notice the lack of income?

RiaAnn

Sounds like a solar panel lease scheme rent-a-roof. If so the name of the canadian company would be on the title deeds of the property as leasing the roof? This would be “The paperwork” the lease just transferred in the sale as per the contract signed by the previous owner.  You may have legal recourse to the previous seller or your the solicitor at the time, if you have been misled or not explained the arrangement to you and given this if likely to cost a significant amount in buyout of the panels or in a lower sale price for the house. How long ago was this and who told you the solar panels were paid off to green deal?   How much was the payment for?  I would contact your previous solicitor as a first step.