A Shade Greener (again) solar panel lease

jetplane

I am the buyer who made an offer on a house without knowing the solar panels were on a lease with 12 years left to run. The advert said freehold, the EA had never asked and the vendor didn't offer the information. A friend told me to query it, so at least I know early on, I am a cash buyer and this house ticks all the boxes (except the solar lease).

I've read a lot of threads about ASG and have a few questions if anyone in the know can help me? I have not instructed a solicitor and I have asked the vendor to get me a copy of the lease and nothing is happening, they have asked their solicitor to download it off the land registry.

Do we need a deed of variation to have the lease transferred over to me?

Has anyone noticed a variation in the contract when it has been transferred?

Does anyone know the cost of removing the panels at the end of the lease, when they will likely be useless.

The house is 14 years old so unlikely to need a new roof but do people have experience of needing a roof repair or insurance claim during the lease?

I know that ASG are being looked into right now, if there is any success in improving the T&C's am I right in thinking that it would be me that benefitted even though I did not sign the original contract?

Is there anyone who has taken over the lease without issue and are happy with the panels?

Oh and has anyone got experience of how much the offer was reduced by, either seller or vendor, due to having these panels?

Thanks

Baldytyke88

"Do we need a deed of variation to have the lease transferred over to me?"

The homeowner does not own the panels, so there is nothing to transfer. You just benefit from some free electricity.

jetplane

I know I don't own the panels.

There is a lease though with T&C's which has to be transferred to me.

Neil49

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81876990#Comment_81876990

Your solicitor will deal with this and should ensure the lease details are in order. Once you have ownership of the property you should contact ASG and inform them that you are the new owners of the property.

We used to own a property which had ASG panels installed by the previous owner and the process for us was straightforward.

eddddy

jetplane said:

…without knowing the solar panels were on a lease with 12 years left to run.

That's probably not quite correct - the solar panels probably aren't on a lease.

The way these schemes generally work is…

• The homeowner leased their roof to ASG for a period of 25 years - i.e. the roof was rented to ASG on a contract that lasts 25 years. (It's a bit like leasing your garage to somebody for 25 years)

• ASG have put their own solar panels on the roof that they are leasing / renting

• Instead of paying rent (in money) for the roof for those 25 years, ASG give the homeowner some electricity from the panels

If you buy the house, the lease will continue to exist - so you will become ASG's Landlord, and ASG will be your tenant.

The terms of the lease won't change as a result of you buying the house. Wherever the lease mentions 'landlord' (or 'lessor'), that will be you. And wherever the lease mentions 'tenant' (or 'lesee'), that will coninue to be ASG

jetplane

Yes thank you, that is exactly what it is, I'm hesitant because I know I am taking that on for the next 12 years and I'm concerned that I'm not fully informed about any problems I could be creating for myself.

Myci85

We have their solar panels on our roof. We bought in 2024 with a mortgage, the lease has to have certain clauses in it for a lender to be happy, which whilst not relevant to you as a cash buyer, is worth checking as you may wish to sell before the lease is up.

We do notice a slight reduction in our electricity costs in lighter months with the panels, but can't comment on any of the other things as not needed to do any roof maintenance and obviously also have many years to run before the end of the lease when we may wish to take them down. I can't recall now if the removal cost at the end is covered by them or by us, though I suspect there's a high chance the company could have dissolved by then, so I guess we'll have to just see at that point of there is any usefulness left in the panels.

A word of advice though, make sure that you do have a copy of the lease from the vendor, as I'm sure I've read that ASG charge a lot to provide a duplicate, and you will need that if you wish to sell. The land registry obviously shows the leased roof space, but I'm not sure if they are able to provide a copy of the actual wording.

Land_Registry

As hinted the lease is of the air space rather than the actual roof and if registered the lease will have it's own title number and we should have a copy of the lease on file. There's no variation needed re the actual lease as it's not changing. The landlord/freeholder/superior title holder is depending on what you wish to call yourself

You can apply by post for a copy but I would expect the conveyancer involved to be requesting a copy as part of their due diligence for example so do check with them - they would be aware of the air space lease as it would be mentioned on the main property title

Get information about property and land: Get a copy of the deeds - GOV.UK

QrizB

It's relatively common to ask the vendor to buy out the ASG lease as part of the purchase. This could cost £10k which might bump up the price of the property, depending on how hard you can negotiate.

The panels are likely to still be fully functional at the end of the lease, so you might want to keep them indefinitely. If you choose to replace them ("new" panels in 2037 will probably produce 2x the electricity that the current ones do) your new installer will be able to remove the old ones as part of the job.

monkey-fingers

If you chose to replace them with ones that need 2x the amount, you'll need new wiring across the whole thing as well as a new inverter and possibly a new meter and other parts.

It's probably not much cheaper than starting from scratch.

And you'll lose the FIT. Whilst people out there will say "oh but you can get 25p per unit" realistically, you'll get anywhere between 4 and 8p unless you get a full system with batteries.