FindSolar.caA house with panels on the roof is either coming with a paid-off power plant or with someone else's contract stapled to the title. Both look identical from the curb. The difference is worth tens of thousands of dollars across an ownership, and it is fully discoverable before you offer, provided you ask the five questions below while your conditions still have teeth.
Question one: who owns the system?
Owned outright, financed with a balance, leased, or under a power purchase agreement: everything else flows from this answer. Owned systems transfer with the house like a furnace. Financed systems may carry a registered security interest that must be discharged or formally assumed. Leases and PPAs are ongoing obligations with their own terms, escalators and end-of-term rules, and assuming one deserves the same scrutiny as assuming any contract. Your lawyer should see the paperwork, and a title search catches what conversation misses.
Questions two and three: what is it, and does it work?
Ask for the equipment list with serial numbers, the warranty certificates, permits, inspection records and the utility's authorization. Then ask for proof of production: monitoring history and a year of power bills beat any verbal claim. A documented system with visible output history is an asset you can price; an undocumented one is a roof feature you are betting on. Warranty transferability matters too, and varies by manufacturer and installer, so have the seller confirm it rather than assume it.
Questions four and five: the clocks and the account
Two components age on their own schedules: the roof under the array, whose next replacement will involve removal and reinstall costs, and a string inverter, whose mid-life replacement lands on whoever owns the house that year. Ask the age of each and budget accordingly. Finally, the billing arrangement: net metering agreements and banked credits sit with the utility account, and transfer rules vary by utility. One call to the utility before closing confirms how the arrangement, and any credit balance, moves to you.
Pricing what you found
An owned, documented, producing system on a healthy roof adds real value: it is prepaid electricity for decades. Missing paperwork, an aged inverter, a roof due soon or an assumable contract with an escalator all belong in your offer price. None of this should scare you off a solar home; it should simply move the discovery from after closing, where it costs money, to before, where it earns it.
Questions homeowners ask
Does the seller actually own the solar panels?
Make this the first question, in writing: owned outright, financed with a balance, leased, or under a power purchase agreement. Each has different consequences at closing, and a registered security interest can sit on title. Your lawyer and a title search confirm what the listing implies.
Can a solar loan or lease be transferred to me?
Sometimes, on the provider's terms, which vary widely and can include credit approval, fees and unchanged escalators. Review the actual contract before waiving conditions, and price the obligation like any debt you are assuming. The alternative, seller pays it out at closing, is common and often cleaner.
How can I tell whether the system is still producing properly?
Ask for monitoring history and a year of utility bills, which together show real output against the system's size. Compare production per kW with the regional planning range in our production guide. A seller who cannot produce either is asking you to buy a claim, not a system.
What solar documents should I ask the seller for?
The equipment list with serials, warranty certificates and their transfer terms, electrical permit and inspection records, the utility's authorization to operate, and monitoring access credentials. That package is what makes warranties claimable and the asset provable; its absence belongs in your price.
How old are the roof and inverter, and why does that matter?
Because both run on clocks that ring expensively: a roof replacement under an array adds removal and reinstall costs, and a string inverter typically wants replacing in mid-life. If either clock is far along, the next owner pays it, so it belongs in the negotiation now.
Will the existing net-metering or export arrangement transfer to me?
Transfer rules and any banked credit treatment vary by utility and program. Call the utility before closing, confirm how the interconnection agreement moves to a new account holder, and ask what happens to accumulated credits at transfer. Five minutes on the phone prevents the one surprise the documents cannot show.