Due to the growing number of homes with leased solar panels the Legal Awareness Committee decided to create a new Solar Panel Addendum & Disclosure for your use. The committee thought that a Solar Panel Addendum & Disclosure was important because:

• Solar panels can be owned by the seller or leased.
• If the panels are leased, some (but not all) solar panels require their own credit check for buyers assuming a solar panel lease. The solar panel's company may have more stringent credit criteria for assumption of the lease than a buyer's mortgage company has for mortgage eligibility.
• It is important to know the lease amount because the buyer's mortgage company will include the lease payment as part of the buyer's Debt to Income (DTI) ratio which can affect a buyer's eligibility for a mortgage.
• The buyer(s) and his/her attorney may want to review the solar panel lease agreement to understand the terms & conditions of the lease; for example, who maintains the panels and any related maintenance cost, what happens when the panels are removed, the cost of early termination of the lease, how excess energy that is passed back to the electric company affects the monthly lease payment, etc.
• Buyers may want to evaluate the monthly costs associated with the lease versus the utility costs before the panels were installed to determine whether the lease is cost effective.