⭐️ Heide Swift (Heide Swift Financial Planning) ⭐️’s Post

Transcript

Hello, I hope you're well. I just wanted to talk about solar panels and. Basically, just really do your homework before you sign up for any solar panels. There is a real drive for us to be energy efficient and there's allowances and grants and all sorts of available to us to make our homes more energy efficient. However, it's really important that you make sure that whatever it is that you do isn't going to adversely affect your your future, whether it be the scalability of the property or whether it be. And raising a mortgage on the property. So usually and in the experiences that I've come across of the instances, not their experiences. And if you own the solar panels, then that's usually fine because there's no limitations, there's no kind of demands on you from any third parties. But I've come across an example. In the last couple of weeks, a client is looking for equity release, so a lifetime mortgage on a property which has leased solar panels. Now there's no mortgage on the property at the moment. So obviously when they took out the the lease on the solar panels, there was nobody else that they needed to get any permission from. But the things that you should be aware of when you're looking at least solar panels is. Things such as have you allowed unlimited access to a third party for maintenance? If there's any issues on the property on the solar panels, are you liable in the event that the owner of the solar panels isn't able to take out the insurance or the maintenance of those, are you liable for that for a specific period of time? And in the old rental roof situation, then you generally sign up for about 25 years. And that. That agreement would then go on to future owners. So if you sold the property within that 25 years, then whoever bought your property would also have to be signed up to that agreement and that may restrict the saleability of the property. Now in the instance that I've mentioned, we did clear up or did clear with the lender in advance that they would be able to consider least solar panels, which was great. However, on examination of the lease, it turns out that the lease is no longer compliant with CML. Council of mortgage Lenders regulations or legislation, I should say. So in this instance we. Are in a position that the. Lease needs to be updated and that to to comply with current legislation which is actually increased the clients legal bill by about ��500 and that's before he even gets any money in before we even get confirmation that we can actually complete on this. So my point being I think is that if you are considering. Taking out solar panels on your roof, make sure that you do as much homework as you can and make sure that you are not restricting the future saleability or any anything that you can do with the property in the future. And the same goes if you are buying a property. If there's solar panels, make sure that you check whether they are leased or whether they are bought. So whether or not you're buying the solar panels outright or whether you're tying yourself up to. A term of however many years just to lease the just to lease the solar panels. So that's it really. But if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me. But really make sure that you do your homework with the person or the company that is providing you with the option to go with your solar panels. Good luck and thank you very much for listening. Bye.