Solar Panels without planning permission

silverchoice

Buying a house with solar panels in a conservation area without planning permission. Probably installed between 3 and 4 years ago. Has anyone been in a similar situation ?

button_box

In Scotland a seller can be asked to pay for an insurance policy to cover any potential expense  if a local authority  thinks works have been carried out without planning permission. Can't remember what it is called.   Your solicitor should be able to advise you.

flaneurs_lobster

button_box said:

Can't remember what it is called.   Your solicitor should be able to advise you.

Title Indemnity Insurance?

WIAWSNB

I imagine in such cases, the policy would pay out to cover the 'loss' from having the panels removed; their value, making good the roof, the labour, and presumably any potential loss of FIT or energy savings?
I 🤔 
If it breaches Planning in a conservation area, then I don't see that being overcome.
And, if it does breach, I can't see a policy being cheap, as action would be very likely, even tho' it hasn't yet occurred. 
Silverchoice, how conservational is the area? And can you see other potential breaches?

GDB2222

silverchoice said:

Buying a house with solar panels in a conservation area without planning permission. Probably installed between 3 and 4 years ago. Has anyone been in a similar situation ?

I live in a conservation area and round here the authorities would be down on us like a ton of bricks if we installed solar panels.

You have two issues. The first is that you might have to remove the panels, which would not be all that expensive. I would guess maybe £1-3k.

The second is that you might be paying a premium price for the house because of the panels. You might want to renegotiate. 

The local authority has 10 years to start enforcement action.

QrizB

silverchoice said:

Buying a house with solar panels in a conservation area without planning permission.

You could complain to the local authority that the panels were installed without permission, and let the planning enforcement team deal with it ...

flaneurs_lobster

QrizB said:

silverchoice said:

Buying a house with solar panels in a conservation area without planning permission.

You could complain to the local authority that the panels were installed without permission, and let the planning enforcement team deal with it ...

Round my way (yes it's a conservation area) the solar panel fitters wouldn't make it out of their van before the complaints from the neighbors began hitting the planning department's in-box. 

GDB2222

WIAWSNB said:

I imagine in such cases, the policy would pay out to cover the 'loss' from having the panels removed; their value, making good the roof, the labour, and presumably any potential loss of FIT or energy savings?
I 🤔 
If it breaches Planning in a conservation area, then I don't see that being overcome.
And, if it does breach, I can't see a policy being cheap, as action would be very likely, even tho' it hasn't yet occurred. 
Silverchoice, how conservational is the area? And can you see other potential breaches?

I don’t think you can assume that. It depends on the exact wording, but it is more likely that the indemnity policy will just pay the cost of compliance, ie to remove the panels. It won’t pay for the loss of energy savings. 

WIAWSNB

GDB2222 said:

WIAWSNB said:

I imagine in such cases, the policy would pay out to cover the 'loss' from having the panels removed; their value, making good the roof, the labour, and presumably any potential loss of FIT or energy savings?
I 🤔 
If it breaches Planning in a conservation area, then I don't see that being overcome.
And, if it does breach, I can't see a policy being cheap, as action would be very likely, even tho' it hasn't yet occurred. 
Silverchoice, how conservational is the area? And can you see other potential breaches?

I don’t think you can assume that. It depends on the exact wording, but it is more likely that the indemnity policy will just pay the cost of compliance, ie to remove the panels. It won’t pay for the loss of energy savings. 

I'm not assuming it - I'm imagining it.

Completely different... 

user1977

GDB2222 said:

WIAWSNB said:

I imagine in such cases, the policy would pay out to cover the 'loss' from having the panels removed; their value, making good the roof, the labour, and presumably any potential loss of FIT or energy savings?
I 🤔 
If it breaches Planning in a conservation area, then I don't see that being overcome.
And, if it does breach, I can't see a policy being cheap, as action would be very likely, even tho' it hasn't yet occurred. 
Silverchoice, how conservational is the area? And can you see other potential breaches?

I don’t think you can assume that. It depends on the exact wording, but it is more likely that the indemnity policy will just pay the cost of compliance, ie to remove the panels. It won’t pay for the loss of energy savings.

It would pay for any loss in value of the property ie whatever the difference is in market value (ignoring the planning breach) between a house with or without the panels.

eddddy

It might be worth checking...

Was it a conservation area 3 or 4 years ago when the panels were installed?

What explanation / excuse does the seller give for not getting conservation area consent?

There's also the question of why the installation company didn't ask the owner (or make investigations) about being in a conservation area. Does that suggest they were cowboys? (And therefore should you be concerned about other aspects of the installation?)


It might be harder to get indemnity insurance, if the work was completed less than 4 years ago. (Assuming the installation was completed before April 2024, the council have up to 4 years to take enforcement action.)

If you proceed, you should make sure you have strong evidence of the installation dates - like copies of contracts / invoices / letters stating the installation dates. So you can prove when the work was done.