Complete Selling a House with Solar Panels Guide

Solar panels are a great source of renewable, green energy that have skyrocketed in popularity over the last few years. They help the environment, they shave money off your electricity bills by providing you with free electricity and reduce your carbon footprint, However, there is a downside to solar panels that people don't talk about as much, and that is how they can affect your house sale.

In this blog post, we will be looking at the advantages and disadvantages of selling your home with solar energy panels installed, how panels will affect your house sale, and how you can sell your solar panel property fast and for free.

Table of Contents

• How common is solar panel installation?

• Who owns the solar panels on my roof?

• Is there problems with selling a house with solar panels?

• Different types of solar panel ownership & their selling difficulty

• How do you transfer ownership of solar panels

• In Conclusion, can I sell my home with solar panels?

How common is solar panel installation?

When we last edited this article, we had a stat that stated "as of 2020, there were around 970,000 homes across the UK with solar panels fitted, according to government data. This works out to 3.3% of the 29 million homes in the country."

It's been a fair few years since that data, and the market for solar panels certainly hasn't decreased. According to the latest Gov statistics, more than 1.5 million houses, as of 2024, have solar panels, which equates to 5% of UK homes!

In 2010, the government announced a feed-in tariff (FiT) which allowed those who generated their own energy via solar panels a guaranteed income.

This led to a rise in popularity which leasing companies then took advantage of. If you were happy to lease your roof for 25 years, you would get free electricity and then the company would collect the feed-in tariff.

Although the scheme came to an end in 2019, it was replaced with the Smart Export Guarantee in early 2020, which is a much less profitable option. That, mixed with them being an increasingly more affordable option with increased competition in the space, has led to a sharp increase in homes with solar panels.

Who owns the solar panels on my roof?

Good question! You may think that if you have solar panels fit to your roof that you own them, but that's not always necessarily true.

It all depends on whether you have bought them outright or not. Some solar companies will lease you the panels, rather than selling them to you outright, which means that you don't own them, which is generally where complications with selling start.

I would always generally recommend choosing a solar panel installation that means you own the panels, to avoid future complications.

Is there a problem with selling a house with solar panels?

Well, it depends.

As Martin Lewis, of Money Saving Expert, states, "There are risks that you might have problems with your solar panels - they might need fixing - there are risks that the Feed-in Tariff will drop in the future so it isn't an absolute bang certainty."

When it comes to selling a house with solar panels on a property, there are plenty of advantages, which is why they have increased in popularity over the last couple of years. However, whilst they bring many positives, there are negatives that can hinder the selling process.

You might think... how can it possibly be a negative to have solar panels? It's made pretty evident that it can be an issue with several examples of legal companies, such as Co-op Legal Services that have extensive guides and checklists on the reverse, focusing more on what a buyer should be checking when buying a property with solar panels.

Furthermore, in my personal experience as a solicitor for many years, I have dealt with my fair share of houses with solar panels. The main issues occur when they are leased. When you sell a house with leased solar panels, the lease needs to be transferred to the buyer, which adds an extra layer of complication - and then considering solar panels can last for a 20-25 year duration, what happens if the solar panel company you bought the lease from has gone out of business? We'll touch on this later.

Advantages of selling a property with solar panels

We won't go into too much depth about the advantages of selling a property with solar panels - as we feel there pretty clear, and probably the reason that you bought them in the first place!

• Reduced carbon footprint

• Lower energy bills

• An improved energy performance certificate (EPC) rating

• Low maintenance costs

• Money-making potential through schemes such as the SEG scheme or ongoing FiT payments

Disadvantages of selling a property with solar panels

As I touched on earlier in the article, the company who owns the lease of the solar panels on your roof could well have gone into liquidation and therefore they no longer own the agreement.

What do you do then? As you may imagine this makes it incredibly difficult to find out exactly who the panels belong to. This information is critical for transferring future FiT (Feed-in-Tariff) payments to the new owner.

If you are looking to sell, and you don't have the leasehold agreement, or the company no longer operates you can contact Ofgem. Through them, you can request information about the licensee through either an Ownership Register Query (ORQ) or Subject Access Request.

• Unable to secure a mortgage

If you are a homeowner who has leased their roof to a solar panel company, then mortgage lenders will be reluctant to lend, so unless you go through a cash buyer, you may spend a long time on the open market.

• Exit fee

If you decide to end the lease before it has come to term in order to sell your property, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a rather hefty early exit fee. This fee has the potential to reach tens of thousands of pounds depending on the lease and company you are with.

• The owner of panels refuses consent

When it comes to selling your house with solar panels, you will need to get your solicitor to check over the terms of the agreement carefully.

Occasionally, the terms of the lease agreement will mean that the homeowner requires the owner of panels consent if they want to sell.

Some agreements even go as far as to require consent should the homeowner wish to add an extension to the property. These agreements can put buyers off the property.

Again, if you are having a dispute with the owner of the solar panels you should contact Ofgem.

• Roof space leasing

If the lease you have signed allows the company to extend the 25-year term indefinitely, then this could put people off buying a house with solar panel installation.

• Red tape

Should your solar panels be owned outright, you will still need to navigate your way through the red tape. Selling a house with solar panel installation involves a lot more legal paperwork than one that does not, and this may put potential buyers off.

Different types of solar panel ownership & their selling difficulty

There are a few different types of solar panel ownership, as we've discussed, and each have different selling difficulties and things that you need to consider, so we've put together this handy table for you to find the best solution for your specific selling situation.

How do you transfer ownership of solar panels?

If you buying or selling a house where solar panels have been fitted, you will need to make sure that the ownership has been transferred correctly.

The seller will need to sign a form so they must pass their details along to the buyer. After the transfer has been approved, the buyer will need to send their electricity provider readings from the generation meter once a quarter.

The relevant energy company may ask you to provide documentation confirming the sale, such as a TR1 form or a solicitor's letter, so they can get the new owner's details.

In Conclusion, can I sell my home with solar panels?

Yes, you can!

The good news is that whilst selling a property with solar energy panels attached is more difficult than selling one without, it can be done no matter the situation.

When it comes to selling a home where solar panels were installed, you will have three main options. You can either sell through an estate agent, a property auction, or through a cash buyer. There are pros and cons to each of these methods of selling, which we have broken down for you below:

Estate Agent

One of the most popular ways of selling property of any kind is through an estate agent. An estate agent's job is to undertake all of the responsibility of selling your home in return for a commission.

One of the biggest advantages of selling your property through an estate agent is that they will do all of the hard work for you, such as creating a listing for your property and advertising it for you.

However, the downside that comes with selling a property with solar panels installed, is that they can spend a very long time on the open market, as issues with ownership and FiT payments can cause a lot of problems for both buyers and sellers.

This is without factoring in the lengthy and time-consuming process of house viewings, which will mean not only fixing any other issues with your property but maintaining it throughout the whole process.

Another downside is that selling through an estate agent is that even after you have to deal with estate agents fees and taken time off work for viewing, you will still have other fees to pay such as legal fees and removal costs. Those extra costs can add up and eat away at the final profit.

Property Auction

If an estate agent is not the route you wish to go down, an increasingly popular choice is through a property auction. A property auction works when you agree on a minimum reserve price and if a buyer meets this price, then your property will sell.

The ideal outcome that you want from a property auction is that multiple buyers are all interested in your property and will each outbid each other, boosting the total of your final profit.

Another positive to selling through an auction is that auctioneers have a lot of experience with selling a broad range of properties, including properties with solar energy panels on the roof.

A downside to selling through a property auction is that it involves a lot of waiting. If you are eager to sell your home then this may not be the best option for you as once you have listed your property for sale, you could have to wait weeks or even months for the next auction to come around.

Even after the auction is complete, you will still have to wait for the paperwork to go through which can take a month or more, once again adding to the delay.

Furthermore, auctioneers also charge a commission to cover the cost of marketing and selling your flat, and this can eat away at the profit made from your property sale.

Cash Buyer

The third option for selling a home with solar energy panels attached is through a genuine cash buyer. A cash buyer is the best way to guarantee a sale on your house. Unlike other buyers on the open market, a cash buyer would not be put off by the qualities that make a house with solar panels to sell.

Another positive to selling through a genuine cash buyer is that it means a guaranteed sale within a time frame that suits you.

As we are a sell house fast company, we specialise in fast, hassle-free sales regardless of condition. We have the funds readily available to purchase your home without the need for a loan or a mortgage, so we can sell your house in a timeline that suits you, whether that is as little as 7 days or as far away as 3 months.

We will buy any house in any condition, so whether you have leased your roof to a solar power company, or your solar panel leasing company has gone into liquidation, we can help.

We are also proud members of the regulatory boards, the National Association of Property Buyers, and The Property Ombudsman. We are also rated excellent on Trustpilot with over 1000 reviews.

With over 50 years of combined experience, we will buy any house, in any location, taking all the stress out of the selling process.

Put off by selling a house with solar power panels? Give us a call today, or fill in one of our online valuation forms to receive a no-obligation CASH offer that we could have in your bank in as little as 7 days...