yvonne Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I wonder if any kind Omletteers might have any experience of this. My OH and I are interested in buying a house but the elderley owners have just signed up to rent out their roof to B Skye B and have just had solar panels installed which are basically the property of Sky for the next 25 years (with a proper lease etc). The current owners simply see this as free electricity, but we worry that mortgage companies might not like someone having a lease on part of the property or that insurers may also not be too keen. There seems to be some criticism of such schemes in the press and I'm sure the free electricity will not be as good a deal as the current owners think (if it seems too good to be true, it probably is in my experience !) However, I worry more about possible problems down the line if we come to sell in a few years time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickric Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I did a little bit of research into this but not with B Sky B (not a company I would have associated with solar power), it did seem like quite a good idea but as it is quite a new scheme no one knows how it will pan out in the long run, 25 years is a long time . I think there was quite a lot of info on the Money Saving Expert site and forum. Have you talked to any mortgage or insurance companies about it yet and if so what was their opinion? Good luck, will be interested to know what the outcome is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Chick Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 My OH investigated this a while back, but we decided against it in the end, big long term commitment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stehaggan Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I don't think it's a bad thing. If the current owners had paid for the panels themselves they would be making money from the electricity generate by the panels by selling it back tothe national grid under a government initiative. So as they are leasing it from sky it sounds like sky have set up a scheme so the home owner benefits and they will skim off the money for the electric they can sell back. Even though it's for 25 years the kyoto accord which is where the initiative primarily came from is running out so government rebates may not last the 25 years so if there is no clauses whereby you as a new tenant have to pay sky in the future I would think there is no risk to you and it should be deemed as a positive as you should have a sort of income from your property. Well that's my understanding of it - wow I did learn something from my accountancy case study lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 Thanks, the Money Saving Expert Forum is indeed full of a very lengthy discussion/arguement about this - certainly does not seem straightforward ! Personally I'd probably rather have bought the panels outright to avoid any uncertainty about future costs or benefits. Will investigate further and report back. Oh the joys of moving !! (Good advice about checking direct with mortgage and insurance providers as well) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stehaggan Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I did quite a bit of research on this and if I was in a position I'd definately do it myself. If you install your own panels and take part in the Fit (feed in tariff) scheme it's beneficial in that you can sell your house easier as it's q benefit to have, you save on your electric costs in 3 ways: you generate your own electric so you have no bills; you get paid for all excess you sell back to the grid and you also get payment for all energy you generate as an incentive. The only downside is you have a high £££ to pay upfront fir the panels. I feel this is why sky might have thought it's a good idea to put them on peoples houses under a lease agreement so both the homeowner and sky will benefit. But in general I found if you can afford to fit yourself in any house, it's recommended. Good luck with the house whatever u decide. I don't think u are disadvanted with the agreement but you lose out on some of the advantages maybe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 That's interesting Ste - I have a hankering to fit some panels on a sunny flat roof I have... just need to save up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stehaggan Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Claire if you ask your current energy provider if the hav any "fit" incentives you might find you don't have to sve. They might install then and then you will pay it back over a period of time by means of a reduced tarif I know that eon and homebase had an initiative in place. If you google solar fit scheme there is a lot of info out there. I want to do it when we move to another house x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Thanks Ste, I'm with Eon so will investigate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevtheplumber Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 ok it works like this, if you pay for your install YOU get the free electric You generate and also get to sell any excess to your power provider at roughly 43p per kw you produce, if you lease the install is normally free and you get the free electric it produces but the lease company get the 43p per kw to sell back, basically the lease companys in a few years time will be making a fortune, but if you can pay for the install yourself YOU will make the money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 It's something we started looking into but we'd want to pay for the installation ourselves - as Kev says, we want to reap the benefit in the long term - I'll have to win the lottery at the moment though! We have massive roof area facing in just about the right direction. I wish the people who built the house 5 years ago had installed a ground source heat pump - They probably didn't because of the rock........we're not sure how far down we'd be able to dig a trench. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevtheplumber Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 you could have bore holes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 you could have bore holes Two thirds of the land was a quarry and was land filled - supposed to be sub and top soil but it contains all sorts of rubbish....rocks, concrete, tarmac, metal.....we're not sure what effect that may have on things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevtheplumber Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 should be ok, you would have to pay for a survey and they would advise, thats not cheap though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
