Mis-sold solar panel reclaiming fees

actionmainly · 17 March 2017 at 8:33PM

Hello,

Just looking to see if anyone has any experience with mis-sold solar panel re-claiming. I have been in contact with a company TLW Solicitors who deal with such claims. Irrespective of the validity of my claim, I was looking to get anyone's opinion/experience of the no win no fee offer.

I have a 10 year finance deal with the total amount of credit costing £17,058. I am just about half way through paying for this. The basis of my claim is due to pressure selling and being told that the panels would be self funding when in fact the closest they have came to being self funding in 5 years is about £50 short for a quarter and as much as £400 short during winter. Never have the panels actually been self funding.

That aside the company TLW state that they take 30% of any amount of cash sum or financial benefit won in a successful claim plus VAT. Assuming a cash sum was awarded then that would be fine because they just deduct the 30% from the total amount won. Its the "financial benefit" bit that I am concerned about. In a worst case scenario where the finance company only agree to cancel my remaining finance and do not offer any compensation for the amount paid thus far and given that I am half way though my agreement and still owe £8529 that would mean I owe the solicitors 30% of that plus VAT which comes to around £3000. That would of course be a hefty bill and I am just wondering first if anyone has had a similar experience or have I likely got this completely wrong?

I'm beginning to think the re-claiming is as big as scam as the mis-selling?

societys_child · 18 March 2017 at 2:22PM

I'm beginning to think the re-claiming is as big as scam as the mis-selling?

Probably far worse.

JamesJ35mm · 10 April 2017 at 2:46PM

actionmainly wrote: »

Hello,

Just looking to see if anyone has any experience with mis-sold solar panel re-claiming. I have been in contact with a company TLW Solicitors who deal with such claims. Irrespective of the validity of my claim, I was looking to get anyone's opinion/experience of the no win no fee offer.

I have a 10 year finance deal with the total amount of credit costing £17,058. I am just about half way through paying for this. The basis of my claim is due to pressure selling and being told that the panels would be self funding when in fact the closest they have came to being self funding in 5 years is about £50 short for a quarter and as much as £400 short during winter. Never have the panels actually been self funding.

That aside the company TLW state that they take 30% of any amount of cash sum or financial benefit won in a successful claim plus VAT. Assuming a cash sum was awarded then that would be fine because they just deduct the 30% from the total amount won. Its the "financial benefit" bit that I am concerned about. In a worst case scenario where the finance company only agree to cancel my remaining finance and do not offer any compensation for the amount paid thus far and given that I am half way though my agreement and still owe £8529 that would mean I owe the solicitors 30% of that plus VAT which comes to around £3000. That would of course be a hefty bill and I am just wondering first if anyone has had a similar experience or have I likely got this completely wrong?

I'm beginning to think the re-claiming is as big as scam as the mis-selling?

My father in law was in a similar situation, he was told his panels would pay for themselves and that the company would sort out the fit payments etc but they never did. He started his claim about a year ago and has only just had it sorted out now. In the end they got the outstanding finance written off which was around £10k but he had to pay £3k. It hurt him to pay the fee but he's still £7,000 better off.

Jonboy2020 · 1 June 2017 at 6:19PM

I have a similar story with a slight twist. Had solar panels fitted just over 4 years ago financed on a credit agreement over 15 years. Total credit cost would have been £18,000. Were told it would pay for itself etc.. 18 months ago we were cold called by a solar claims company promising they could claim compensation for us, no win no fee, 29% + VAT on amount won. After a year of doing nothing they finally got our credit company to admit mis-selling and they offered a deal, to remove the panels and refund us our credit payments minus the FIT payments and savings on our electricity bills. The claims company advised us to accept the offer which we did. Our panels were removed and we were refunded £2700. This is where it gets interesting. We then received an invoice from the claims company for over £4000! In their opinion they have charged us for the entire outstanding amount we would have owed (about £9800) plus the refund we received to give a total of nearly £12000 more than the cash price of the entire solar panel system! Yet how can they claim that when we now longer have the solar panels! It is not compensation in any shape or form simply a refund. We would have been happy to pay the 29% on the refund but are currently in dispute about the claim on the outstanding balance. Beware! BTW the Legal Ombudsman and Claims Management Regulator both claim they have no authority over solar claims companies so no help there. Have contacted trading standards as my only recourse. Anyone else had a similar story, any advice? Will post on outcome.....

[Deleted User] · 1 June 2017 at 6:37PM

Without any recourse to the Financial or Legal Ombudsman, I'd say your only option is court.

Seek professional legal advice...

actionmainly · 6 June 2017 at 4:06PM

It seems the big cost of this is not from the financial compensation its from this idea that by having future payments written off they somehow count that as reclaiming and therefore can take a percentage. I guess its in the T&Cs but counting future payments being cancelled is not what I imagine most people view as compensation when making a claim

JamesJ35mm · 9 June 2017 at 4:04PM

If I remember correctly the claims company calculated their fee based on the value of whatever benefit was achieved, so in my father in laws case they got him a write off of about £10,000 that he was due to pay, whilst it wasn't a cash refund, even after paying their fee, he was still in a better position.

Not ideal if you haven't got the cash to hand but if you can make it work it's worth while in the long run.

Smotty1975 · 9 October 2017 at 4:05PM

Hi All

Looking to see if anyone else had solar panels installed by My Planet?

I was sold mis-sold the panels, as they do not cover the finance I pay or cover the electricity bill. All the mis-sold advice says claim from the supplier, but I can't do this, as they have gone bust !!

Any advice? I was thinking to contacting the finance company, but not sure if this would be the best action to take.

Thanks

[Deleted User] · 9 October 2017 at 5:46PM

You can hardly complain that you were mis-sold to a supplier who is no longer trading.

Certainly, I can't see your lender assuming any liability either.

Under no circumstances engage a claims management company.

Enitsuj71 · 27 October 2017 at 2:49PM

Smotty1975 wrote: »

Hi All

Looking to see if anyone else had solar panels installed by My Planet?

I was sold mis-sold the panels, as they do not cover the finance I pay or cover the electricity bill. All the mis-sold advice says claim from the supplier, but I can't do this, as they have gone bust !!

Any advice? I was thinking to contacting the finance company, but not sure if this would be the best action to take.

Thanks

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

You can hardly complain that you were mis-sold to a supplier who is no longer trading.

Certainly, I can't see your lender assuming any liability either.

Under no circumstances engage a claims management company.

Thats incorrect - you are able to complain about miss selling for solar panels when a company has gone "bust" you need to do it through the FCA, however you need to have made a complaint to your finance company first. In my case it is Helms and Shawbrook finance.
I current have a complaint being considered along side (so they say) many others in a similar situation.
*EDIT: Apologies its the Financial Ombudsman Service and not the FCA as i stated*

To cut a long story short, i entered into the agreement because I was advised that the FIT generation + savings would equate to the cost of the fiance. Its never been the case, i am around £64 a month worse off.

NineDeuce · 27 October 2017 at 3:28PM

I would never take finance on solar PV. PV panels can vary in performance just based on weather factors alone, let alone due to mechanical faults. It can also vary depending on how much of the PV generated you actually use rather than how much gets exported to the grid....

Mis-sold solar panel reclaiming fees

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