By Brady Souden, Director, Econ Energy
Solar panel ownership is the question nobody asks until settlement day turns into a nightmare. With over 4.15 million rooftop systems installed across Australia, one in three homes now carries panels on the roof. Yet there is still no standardised process for tracking or transferring these assets when a property changes hands.
I run a solar and electrification business in Canberra, and solar panel ownership questions land on my desk regularly. So I see both sides of this problem. We install the systems, and then years later, our clients call us because their conveyancer has questions we were never designed to answer. The financing models are getting more complex, the equipment stack is growing, and the property transaction process has not kept up with any of it.
Solar Panel Ownership Starts With a Legal Grey Zone
Here is what most homeowners do not realise. Under Australian property law, solar panels are classified as fixtures because they are bolted to the roof and wired into the home’s electrical system. As fixtures, they pass to the buyer automatically on sale, unless the contract says otherwise.
However, that classification is not bulletproof. Solar panel ownership has been tested in court, and two recent Supreme Court decisions on almost identical renewable energy assets reached opposite conclusions about whether the equipment counted as fixtures or chattels. Meanwhile, batteries like the Tesla Powerwall sit in a grey zone because they can be unbolted and removed. If a seller takes the battery and the buyer expected it to stay, the dispute lands on the conveyancer’s desk.
Green Loans Hide the Problem on Purpose
Most Australians finance solar through personal green loans or buy-now-pay-later products like Brighte. These loans are tied to the borrower, not the property. No caveat appears on the title. No registration shows up on the PPSR. Nothing flags during a standard conveyancing search.
In the ACT, the Sustainable Household Scheme has funded roughly 23,000 upgrades worth $250 million since 2021. Every one of those loans is invisible at point of sale. If the homeowner sells before paying it off, they keep making repayments on equipment now sitting in someone else’s house. The buyer, meanwhile, inherits a system with no documentation, no warranty trail, and no idea whether financing is still outstanding. This pattern mirrors the broader subscription payment fatigue hitting consumer finance across multiple industries.
That structural invisibility is the first way solar panel ownership derails a sale. Buyers cannot assess what they do not know exists.
Leases and PPAs Can Kill a Deal Outright
While most Australian solar is purchased outright, the lease and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) market is growing. These models flip solar panel ownership on its head. Under a lease or PPA, a third party owns the panels on your roof. You pay a monthly fee or a per-kilowatt-hour rate, typically for 7 to 15 years.
When you sell, the new buyer must agree to take over that contract. They need to pass a credit check. If they refuse or fail, you are stuck paying thousands in buyout fees or watching the deal collapse. The ACCC warns that PPAs and leases cost more than outright purchase over their lifetime and lock consumers into a single energy provider.
In the US, where 36% of residential solar is leased, this problem is far worse. Vivint Solar was sued by the New Mexico Attorney General for filing liens against customer properties without clear disclosure, clouding hundreds of titles. As sustainable finance frameworks evolve globally, Australia should learn from these failures rather than repeat them.
Conveyancers Are Flying Blind
No Australian law society, Real Estate Institute, or the Clean Energy Council has published formal guidance on handling solar panel ownership in property transactions. That is a staggering gap given that over 300,000 new systems go in every year.
Conveyancers in Queensland have started using template special conditions for solar in contracts of sale. But elsewhere, disclosure depends entirely on whether the seller volunteers the information and whether the conveyancer thinks to ask. Always Conveyancing notes that buyers should request full documentation including warranty certificates, installer details, and compliance records. In practice, most do not.
Feed-in tariff transfers add another layer to solar panel ownership confusion. Legacy premium tariffs (up to 60c/kWh in some states) are permanently lost on change of ownership. Buyers expecting ongoing feed-in income often discover after settlement that the previous owner’s tariff arrangement ended the moment contracts exchanged. This kind of information asymmetry resembles the data gaps that fintech lenders wrestle with in credit risk modelling.
No Technology Exists to Fix This
Despite over 300 proptech companies operating in Australia, not one platform tracks solar panel ownership through property transactions. PEXA handles digital conveyancing but ignores solar assets. Domain and REA Group list solar as a feature but capture nothing about specifications, financing, or condition.
The Clean Energy Regulator records every installation for the purpose of issuing Small-scale Technology Certificates. That data sits behind institutional walls with no pathway to conveyancers or buyers at the point of sale. In the UK, leased solar panels became such a mortgage obstacle that lenders started refusing properties outright. Australia’s “rent-a-roof” equivalent has not arrived yet, but the infrastructure gap that would make it damaging is already here.
What Homeowners Should Do Right Now
Until the system catches up, protecting yourself comes down to documentation. Confirming solar panel ownership status should be the first step for any buyer or seller. If you are installing solar, batteries, EV chargers, or heat pumps, keep every receipt, warranty certificate, compliance document, and installer detail. Store them as part of the property’s permanent record.
When selling, list every component in the contract of sale with make, model, and serial numbers. Settle any outstanding financing before or at settlement. Hand the buyer a complete pack including monitoring login credentials and feed-in tariff details. Clear solar panel ownership documentation protects both parties and prevents post-settlement disputes.
Solar panel ownership should not be this complicated. The equipment is bolted to the roof. The financing is a matter of record. The installation data already exists in government databases. Connecting those dots is a problem that fintech and proptech should have solved by now. Until someone builds that bridge, the burden falls on homeowners and the professionals advising them.
Brady Souden is the Director of Econ Energy, a family-owned Canberra solar and electrification business with over 15 years of electrical experience and 6,000+ solar installations.