Buying a Home With Solar in Florida

What to Check Before Closing

Updated 09.29.2026

Ask the ownership question before you get attached to the house. The safety questions are what you ask once the answer is “we own it,” because a paid-off system can still be a bad install.

Four different things a listing calls “solar”

• Owned free and clear. The seller paid cash, or a loan was paid off, and there is no lease. The panels are fixtures. They go with the house the way a water heater does. This is the case that can add value, which is the subject of the home value note.
• Owned, but a loan is still open. The equipment is not the lender’s in the lease sense, but a solar lender often files a fixture claim (a UCC financing statement) against the panels. Title should get a payoff and a release. If that release does not record, the lender can still come after the equipment after you move in.
• Lease or PPA. A company owns the equipment. The seller is a customer. You would be asking that company to let you become the customer. The house sale does not, by itself, make you the owner.
• PACE. Not a mortgage and not a lease. It is an assessment on the property tax bill, authorized under Florida Statute 163.08. It follows the house, not the person who signed it.

Get the answer in writing from the seller, then match it to a document: a paid invoice and no UCC, a loan statement, a lease, or a line on the tax bill. “The agent said it’s owned” is not a document.

If it is a lease or a PPA

Most of these contracts say the company has to approve any transfer. Approval usually means a credit check on you. Qualifying for the mortgage does not mean the solar company will say yes. Many of them want a score in the mid-600s or higher. The contract, not a rule of thumb, sets the bar.

If they approve you, the remaining term becomes your bill. Read the current monthly payment and the escalator, the clause that raises the price every year. A payment that looks fine in year 8 can be a different number in year 15. Ask how many years are left. Twenty years from the original signing date is common. Also ask what happens if the system underproduces, who is required to maintain it, and what the buyout would cost if you would rather own it than inherit the contract.

Start the transfer as soon as you are under contract. Companies often take several weeks, and a closing date does not move their credit desk. If they decline you, the practical options are a seller buyout before closing, a price cut that covers that buyout, or walking away. Do not waive the solar-transfer contingency because the inspection looked pretty.

The monthly payment counts as debt when the lender builds your debt-to-income ratio, the same way a car payment does. Once you have the number, run it through the House Affordability Calculator in the “other monthly debt” field.

If a loan is still on it

This is the gap listings blur. “We own the system” can mean “we financed it and we are still paying.” That loan is usually the seller’s personal debt. It does not automatically become yours, and you do not want it to. The title company should order a payoff, collect the release, and confirm the UCC filing is terminated so the equipment is actually clear when you take the deed.

Who pays that balance is a negotiation, like a car that still has a note. It can be the seller’s proceeds. It can be baked into the price. It should not be a surprise on the day before closing. The financing note on this site covers how these loans are built in the first place: solar financing.

If it is PACE

Look at the property tax bill, not the yard sign. A PACE balance shows up as a non-ad valorem assessment. It survives the sale. You would be agreeing to pay it, usually on the tax bill, for the years left.

Lenders treat a PACE lien that can sit ahead of the mortgage as a problem. Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide (B5-3.4-01) says it will not buy a mortgage on a home with an outstanding PACE loan if that program gives the assessment priority over a first mortgage. Freddie Mac wants its mortgage in first position for the life of the loan, which the same kind of assessment breaks. FHA has treated properties that still carry a PACE obligation as ineligible for a new insured loan since Mortgagee Letter 2017-18, and lender overlays in 2026 still list them that way. VA buyers run into the same wall. In a normal Central Florida purchase, the balance gets paid off at closing. Ask your lender in the first week, not at the clear-to-close email.

PACE is not offered the same way in every county. As of mid-2026, at least one large administrator listed parts of Orange County as commercial-only, while some Osceola and Seminole locations were still on residential maps. That does not matter as much as the bill in front of you. An old assessment stays on the parcel even if the county stopped writing new residential ones.

If it is owned free and clear

This is the clean case, and it is still a file, not a feeling. Ask for:

• The contract and the final paid invoice, with the equipment list.
• Permits and the final inspection, closed, not “applied.”
• The interconnection agreement with the utility.
• Panel, inverter, and workmanship warranties, and the transfer rules. Some transfer once, some only if you notify the maker within a set number of days, some workmanship warranties die with the original owner.
• A year of production from the monitoring app, not a brochure estimate.
• Any roof warranty, and whether putting the rails on voided it.

Match the model numbers on the roof and the wall to the paperwork. A swapped inverter that was never written down is a warranty claim waiting to fail.

The utility account does not move itself

You will open electric service in your name. The panels do not bill themselves.

On Duke Energy Florida and Florida Power & Light (FPL), net metering is a utility rule (Florida Public Service Commission Rule 25-6.065 for the investor-owned utilities), not a personal prize the seller can hand you. You still need the account, and usually a fresh or updated interconnection, in your name. Read the current tariff. Do not underwrite the house on a screenshot of the seller’s old bill from a different rate.

Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) is stricter, and this catches people. OUC’s own rooftop-solar page says the interconnection stays on file for the address, but if the home was sold after June 30, 2025, the buyer is not grandfathered at the old full retail export rate. The new account is paid under the rate in effect on the day that account starts. OUC has described that, for those later sales, as the community-solar energy rate for excess power through June 30, 2030, then the retail fuel rate. Solar you use inside the house still avoids the retail price. Extra power you send out does not, not at the old rate. Ask OUC what rate will apply on your start date before you treat the seller’s summer credit as your number. The incentives note has the longer version of TruNet.

The property-tax piece is separate and friendlier. Florida Statute 193.624 keeps a qualifying renewable-energy device out of the assessed value of the house. That exclusion follows the equipment, not the seller’s wallet. Confirm the county property appraiser is actually applying it. A missing exemption is a form, not a reason to walk away. It is also not a check you receive at closing.

Was it installed in a way you can live with?

Ownership answers who pays. It does not answer whether the array is safe. A general home inspection often carves the solar equipment out of the report. Say you want it looked at, or hire someone who will go on the roof.

Permits. Call the building department or look up the address. You want a solar permit that reached final electrical inspection. No permit is not a small paperwork miss in Florida. It is how insurance claims get argued, and how the next buyer argues with you. An unpermitted system should change the price. Sometimes the right fix is a permit after the fact. Sometimes it is a removal quote. Get one of those numbers before you waive the inspection.

The shutoff firefighters look for. Rooftop solar stays energized in the sun even when the main breaker is off. For years, the National Electrical Code (NEC) has required a rapid shutdown on many building-mounted systems so crews can drop the voltage on the roof. The Florida Building Code edition in force through 2026 is built on the 2020 NEC. A system permitted under that code should have a labeled rapid-shutdown switch, often near the meter or the inverter. A 2012 system may predate the rule. A 2023 system with no label is a question for the seller and, if needed, an electrician. Do not test it yourself by pulling covers.

What you can see without being a technician. Cracked glass, brown burn marks, rails that lifted in a storm, loose wires lying on the shingles, chewed insulation, rusted lugs, and a combiner or inverter with a persistent fault light. Squirrels and roof rats like the gap under a low array. One chewed conductor is a fire and a roof leak, not a cosmetic item. The maintenance note is the owner’s version of this list. You are deciding whether to inherit the job.

Production. A year of monitoring beats a story about “the bills went down.” Compare the months to each other. A string that died in March and was never fixed shows up as a step down, not as a cloudy week. If the login is dead because the installer disappeared, that is its own fact. The note on a solar company going out of business is what that file looks like.

The company. A licensed electrical or solar contractor pulled the permit, or a handyman did not. If the company is gone, the equipment warranties may still exist and the workmanship warranty may not. Know which one you are buying.

If there is a battery

Run the same ownership test on the cabinet. Batteries get leased, financed, and rolled into PACE separately from the panels. “The house has a Powerwall” is not “you will own a Powerwall free and clear on Monday.”

If it transfers, the warranty is its own document. Tesla’s home-battery warranty is 10 years to about 70 percent of the original capacity for the listed home uses, and the Powerwall 3 datasheet says a reliable internet connection is required for the full 10-year term. Enphase’s IQ Battery 5P warranty is the earlier of 15 years or 6,000 cycles, with at least 70 percent at year 10 and 60 percent at year 15. Ask for the install date, the serial number, and whether a transfer form has to be filed. A battery with two years left is a different object from a battery with twelve.

Then stand in front of it.

• Is it permitted, and is the model listed to UL 9540, the safety listing for a home energy-storage system? A cabinet with no permit is the same problem as panels with no permit, plus a lot more stored energy.
• Where does it sit? Not in the flood path, not under a gutter dumping on the lid, not in a closed attic, not boxed in by shelves. Central Florida heat and storm water are the two ways these units age or get written off. The battery care note is the longer version.
• Does the app open, and does it show a recent reading? A silent battery is a Wi-Fi problem or a dead unit. You cannot tell from the paint.
• What did they promise it would run? One cabinet is a fridge, some lights, and a few outlets for a day or two, not central air for a week. If the listing says “whole home backup,” ask which circuits are on the backup panel.
• Older Tesla units (Powerwall 2) are a different chemistry from the Powerwall 3. You do not have to become a chemist. You do want the model written on the contract so you are not pricing a new battery and receiving an old one. The battery types note is the comparison. The batteries note is the size and the bill.

If the battery company, the installer, or both are out of business, get the serial numbers and the app login into the purchase file before closing. After closing, the seller’s phone is not your service department.

Roof, insurance, and the tax bill

Panels do not make a tired roof young. If the shingles have five years left and the array has twenty, someone is paying to pull the panels off and put them back. Get that number into the inspection, especially if the seller’s roof warranty was voided by the mounts. Leaks at the penetrations are the ordinary Florida failure, more often than a failed panel.

Call your insurer before you remove the inspection contingency, not the week after you move in. Tell them the house has roof-mounted solar and, if it does, a battery. Ask whether the system is covered as part of the dwelling, whether a wind-mitigation form changes, and whether an open or missing permit is a problem. Florida policies are already particular about roofs. Do not assume “the seller’s carrier covered it” means yours will.

Where this sits in the mortgage

Owned solar does not, by itself, change your loan the way a lease payment does. A lease payment does. A PACE payoff can change the cash due at closing. A solar loan payoff can change the seller’s proceeds and, if you are the one covering it, your cash to close.

Once you know which of those is real, the House Affordability Calculator puts a comfortable payment next to the lender’s maximum. The Mortgage Calculator breaks the monthly number into principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. If this is your first purchase, How to Buy Your First House is the timeline these solar tasks have to fit inside. The solar transfer and the PACE payoff both need to be started early. They are not walk-through items.

The five-minute question is still the first one: owned, financed, leased, or on the tax bill? The next hour is the file: permits, a year of production, the utility rule that will apply to you, the roof under the rails, and the battery if there is one. Pretty photos of panels are not any of those things.

This page is general information, not financial, insurance, or legal advice. Confirm the lease, the loan payoff, the PACE assessment, the utility rate, and your lender’s rule on this specific house before you waive a contingency. Print the checklist and take it to the inspection.