Bought a house with solar panels

[whyisitsohardtochangemyname]

We've just bought and moved into a house with 20 solar panels (included as part of the sale). We've never dealt with solar panels before. Can anybody advise how it works. The estate agent suggested they generate an annual income of around £1200. No idea how this happens and who sends us a lovely little annual windfall?

Any advice would be appreciated.

This might help here
allanjanes.com/-Buying-a-house-with-solar-panels-Heres-what-you-need-to-know

And here
www.quittance.co.uk/conveyancing/advice/buying-a-property/what-to-check-when-buying-a-house-with-solar-panels

Thank you for those links. We now own the panels, they were part of the sale and are owned outright, not as part of "rent a roof".

I have no idea who we advise that we now own them and any savings or money generated should now be applied to us not the previous owner?

I'd start with any paperwork given to you from the previous owners and go from there

The paperwork shows the panels are owned outright and gives details of who installed them,. I've tried to get in contact with the company but they're no longer in business, panels were installed 8 years ago.

The previous owner answered yes to the "do they generate an income" question. Nothing much else really.

You need to make sure pretty quickly that the feed in tariff company knows the house has been sold or the pre virus owners will get the money

Do your solicitors not know which company it is?

@whyisitsohardtochangemyname
My DD has just completed on a house with solar panels - not as many as yours though so not as much possible income.
I’ll ask her if she’s been told how to get their own details registered, but surely the buyer’s solicitor should be responsible for getting the information from the vendor’s solicitor? Otherwise the money will continue to go to the vendor

Your solicitor should have asked for the detail. You might not actually get the feed in tariff and if the owners have just said “yes they do” that could mean anything from a penny upwards and it entirely depends on your own usage. You might use it all yourselves.
The feed in tariff no longer exists for new applicants. Instead, if you generate more than you use then you sell it back to the grid and this depends on the rate your own supplier pays.

@cloudtree

Your solicitor should have asked for the detail. You might not actually get the feed in tariff and if the owners have just said “yes they do” that could mean anything from a penny upwards and it entirely depends on your own usage. You might use it all yourselves. The feed in tariff no longer exists for new applicants. Instead, if you generate more than you use then you sell it back to the grid and this depends on the rate your own supplier pays.

8 years ago would have been the feed in tariff, does that change if the house is sold? I haven't seen that reported anywhere.

@whyisitsohardtochangemyname Have asked DD & she says the vendor sent them a link yesterday to change registration. (They’ve had a very amicable sale and handover - completion was a week ago - so they are on those sort of terms!)
I don’t know why her solicitor didn’t chase it though. Maybe because solar panels are still quite unusual?

Thanks Kitten, sadly our vendor hasn't been particularly co-operative. Our solicitor has been a bit useless too. I just don't know how we find out who to tell that we now own them.

Re feed-in tariffs, this from EDF says:
“ as a general rule, the Feed-in Tariff will pass to the new owner of the house”

www.edfenergy.com/for-home/help-centre/faq/will-i-be-eligible-feed-tariff-if-i-move-house-already-has-system-generates

@whyisitsohardtochangemyname

Thanks Kitten, sadly our vendor hasn't been particularly co-operative. Our solicitor has been a bit useless too. I just don't know how we find out who to tell that we now own them.

That’s very frustrating. So many solicitors seem to be useless. There should be a national register for this!

Do you know who your current energy supplier is? Might be worth contacting them initially in case it’s them.

Or Ofgem?

www.ofgem.gov.uk/

Hopefully you can find the meter which shows the generation readings. Take photos so that you have a record of the reading and date, this is really important so that you can receive what you are owed from at least today's reading.

The previous owner should have provided a closing reading to the FIT provider.

It's possible that your current Electricity supplier (inherited from previous owner) provides the FIT payments, so I would start with them.

It does seem that your conveyancer has done a poor job. Mine was all over this, ensuring we had account details, etc.

If the panels were registered for FIT before the scheme closed, you should be eligible to receive this as the new owner.

get your electricity from Octopus - they are v. good at sorting our Feed-in tariffs & gave us lots of support in getting it right.

In general, the feed-in tariff doesn't earn you much money. It is better value to use the electric when the sun is shining (e.g. charge car, run washing machine) and save money than to feed in electric in the day and spend it at night.

You need to adopt the FIT payments. In my case, previous owner informed the company they were moving, then I think I filled in a 'change of ownership' form IIRC once I'd moved in. This was with Shell Energy.

@parietal

get your electricity from Octopus - they are v. good at sorting our Feed-in tariffs & gave us lots of support in getting it right.

In general, the feed-in tariff doesn't earn you much money. It is better value to use the electric when the sun is shining (e.g. charge car, run washing machine) and save money than to feed in electric in the day and spend it at night.

Not necessarily, it depends when they were installed. The FIT has changed over time. I get £2,000 from my panels that were installed pre 2010. The rate per unit is guaranteed for 25 years.

OP, when we moved in we were told the panels were registered with Scottish Power Microgen. We contacted them and they guided us through the process of changing the account holder details.

Try some of the larger companies, such as a shade greener. There are others, I'll see if I can find the info

It is very awkward of the vendors if they won't tell you who the company is. They could easily give you a copy of the recent payment form.

Ofgem maintain a FITregister holdng all the installations. No doubt it is confidential but you could ask them to tell you who the current licencee is. I'd have thought it quite a common question.

Ofgem.gov.uk

see also www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-and-social-schemes/feed-tariffs-fit/electricity-suppliers/fit-licensees

AFAIK most people used the company that supplied their electricity when they had the panels installed. Mine is EDF, although SSE was my Regional company.

It's probably easiest if you register with the company the vendors used. Take the meter reading off the generation meter now, and on the first day of each calendar month until you get registered. Two or more of these readings will be needed to get your first payment.

Looking at the OFGEM page, it seems to me that any FITS licensee will have access to look up your installation; I suppose in case a customer wants to change to them, so if you can't get other information, you could ask your electricity supplier.

They might want the Meterpoint number, which is on the bottom of the electricity bill, and looks something like this (see pic)