🏠 A roof lease gives a third party the rights to your rooftop or its airspace

➕ Sunsave Plus isn't a roof lease – it's much better

🌞 You're in full control of your panels and home

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Solar products that need a roof lease come with a long list of disadvantages, and many of the solar lease companies active in the 2010s caused significant problems for consumers. 

When building the UK’s first solar subscription, we wanted to keep the consumer’s best interests at the centre of every decision, and so Sunsave Plus does not need a roof lease, meaning you’ll legally own your solar & battery system as soon as it’s installed. 

In this article, we’ll run through what a roof lease is, when it’s required, what problems it can cause, and why you don’t need to worry about any of these things with Sunsave Plus. 

What is a roof lease?

A roof (or airspace) lease is an agreement that gives a third party the rights to your rooftop, or the airspace above it, for a fixed period of time.

If you rent or lease solar panels from a third party, you will be required to sign a roof lease so that ownership of the solar panels doesn’t pass to you once they are installed. This is because in English property law, unless a roof lease is in place, ownership of the panels will automatically pass to the property owner once permanently affixed to the property.

After the government launched the Feed-in Tariffs (FiT) scheme in the early 2010s, leased solar products (known as ‘rent-a-roof schemes’) became a popular way for households to install solar panels. 

These lease models typically involved companies installing solar panels for free and acquiring the rights to the homeowner’s roof for up to 25 years. For the duration of the lease, the homeowner benefited from the electricity produced, and the company received the FiT payments.

At the end of the lease, homeowners usually had the option to either buy the solar panels, have them removed, or renew the lease.

On the surface, this product seemed great for homeowners who couldn’t afford the upfront cost of solar panels, but by giving up the rights to their roof they ended up facing a number of major problems. 

What are the issues with solar products that need a roof lease?

Many homeowners who signed solar roof leases in the 2010s have since experienced serious challenges, especially when moving home. 

And even though the situation has slightly improved, modern solar roof leases still come with notable drawbacks that should be avoided. 

You don’t have full control over your property

This is perhaps the most significant problem with solar products that need a roof lease, and the main reason that they have developed such a negative reputation since the 2010s. 

When a company owns the rights to your roof space, you lose your freedom to do whatever you’d like with your property and sacrifice one of the main advantages of home ownership in the first place.  

Some roof leases have clauses heavily weighted towards the company, which may be unfavourable to you (such as the roof lease agreement in this Which? article).

For instance, you may have to get consent if you want to make changes to your property, such as an extension, a new roof, or a loft conversion. 

Some leases may even require you to compensate the company for any missed export payments or lost electricity generation, and you could face penalties if any building work reduces the generation of your solar panels, even temporarily. 

You may face challenges selling your home 

Historically, prospective buyers have struggled to find mortgage providers willing to lend against homes with roof leases, as the roof lease could make it harder for the lender to repossess the home in a mortgage default scenario. 

Today, mortgage lenders have more awareness of roof leases and their key terms, however there is still considerable nervousness and they may require a lot of documents from you. Despite increased awareness, new homebuyers may still find they have fewer mortgage providers willing to provide a quote for the property. 

On top of this, new homebuyers may be reluctant to make an offer if they are planning to make future changes to the property.

If a company asks you to sign a roof lease, it is because they will retain ownership of the solar panels, and it will not pass to you.

That might sound attractive if you’re benefiting from energy bill savings and an affordable monthly payment, but you might be missing out on a huge advantage of owning solar panels: export income. 

With a solar & battery system you will produce excess electricity that you don’t need (especially in the summer months) and this is automatically sent to the grid. Energy suppliers will pay you for this electricity, and you can choose any export tariff you want - although some will also require you to be a customer. 

Export income forms a huge chunk of the financial benefit of switching to solar, and it is potentially worth hundreds of pounds a year on top of the energy bill savings. 

Some export tariffs are ‘smart’, meaning they have peak and off-peak periods, and they will automatically program your battery to import and export electricity at the most profitable times. This automated process generates additional revenue that you wouldn’t earn with a normal export tariff. Without smart battery controls, you’re not maximising the value of your system. 

Energy providers are also starting to incentivise households to use less electricity at specific hours on certain days, such as Octopus Energy’s ‘savings sessions’, where you get paid for reducing your energy usage at peak times. However, you also get paid for exporting energy at peak times, and smart battery controls can help you make the most of this opportunity. 

If you choose a leased solar product, it’s possible you won’t have access to any export tariffs and you’ll miss out on all these benefits. Instead, all the export income will go directly into the pockets of the company who put the panels on your roof. 

With Sunsave Plus, you’ll own your system from the point of installation and be able to choose whichever export tariff you want.

You may not be able to exit the contract 

The most restrictive roof lease contracts do not even come with a buyout clause, which means you can’t end the agreement early even if you can afford to. 

In a Guardian article from 2018 exploring the downsides of roof leases, there are interviews with several people who are trapped in long contracts and with no way to buy themselves out. 

Roof leases without a buyout clause are thankfully rare nowadays, but it’s still something to watch out for. 

Sunsave Plus is different

As roof leases come with many negatives for homeowners, they are evidently not the best way to make solar accessible to everyone. Instead, Sunsave Plus is a highly flexible solar subscription that doesn’t need a roof lease, but still provides a solar & battery system at no upfront cost. 

Here’s how our product has been created with your best interests at heart. 

We’ve designed Sunsave Plus so that you legally own your system from day one, and it immediately becomes a part of the fabric of your property. We don’t need any rights to your roof for any period of time because the system is yours. 

This means that you’re completely free to sell your home whenever you want, unencumbered - you don’t need to check your contract or ask Sunsave for permission. 

And because our product doesn’t need a roof lease, you won’t run into any issues with mortgage lenders. They may want to check that your solar & battery system is owned by you, and that the installation is certified by Flexi-Orb or MCS, but you’ll have documentation from us that proves this. 

Where there are no roof leases present, mortgage lenders tend to be supportive of solar panels on properties, as they increase a household’s EPC rating, and a housing portfolio with high energy efficiency gives lenders access to cheaper, ‘green’ capital. 

With Sunsave Plus, you also have the flexibility to choose what happens when you move home: you can either pass on the agreement to the new homebuyer, or include the value of your system in the price of your property and pay off the subscription early. 

For more information, check out our detailed guides to moving home with a Sunsave Plus subscription and early repayment. 

Unlike solar products that need a roof lease, we do not retain ownership of the kit. The solar & battery system we install at your property is legally yours from the very beginning.

And because you own the system, any export income that it generates is yours. To help decide which export tariff you should choose, check out our guide to the best solar export tariffs. 

The fact you can earn export income means your system should be more attractive to incoming homebuyers, and you could see a greater boost to your property’s value whenever it comes to moving home.

Some solar products that need a roof lease are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), meaning they don’t have to adhere to high standards set by the FCA when it comes to treating customers fairly. 

In contrast, Sunsave is fully authorised and regulated by the FCA, whose Consumer Duty requires us to deliver good outcomes for our customers. 

Additionally, we must demonstrate a fair relationship between the cost of our product and the benefits it provides, and all of our content must be clear and not misleading. 

What if you want roof-leased solar panels?

If you are still thinking about choosing a solar product that needs a roof lease, there are several important questions you should check with your prospective installer:

How will the product affect my ability to sell my property?

What happens if I want to make any changes to my roof or build an extension?

How will the product affect my ability to renew my mortgage or change mortgage provider?

What happens to the solar panels at the end of the lease? 

Can I exit the contract early if I want to?

If the answers to some of these questions are not what you want to hear, we recommend that you consider Sunsave Plus as an alternative. Our solar subscription is available at no upfront cost, and you legally own the system from day one (so any export income is all yours). 

What’s more, you can end your subscription early at any point with a full repayment, and if you ever want to move home during your subscription, you can pass on the contract to the new homebuyer.

Every Sunsave Plus system is also backed up by the Sunsave Guarantee, which includes 24/7 monitoring, free replacement parts (including a battery and inverter), and downtime cover. Your system will also be insured by Aviva against damage, fire and theft. 

Sign up for Sunsave Plus

Sunsave Plus vs roof leases: FAQs

What’s a roof lease?

What are the disadvantages of a roof lease?

Does Sunsave Plus need a roof lease?

Why Sunsave Plus is not a solar roof lease

What's in this guide?

Why Sunsave Plus does not require a roof lease

🌞 Passing on your subscription to a new home buyer is normal in other countries

💷 You could also sell the system with your home

📈 Solar could increase the value of your home

“What happens if I move home during my Sunsave Plus subscription?” is a question we get asked a lot, but luckily there’s a simple answer. 

We know that you might not be in your current home for 20 years. And even if you’re planning to be, life might throw something at you that means you need to move. This is why we built Sunsave Plus to be as flexible as possible, especially when it comes to moving home.

In this article, we’ll explain why you shouldn’t worry about moving home during your Sunsave subscription and what your options are if you need to move.

Solar makes your home more attractive

Solar panels have become extremely hot property - energy bills remain a huge expense for UK households, people are much more conscious of their impact on climate change, solar technology is widely accepted, and the panels look fantastic. 

A 2023 survey of more than 2,000 UK homeowners conducted by The Eco Experts found that 69% of people are either ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to buy or rent a property with solar panels. In contrast, only 4% of people said they would be ‘very unlikely’ to do this.

What’s more, your Sunsave Plus subscription has additional appeal because of the Sunsave Guarantee, which means free replacement parts, 24/7 monitoring of system performance, and downtime cover. Your system will also be insured by Aviva against damage, fire and theft.

Given that electricity prices are forecast to continue rising and the UK’s electricity consumption is expected to increase as heat pumps and EVs become mainstream, it’s extremely likely that the popularity of solar panels will continue to grow. 

By increasing the appeal of your property, solar could also boost its value.  

For the average home, solar panels increase the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating by at least one grade, and homes with a higher EPC rating tend to sell for more. For instance, in research from 2023, Rightmove found that increasing a property’s EPC from a D to C lifts its value by 3% (or £11,157), on average. 

To learn more about the potential impact of solar on property value, check out our full article here.

We’re here to help, but you’re in control

Moving home is already stressful enough, so we’ve made the process of moving home during your Sunsave Plus subscription as simple as possible. You’ll be guided by a dedicated customer service manager who'll make sure you have everything you need and that the process goes smoothly.

Sunsave Plus doesn’t include things like an airspace or roof lease, which have historically caused issues with mortgage providers. This means you have total freedom to sell your home when you want. 

Passing on your subscription to a new home buyer is simple

In countries where solar subscriptions have taken off (such as the US and Germany), passing on the contract has proven to be very popular. For example, when customers move home, the US solar subscription provider Sunrun, sees a 98.5% success rate when transferring their contract to the new homebuyer.

To get the ball rolling, contact us in good time ahead of your home move and we’ll provide you and the new homebuyer with everything required. 

For instance, we’ll prepare all the information for your Sunsave Plus subscription, including an up-to-date proposal that shows the annual savings and export income, as well as all the relevant system documentation. 

We’ll then run a quick eligibility check on the new home buyer and provide all the information your conveyancer will need to complete the process. Then you’re ready to go.

Or you can sell the system with your home

Alternatively, you can include the value of your solar & battery system in the sale price of your home and make a full early repayment either before the sale or using the proceeds from the sale. There are no additional charges or hidden fees for this and you do not need to repay any future interest or monitoring and maintenance fees.

If you sell the system as part of the home sale process, the incoming homebuyer would have no further obligations to Sunsave. They would own the system outright and immediately start benefiting from energy bill savings. 

To learn more, check out our full guide to early repayment. 

You could take your system with you, but it might be expensive

You own your Sunsave Plus system outright from the day it’s installed, so you are free to take it with you to your new home. That said, the expense of uninstalling, moving and then reinstalling it means it’s probably not worth it. 

To move the system, you’d have to pay the scaffolding and labour costs of having it removed and transported to your new property, and then scaffolding and labour costs to have it installed again. The total expense probably wouldn’t be far off the cost of just buying a brand new system. 

However, it’s up to you, and if you do decide to take your system with you, let us know and we’ll give you a quote and ensure the process doesn’t impact your Sunsave Guarantee. 

If you pass on your Sunsave subscription, we charge a £75 administrative fee to ensure we can provide both you and the incoming homebuyer with a smooth transfer. This will only be paid on a successful transfer of the agreements and there are no other charges.

Moving home with Sunsave Plus: FAQs

How does this process work in other countries?

Do solar panels increase your property’s value?

Can you take your Sunsave Plus system with you?

Learn about your various options if you ever decide to move home during your solar subscription.

Moving home with a Sunsave Plus subscription

🛠️ We can remove your solar panel system if necessary

👷 Upgrading your roof felt or tiles won’t usually be too much of an issue

⚖️ A loft conversion may deprive you of solar panels – so weigh up your options

In an ideal world, you’d make any changes to your rooftop before switching to solar, but it doesn’t always work out like that. 

Sunsave Plus means you can get a solar & battery system at no upfront cost and start saving on energy bills straight away, whereas you might not have the cash for a roof upgrade until several years down the line. 

If you choose to change your roof during the Sunsave Plus subscription, it may not interfere with your system at all, and in many cases will just cause a temporary interruption to your solar generation while the roof works are carried out. Just let us know in advance of conducting any roof works and we’ll give you a quote for the removal and then reinstallation of your solar system. 

In some cases, the changes to the roof may be so substantive that it might be tricky for you to continue with solar afterwards, but we will do our best to find a solution for you that works.

Let’s run through a range of different scenarios. 

Uninstall and reinstalling your system

If you make any changes to your roof that mean your system needs temporarily removing, you have two options. You can either ask Sunsave for a quote to do the job, or find a different company. 

If you would like Sunsave to remove and re-install the solar system, please let us know in advance and we would be happy to provide a quote.

If you use a different company, we may need to send a roofer and an electrician to witness the process to ensure that your system remains protected under the Sunsave Guarantee, and there may be an additional charge for this.

Roof replacement

If you’re thinking about upgrading your roof felt or tiles, in the vast majority of cases this won’t prevent you from sticking with solar. Your solar panels will need to be removed so that the felt or tiles can be replaced, but once your new rooftop is in place, the panels can be reinstalled. 

If you materially change the type of roof tile, the reinstallation of your solar panels may be a little more complicated than the first time around. For example, if you change basic clay roof tiles for something fancier like Yorkshire Stone, the panels might require different (or additional) mounting equipment and fittings, which may come at an additional charge to you.

It’s very unlikely that your new roof tiles would be completely unsuitable for solar panels. 

Vaulted ceilings 

The elegance of a vaulted ceiling can be pretty hard to resist, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to say goodbye to your solar panels. Given that the work happens underneath your roof, your system won’t need to be uninstalled.

However, if your inverter and battery are in your loft, these may need to be moved to an alternative location before your loft is removed, and your DC cabling may need to be rewired. For instance, you might be able to put them in your garage, or in another room in your property.

A vaulted ceiling can make things more difficult if your solar panels ever require maintenance, which is certainly a possibility. If the issue is external and can be solved with scaffolding then that’s fine, but if it’s a problem with the cabling on the underside of the roof then it may not be such a smooth process. 

Our maintenance team may need to construct a platform inside your home so that they could access the cabling on the underside of the roof, and may also need to remove part of the ceiling to do so. This is naturally quite a messy and expensive procedure. 

If you think there’s any chance you may want to get a vaulted ceiling at some point in the future, it would be great to know this before we do your solar & battery installation, so we can install your battery and inverter in another location, like your garage, and run the DC cabling outside your property. 

Loft conversions

Converting your loft is an excellent way to expand the living space in your property, and if it’s happening on the opposite side of the property to your solar panels then it won’t be an issue. 

However, if the conversion is happening on the same side of your roof as your solar panels, you may have to choose between one or the other. 

Your solar panels will need to be removed before the loft conversion, but getting them back onto the roof after the conversion will be very tricky, or even impossible. 

That’s because, in the vast majority of loft conversions, the new extension will have a flat rooftop, which generally won’t be suitable for solar panel installation. The solar panels would need to be secured with ballast, which would increase the weight of the system from around 20kg per panel to over 80kg, and a flat roof would not be able to support this weight. What’s more, the additional weight may eventually cause leaks, as rainwater naturally accumulates on a flat rooftop.

Most of the flat roof solar panel installations you see around the UK today are on large commercial buildings, with rooftops that are stronger and able to support the weight of ballasted solar panels. 

Even a sloped dormer roof can be an issue, as the available surface area for solar panels may be smaller than the previous roof space, so we wouldn’t be able to fit the same number of solar panels back on and your system would be much smaller. 

Velux windows

In the case of velux windows, it all depends on where you want to put them. If they’re part of a loft conversion, it’s highly likely you’ll also have a dormer with a flat roof, and so continuing with solar isn’t really feasible. 

If you want velux windows on an angled roof and on the same side as your solar panels, your system will need to be removed so that the windows can be installed. However, the windows will significantly reduce the available space on your roof, and so you won’t be able to reinstall the same number of solar panels. 

Even if you aren’t getting many velux windows or they’re particularly small, installation best practice means there must be 300mm of space between a solar panel and a velux window. This means you can put some of your solar panels back, but you won’t be generating as much clean electricity as before. 

Summary

In many cases, upgrading your rooftop will not interfere with your Sunsave Plus system; it will just require temporary removal and reinstallation of your system, which we would be happy to quote you for. 

If you’re planning a change to your property in the future and you’re not sure how it will affect your Sunsave Plus system, feel free to discuss it with one of our experts and they’ll be able to advise you on the best approach. 

To sign up for Sunsave Plus, answer a few quick questions below and we’ll get in touch. 

FAQs

What happens to my solar panels if I get an extension?

Can I move my solar panels to a different roof?

Will roof changes affect the Sunsave Guarantee?

Learn about how various kinds of roof upgrade will affect your solar subscription, and how we can help.

Making changes to your roof during a Sunsave Plus subscription

🛡️ The Sunsave Guarantee will protect your solar panel system for 20 years

🔍 You'll get 24/7 monitoring of your solar & battery system

🔋 You get a free replacement battery and inverter

📃 Standard product and workmanship warranties are insufficient

🛠️ Most companies don’t offer an ongoing maintenance package

As well as launching the UK’s very first solar subscription, Sunsave Plus, we’re also launching the first 20-year aftercare and support package, the Sunsave Guarantee.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Sunsave Guarantee, including what it covers, why it matters, and the headaches it could save you in the long term. 

Why did we create the Sunsave Guarantee?

The energy crisis triggered a huge spike in demand for solar, and the number of solar panel installers in the UK has grown to a record high, totalling more than 3,300. If someone in the UK wants solar, they have a staggering amount of choice when it comes to picking an installer. 

However, despite the high number of businesses willing to put solar panels on people’s roofs, few of them offer any kind of maintenance, support or aftercare. This is a mismatch, given the high cost of a solar & battery system, and the importance of it lasting a long time. 

What’s more, 73% of solar PV installations in the UK now include a battery (according to Flexi-Orb), which typically stops working effectively during the system’s expected lifetime. And as with solar panels, there is a severe lack of businesses out there who will help homeowners with a malfunctioning battery.

In fact, some technical experts in the industry estimate that a solar & battery system in the UK will need three maintenance call-outs across a 20-year period - one for the panels, one for the battery, and one for the inverter. This adds not only cost, but also the hassle of finding a reliable installer to help each time.

It’s also a case of reassurance and peace of mind. A 2021 study by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), found that 55% of people in the UK who don’t want (or aren’t sure about) solar panels reported maintenance concerns as a key reason, and 40% said that a guarantee scheme would allay these concerns. 

A solar system is a big investment, so it’s fair to expect it to work. So we created the Sunsave Guarantee to give UK households certainty they will get the best out of their solar system for at least 20 years.

What is the Sunsave Guarantee?

The Sunsave Guarantee ensures that your solar & battery system will remain in superb condition throughout the 20-year subscription term of Sunsave Plus. This means that once installed, you can rest assured that you’ll have a consistent supply of clean, green electricity.

All of our installations are performed to the highest standards using best-in-class kit, but the Sunsave Guarantee is there as a backup for total peace of mind. If anything stops working or drops below an acceptable level of performance, we’ll be there to fix it. 

Part of your fixed monthly fee for Sunsave Plus pays for the Sunsave Guarantee.

30-year performance warranty on the solar panels

A free battery replacement once it performs at less than 70% of its original capacity – which typically happens after 10-12 years

A free inverter replacement whenever required (usually after 10-12 years)

24/7 monitoring of the solar & battery system, including alerting you if something isn’t working

Insurance – your system will be insured by Aviva against damage, fire, and theft

Downtime protection – we’ll compensate you for any extended period of time that your system isn’t working as it should

There are three key parts to the Sunsave Guarantee: monitoring, maintenance & replacement parts, and insurance & downtime protection.

Here’s a bit more detail on each of them:

It’s important to keep an eye on your system to ensure that it’s always working properly. However, sometimes you might be too busy to do this, and it can be tricky to know the signs of an underperforming system unless you are an expert. 

That’s why we keep track of your panels & battery for you 24/7 using our remote monitoring platform. This means we’ll be able to spot any issues, let you know, and take the necessary actions to fix them. If you’re interested, you’ll also be able to see how much clean energy your panels are generating - and how much you’re saving. 

If something doesn’t look right (whether that’s been caught by us or raised by you) then we may need a bit of extra information, such as photos and documents. 

A large number of solar system issues can be solved remotely, and we'll always attempt to do this first.

If we’re not able to fix it remotely, a Sunsave engineer will visit your property within two weeks (and often much sooner). We would generally only need to send someone to site to carry out major electrical and roofing works (such as replacing a damaged panel or broken inverter). 

This work would be very expensive if you were paying for it yourself, not to mention the replacement kit - which can cost thousands.

We do charge a call-out fee of £100, up to a maximum of £200 each year, plus VAT. That means even if you need multiple call-outs in one year, your costs will be capped. This can be thought of a bit like an 'excess' on an insurance policy, as it's only a small fraction of the cost of this work.

And we won't charge you anything for call outs in the first two years that are found to be as a result of our workmanship.

The Sunsave Guarantee is a promise that your system will keep working properly throughout the 20-year subscription period, which means that if something goes wrong, we’ll sort it - whether that means fixing the system, or completely replacing a part of it. 

The process is a bit different depending on whether the underperforming part of your system is still within warranty. 

If your panels, battery or inverter stop working before the end of their warranty, we’ll take care of submitting any claims to the manufacturer, and we’ll install any replacement hardware needed. 

Once your battery is out of warranty (normally after 10 or 12 years), if it’s performing at less than 70% of its original capacity, we’ll replace it with a brand new battery for free. Likewise, if your inverter is out of warranty and needs to be replaced, we’ll replace it with a new one for free.

Your Sunsave Plus system will be insured by Aviva against damage from theft, vandalism, natural catastrophe and fire. For instance, if a storm blew your panels off the roof, you’d be fully covered.

Alongside the insurance, we also provide downtime cover - so if your system is not working correctly, we’ll credit your monthly payments while we work to get it back to full health. 

Every Sunsave Plus subscription is covered by the Sunsave Guarantee, which lasts for the full subscription term of 20 years.

You can fully repay your loan early and without any penalties or fees, but doing so will mean you’re no longer protected by the Sunsave Guarantee.

The Sunsave Guarantee vs standard warranties

The workmanship and product warranties you’ll receive with a standard solar installation are insufficient when it comes to protecting your system over the long term.

As you can see below, the Sunsave Guarantee covers your entire system for 20 years, and includes remote monitoring, insurance, and downtime cover – which standard warranties don’t.

You will also get free replacement parts with the Sunsave Guarantee, even if your battery or inverter aren’t under warranty.

Thinking of getting solar panels? Here's a detailed breakdown of what the Sunsave Guarantee includes, from monitoring & maintenance to insurance.

Charlie Clissitt

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