Buying a house with solar panels.

grumpy_codger

Heedtheadvice said:

Firstly probate can be a delaying issue   and the estate beneficiaries (those with legal benefit such as hiers etc. ) are not necessarily the delaying cause as it is the Executors that have responsibility for dealing with the property, once they have the authority and that most likely mean they have grant of probate. The next step then depends upon the terms of the will, if there is one. In England Probate has recently been very slow and can take many months.

You need to be clear if it is the Executors or one or more beneficiaries selling the property. I.e. know who you are dealing with and find out, for info if nothing else, what stage the 'seller' is at w.r.t probate from your solicitor.

All that is really out of the scope of this forum ( and my expertise) but it may affect the easy production of historical or purely necessary documents in due course! Knowi g where you stand is good?

The letter says: "We are pleased to confirm that we have now received the draft contract and supporting sale documents from the seller's conveyancer". 

The paperwork includes several forms to sign. Three heirs are listed as seller(s). One of them lives locally and handled viewings personally. 

I guess we are close to 'exchange'(?).

I checked the paperwork again and what I see for the solar panels is:

• Electrical installation certificate (with the late house owner named as "the client"
• Letter from the company that installed the system addressed to the house owner: "Congratulations on your new Smart PV System..."
• Some 'completion pack' with the name of the house owner under "Details of departures, if any from BS 7671" - whatever this means.
• Some certificate "issued in accordance with requirements of MCS001 and... MIS standards"  (no name)
•  Installer pack with some photos (no name)

EON is mentioned as mains gas and electricity provider in the 'Law Society Property Information Form'.

And, again, I don't see anything about the FIT and the corresponding company.

Heedtheadvice

Seems good so far. 

I assume that probate has therefore been granted ( or not necessary).

You need to review all aspects of the contract stage. This is your first opportunity to accept, reject or negotiate a contract change via your solicitor with their advice.

The MCS certificate is a useful document to prove the installation meets MCS requirements.

You could ask for the FIT contract details for information it might help with transfer with meter details and current generation purchaser  and may e if that includes or does not include deemed export. If not included you will be on SEG rather than deemed export. Not really a big issue.

Would be good if somebody else can chip in with some good comments in case there is more to consider....

Martyn1981

Apologies if repeating, as I only skim read the thread, but you (via your solicitor) need to ask who the FiT provider is, and request the seller provide signed FiT transfer forms (may be electronic), thereby transferring ownership of the FiT account to you.

I suspect this will be relatively simple, you just need the other party to start the process.

grumpy_codger

Receiveda a  reply from my solicitor with a copy of "FIT Plan Acceptance Form"...
It's the same EON.

23-11-2011 to 22-11-2036
Confirmation date 20-11-2012

- strange, as IIRC the panels were installed in 2018 (will check when I get home)

Generation tariff rate 43.3p (100% of units generated), This is the original rate from when the system was eligible on the  scheme.
Tariff date 16-11-2011 
Export tariff rate and percentage: 3.1p (50% of units generated)

It looks like the tariff was transferred to one of the heirs.

Please, can anybody help me with making sense of the dates, 43.3p, 3.1p, 50%  ...?
If needed, I can upload the copy with the names edited out.

paul991

so you get 43 p for each unit generated  FIT payment
then deemed 50 % of units generated at 3.1 p
Some people will sell the second part as measured export but most are just happy the 50 % 

QrizB

... and your FIT is old enough that you get 25 years of payments. Newer ones were only for 20 years.

Ectophile

The FIT scheme makes two payments.  The first (43.3p in your case) is for every unit generated - even if you use that electricity yourself.  It's what's shown on teh generation meter.

The second payment (3.1p) is for every unit exported.  But when the scheme started, most people had no way to measure the esport.  So they give you 50% of the units generated instead.  If you have a smart meter, you might get switched to actual measured export instead.

Check carefully about when the panels were installed, as it's possible that someone's been defrauding the FIT scheme.  The FIT payments cover a specific installation of solar panels on a specific roof.  If you strip off the old panels and install new ones, then it's not the same installation, and is no longer eligible for any FIT payments.

Martyn1981

paul991 said:

so you get 43 p for each unit generated  FIT payment
then deemed 50 % of units generated at 3.1 p
Some people will sell the second part as measured export but most are just happy the 50 % 

And with index linking, the total for the FiT and export is probably more like 74p/kWh now,

grumpy_codger

Thank you all! This makes sense now. 

The "Generation start read" in the  "FIT Plan Acceptance Form"  is 33000 in 2022. That's when the tariff was transferred to the heir, I guess. Does this mean that the system exported 33000kWh, i.e. generated just about £15K (over 11 years)?

Regarding the dates and the ownership, I see now that indeed the "Electrical installation certificate" (with the late house owner named as "the client") is dated 2011. This is the only document I see that to some degree confirms the ownership. I can live with it if it's sufficient.

Jan 2018 - it's when the "new Smart PV System" was installed that apparently was "generating additional income and cost savings".  However, I don't understand what this "little magic box"actually does and cannot find any explanation. Google gives various confusing results relating to heating domestic water, but the boiler is combi and, I think, there is no any hot water tank in the house. The "Installer pack" dated Dec 2017 has some poor quality copies of original photos of some "Fronius IG TL" box in the loft that, I think, is just a PV inverter, an essential part of any PV system producing AC power. Also, some  small units in the loft and next to the consumer unit that, possibly, measure the export (?).

Any ideas about this "new Smart PV System"?

QrizB

grumpy_codger said:

Any ideas about this "new Smart PV System"?

Can you share a photo or any details of this gizmo?

Most likely, it's snake oil sold to the previous owner by some scummy scammer.

One of the drawbacks of having a feed-in tariff is that your contact details end up on a database and, if you're unlucky, you'll get cold-called every so often by awful people trying to sell you a "maintenance plan" or "power boosters" or whatever. I find the simplest option is to deny having solar panels at all.

"Hello is that Mr QrizB?"

"Yes ..."

"I'm calling about your solar panels, we're in the area and would like to offer you a free consultation -"

"Sorry, I don't have any solar panels. Goodbye." Click.