Nationwide Renewables - Solar Panels

AHWGenX

Has anyone else had dealings with Nationwide Renewables? 

They installed Solar Panels at my Fathers last July but have yet to provide any certification at all.

They are not MCS certified and not a part of the REAL registration scheme or even subscribing to the Ombudsman.

I'm in discussion with a Complaints Manager who, whilst being useful, has not been able to resolve the issue.

The Panels seem to be working and generating about 15kwh per day but obviously not generating any income for my Father as they are not registed for the Feed in Tariff.

My Father actually died in April 2025 so I'm acting as Executor and previously with Financial PoA.

My Father agreed to the installation depsite being Vulnerable and TPS registered - it is stil unclear whether the first contact was a phone call or a door knock.

My Father never had internet access or any internet enabled devices, the installers set up an email account and provided the password (potential GDPR breach) which no-one has been able to access.  Whenever I visit I have to take my own MiFi device and login to the system and download the data.

Nationwide Renewables have now offered to cover the lost revenue from feeding into the Grid, but haven't provided the unit rate or formula yet.

Additionally,Rebel Energy (fraudulently) took over the energy account from British Gas and have subsequently ceased trading and the account has transferred back to BG. I am refusing to pay Rebel Energy at this point as I talked to them back in November 2024 and demanded they put the account back with BG, they failed to do this.

A truly frustrating situation and I'm at a loss at how to proceed now.

I believe the individual I'm talking to at Nationwide Renewables is genuine but am deeply concerned about how his colleagues have behaved.

Any advice, guidance will be gratefully received and apologies for the convoluted "first" post. Am a previous long term member but lost my login details.

QrizB

Welcome back to the forum

AHWGenX said:

Has anyone else had dealings with Nationwide Renewables? 
They installed Solar Panels at my Fathers last July but have yet to provide any certification at all.
They are not MCS certified and not a part of the REAL registration scheme or even subscribing to the Ombudsman.

I'm not familiar with Nationwide Renewables but there's no legal obligation for a home improvements /electricals company to be a member of MCS. Being an MCS member would have required them to be a member of a consumer code (a complaints body) and to offer an insurance backed guarantee on their work. However, your father chose a supplier without any of this.

As for certification, you should as a minimum have received an electrical safety certificate and the installer should have made the necessary Building Regs compliance declaration to your local authority. Have they done any of this?

AHWGenX said:

The Panels seem to be working and generating about 15kwh per day but obviously not generating any income for my Father as they are not registed for the Feed in Tariff.

Hopefully they were not expensive, then. We occasionally hear of people being told by installers that they've left MCS because of the cost of compliance; this is a bit of a red flag, since (as you've found) getting export approval without a MCS certificate is difficult.

Octopus would, at one time, accept solar PV without a MCS certificate; I don't know if this is still the case.

AHWGenX said:

My Father actually died in April 2025 so I'm acting as Executor and previously with Financial PoA.

Are you intending to keep his property, or to sell it? Your options and timeline for dealing with Nationwide Renewables will differ, depending on your long-term intentions for the house.

If you're planning to sell, all this needs to be resolved to your buyer's satisfaction before you complete.

AHWGenX

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it.

My Father didn't "choose" Nationwide Renewables, they door stepped him at a time when he was particularly vulnerable, after the death of my mother, and (I believe) took advantage of him.  My Father didn't tell any of the family about his decisions at the time until the week / day of installation..

No certificats have been received from Nationwide Renewables at all, the new Manager is wading through a number of similar cases and seems to uncover issues at every turn.

The new Manager has now stated that he will be paying a sum equal to the export of electricity, but not as yet provided any details on the calculation.  This is a nice start but they still have no timeline for the provision of documentation.

We will be selling the home as neither my brother or I have any intention of moving back to the village.  If the lack of documentation delays the sale in anyway I'll be looking for financial recompense from them.  The Manager has also stated that Nationwide Renewables will be looking to "protect my Fathers investment from this point forward".  Not entirely sure what that will look like but a positive move by them at this point at least.

I'll possibly update this thread in the future as a sanity check.

QrizB

It does sound as though the new manager is trying to do the right thing.

Keep us informed and I hope it all works out.

righteousindignation

 

I am currently working on court documents as Nationwide Renewables are talking me to County Court. They are claiming that I have to pay cancellation fees because I cancelled a contract within the 14 days window as allowed by my consumer rights. Because it would have been a huge risk to have gone ahead with the contract. 

 Among the issues I have are 
- High pressure and misleading sales pitch - eg promising a 'yield guarantee' verbally that does not exist, staying for hours and hours, claiming that it's a now or never deal etc...
- False use of Flexi Orb logo
- inadequate certification, esp re export mechanism. It took me hours and hours to figure out that I would in fact be able to export energy through some little known route via Octopus, but this is only because they either don't want to pay for the proper schemes or have been thrown off. 
- other installers have told me that my home is not suitable for solar panels and their installation wouldn't work well, if at all.
- they tried to manipulate me into taking down my Truspilot review by withholding my deposit, threatening me with cancellation fees, and sending me a Cease and Desist Letter - and are now taking me to court. 

I got my deposit back from them using my bank's Chargeback scheme.


I am interested that they seem to have someone who seems to be trying to help, but I would be very careful.... they are experts at manipulation. Please report them to Trading Standards, and also contact your MP, and do whatever else you can to raise awareness. It's good you posted in here, because this stuff comes up on online searches even though their reviews are manipulated. 

 I'm happy to discuss this in more depth  - once I've got my court documents sent off......

 
 

AHWGenX

Haven't been back to this thread for a while as I had to deal with the loss of the physical Deeds and the home not being registered at Land Registry - property was purchased in 1970 and parents never moved..... 

Anyway.

The Panels do seem to be working and the Estate Agents seem to be happy with the paperwork I have provided them with.  Property is only going on the market this month so we'll see if any issues come up.

Totally agree with the comment about this Forum being visible on wider Web Searches - quite a few years ago we were able to get in touch with the current owners of a property my wifes Grandmother worked at (Australia) in the 1930's on the back of a post on a TripAdvisor comment / thread.

The internet isn't all shouting nonsense into the void!