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16:55 PM, 6th February 2013, About 11 years ago 15
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Some of you may have head of these ‘free’ solar panels we can have on our tenants houses.
A company is offering to put them on my houses at no cost to me.
The company trying to put them on for me, says I will earn money off them over the next 10-20 years. Something like £600,000 on 20 houses, but I can’t see that.
But my main reason for doing this is that my tenants already stay a long time, 15-16 years some of them. A lot of my tenants are on Housing Benefit and don’t have a lot of money. If they can have cheap or free electricity they might stay even longer.
Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on this, I only met the company yesterday, although their adjoining company have been installing insulation & boilers in for the past few years. They say it works, by the bank Siemans (linked with the Carbon Trust) gives us an unsecured loan to lease the panels over 10 years or costing £4500-£5500. The banks says everything must be externally monitored.
They have strict criteria to make sure the electric will pay the loan. The Landlord gets revenue of 50% of the electric generated not used (it’s all about the Govt having to get fuel efficiency up etc.)
They say they have a generation meter with sim card that tells them how much electricity has been generated.
They are MCS registered.
I do intend to sell some houses over the next few years.
I’ve heard through Property118 before about some people saying Lenders are reluctant to lend with these panels on the roof.
The company also say when I sell the house, I can still keep the panels & keep the feed-in-tariff.
They say there’s a maintenance plan guaranteed for 10 years. With extended warranties.
Most of my tenants have pay as you go electric meters – is this any different?
The income excess on the electric generated rises with index linked national inflation, not the cost of the electric inflation generated.
What do we do with future roof repairs when these solar panels are on top of roof’s?
Who pays for the repairs when the lease is up?
Who replaces when they wear out in 20 years or break?
Can anyone see or know any negatives with getting these panels?
Would there be a risk, not enough electric generated to pay for the lease cost? They say roughly 9 months of electric generated will pay for the 12 months lease.
It is not the rent a roof scheme?
I am going to get the paperwork looked at by a solicitor beforehand.
The company say by 2015, any property less than EPC E rating, we won’t be able to rent out anyway (I thought this was 2018), so should I be desperately going for this regardless of the risks?
All the best and I look forward to reading your responses.
Mick Roberts
www.advanceproperties.co.uk
www.youtube.com/mickroberts2006
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CP Bigwood West Midlands Property Auction - 28th Feb 2013
14:53 PM, 9th February 2013, About 11 years ago
Ha ha, yes you are probably right & that's what I thought. But then I have niggles about old terraced properties maybe dragging the rating down more than my DG & Combi's taking the rating up.
Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118
15:57 PM, 9th February 2013, About 11 years ago
Why don't you just get a couple of new EPC's done Mick so you have a better idea of the effects of all your efforts do far?
5:38 AM, 10th February 2013, About 11 years ago
Yeh, I could. I'm sure from the EPC's in the past when I've bought houses, they wasn't too bad before I bought them with a back boiler in, where they now have Combi. You lot are certainly putting me off Solar Panels. They guy rang me yesterday, said paperwork projection forecast nearly done. I just din't want to kick myself in a few years, when people say 'Wow, you could have got all your houses done for free' & now you have to pay 4k a house.
16:48 PM, 6th March 2013, About 11 years ago
We have solar panels(3.5k System) on our home and we earned from the Feed in tariff about £1400 plus the free electric, they cost £9000 to have them fitted and we had them completed prior to Dec 2011, so we got the FIT at 43 pence per unit.
I did think about having them fitted on some of our rental properties but as the FIT is now about a third of what we get at home I didn't think it would be worth it. the panels can now be installed for 5k and will return about a third so I worked it out about £38 a month for 25 years, take into account the inverter will need replacing 3 times over that period and they are currently about £800.
so a total cost of £7400 over the 25 years and a return of £11250 at todays rate, the fit rate does go up by inflation and so will the electric cost which I haven't took into account but there are programs that will do this.
The FIT payment is also tax free so in theory you could gross that figure up as well.
I would think we don't use all the electric we generate which then gets "wasted' as we sell it back to the grid at a few pence a unit. If we could store it then use it at night I'd have them on all the houses.
Also the best return is on south facing houses.
The meter doesn't make a difference unless you have the older analogue type meter, these will then go backwards which will effectively save the electric until you use it at night, they are replacing these so if you have one it wont be for long.
I still toy with the idea of buying panels then think I'm better off buying another house and renting it out, the rent will also go up and I'll still have an asset that is still generating cash after the 25 years FIT ends.
There are loads of cowboys out there promoting massive returns but I try and see if it works at todays money, and what happens if the FIT stops, they all say it can't but in the first year so many were having them fitted they reduced it by half when it was only meant to be a few pence.
PS, just had the FIT for nov to jan, £90, in the winter when you use more electric you generate the least.
14:34 PM, 25th June 2013, About 11 years ago
If your living in the UK and thinking about having solar panel installed you could try a company called a shade greener, they fit and maintaine them for free. Your roof may or may not be suitable for solar panels but you can find out here.
Free Solar Panels
https://findaroof.co/terryhanley