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I posted last week about a house we made an offer on. The house has been sitting in this hot market since May. We went for a showing and loved the house and then were told there is another offer. So we ended up offering 100k over their asking price. Zero contingencies. Waived appraisal. We have a clean offer and a solid mortgage.
We were moving along and then we were given paperwork from the escrow company. The paperwork has two pages. One page is a deal the seller signed with a solar company 8 years ago. They leased their solar panels for 40k. It says payments are $161 a month and that's it. Nothing that shows how it's structured or what they owe now.
The second page is blank and it just says at the top "assumption of lease" and they wanted us to sign this.
Then they told me I need to "apply" with the solar company to be their client.
Now I'm assuming that this lease is paid. I knew nothing about solar leases yesterday. ( now I do) So I call the company and find out it's a debt collector who is collecting debts for this company that went out of business in 2018. The debt collector said they aren't taking on new customers. All we can do is assume the lease of the seller.
We're then told the seller still owes 30k on this lease. We are told that there is still a company who services the old customers of the defunct solar company. We look online to read reviews and all we read are horrible reviews saying that if you have any issues, nobody is helping you. This 3rd party who is supposed to service the panels will do nothing.
I call other solar companies who tell me they will have nothing to do with old panels. They will gladly remove old panels, install new ones from them and then take me on as their customer. But they won't honor any warrantee or service another company's panels. Totally understandable!
So the seller's realtor is trying to tell me that I should pay because otherwise if the seller's pay, I get to keep these "free" panels.
Well isn't that how it is when you sell a house? What you put into the house, the buyer gets, right? I never thought of handing my buyers a bill when we sold our house and still owed for windows and a water filtration system.
Plus I'm being told that I could get brand new panels for less than this guy paid. And that financing for 5-10 years is actually a good deal. But these 20 year leases of the last decade were mostly shams.
So what do we do? Do we pay this just to not lose the house? We already went above asking on the price. I don't want this seller's bogus lease. I'd never in a million years sign a deal like that myself so why should I pay their debt?
My agent isn't in our corner at all. She seems like she's annoyed that we uncovered this. It's like she just wants us to sign so they can close.
AND to top it all off....I went back and checked the listing to see what it said about solar. And there is actually nothing in the listing about it! It's never mentioned. So that tells me that maybe this agent knew it was going to be a problem if they used solar as a selling point only to try and hoist the lease on a buyer.
I've never encountered this before. We don't have 30k to fling around. This would eat into our reno budget.
I wouldn't, especially after offering $100,000 over asking price. If I'm taking on a seller's obligations, I want that discounted somewhere in the final contract price. That's even more so for a situation like this where there is no support from the original company (due to being out of business) for these solar panels.
That said, if you want the property bad enough and have already offered $100,000 over asking price, this may end up being a small point especially when you factor in the monthly payments.
No, I would not, but I guess the real answer for me would be "it depends".
It is a factor in the home purchase, but just one factor. It is hard for me to sit here and imagine I would pass on an otherwise great home over something that overall, is trivial compared to other factors like location, home type/size/design, property size, etc, those big token things you cannot change or correct, and this is all relative to the market and the typical availability of such properties you are interested in.
But on the flip side, something would sort of bother me taking a liability of such size for what it is, I am baffled why anyone would spend such money on a solar power system. If you are rich, sure, but to take out a loan? Idiotic.
It really comes down to how much you love the house. If you gotta have this house, then you pay off the solar panels in full and then get a company to remove them. But I would not consider signing anything assuming the lease or get into any contracts with the debt collector.
So I'm guessing the house has not really been sitting without an offer since May. They probably had offers that backed out due to this solar panel issue or other problems.
"Would you buy the seller's solar lease?" I would not assume his/her liability. If I really wanted the house, I would make removal of the panels (at sellers expense) part of the contract.
Just wait until you need a new roof. They will have to come off. No one to service this, so who will reinstall? Then your roof warranty will be voided. Or, you continue to pay for 20 years for scrap metal sitting in a landfill.
I would not take on responsibility for someone else's poor choices.
At $100,000 over asking the sellers can pay off their own lease.
Got that right. I certainly wouldn't be assuming a 'lease' for a system which is no longer being serviced because the company is out of business, and a debt collection agency is taking the payments. Not no how, not no way. They can pound sand...a 10 yard dump-truck load of it.
You offered a $100,000 over on a house that's not selling and they want you to take on their lease? And if I read your other thread about this, in a neighborhood that isn't really the best?
No way in double toothpicks I'd take on someone else's solar bill. They fell for a solar scam and want someone to bail them out.
Try offering them $20K under AND they have to clear all the liabilities from the solar. They won't take it, but then you can walk away and find something more reasonable. And, if your agent is pushing you into this, find another agent.
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