What do you think about this requirement?

[NC Appraising]

Order is FHA, REFI. The subject just had new on roof solar panels installed. They are financed and are not paid off.

Some municipalities offer financing for HVAC systems. Are HVAC systems now personal property?

Is the below statement by the lender is for CYA only? (FYI, this company partners with a large solar panel installation company, and I NORMALLY decline all of their orders.....but I was out of town and accepted it. ) This idiot homeowner spent $44k on solar and the value of the home is $280k, 1,200 sqft. Suckers are born every day.

SOLAR If the subject has solar, but it is not being paid at closing. Please include the following comment. “This property is noted to have solar power. The solar panels are owned, but they are financed. Financed panels are considered personal property and cannot be included in the value opinion. Please note in the report that they are owned but financed and are considered personal property and no value is given.”

 

[BRCJR]

Order is FHA, REFI. The subject just had new on roof solar panels installed. They are financed and are not paid off.

Some municipalities offer financing for HVAC systems. Are HVAC systems now personal property?

Is the below statement by the lender is for CYA only? (FYI, this company partners with a large solar panel installation company, and I NORMALLY decline all of their orders.....but I was out of town and accepted it. ) This idiot homeowner spent $44k on solar and the value of the home is $280k, 1,200 sqft. Suckers are born every day.

SOLAR If the subject has solar, but it is not being paid at closing. Please include the following comment. “This property is noted to have solar power. The solar panels are owned, but they are financed. Financed panels are considered personal property and cannot be included in the value opinion. Please note in the report that they are owned but financed and are considered personal property and no value is given.”

What is required for solar panels?

selling-guide.fanniemae.com

 

[shrubberyvaluation]

Order is FHA, REFI. The subject just had new on roof solar panels installed. They are financed and are not paid off.

Some municipalities offer financing for HVAC systems. Are HVAC systems now personal property?

Is the below statement by the lender is for CYA only? (FYI, this company partners with a large solar panel installation company, and I NORMALLY decline all of their orders.....but I was out of town and accepted it. ) This idiot homeowner spent $44k on solar and the value of the home is $280k, 1,200 sqft. Suckers are born every day.

SOLAR If the subject has solar, but it is not being paid at closing. Please include the following comment. “This property is noted to have solar power. The solar panels are owned, but they are financed. Financed panels are considered personal property and cannot be included in the value opinion. Please note in the report that they are owned but financed and are considered personal property and no value is given.”

I wouldn't call it personal property for HVAC. What if someone finances their flooring?
Sometimes the government gives tax breaks or other incentives for solar so they might not be as big as a sucker as you think.

The last statement seems fine. I have a small nitpick with the phrase "no value is given" since we don't give value but it seems fine overall. I would phrase it that it is considered personal property and personal property is not included in the appraisal.

 

[TerryRohrer]

Solar would typically be financed with UCC-1 filing, creating a division in the property rights. I don't use the phrase "given value" for anything. In this case, I would state the panels are not part of the subject appraised, and do not contribute in any way to my conclusion of value. (Note this is nothing new. Thirty years ago I appraised a number of potato cellars financed the same way. Tens of thousands of square feet of buildings on small tracts that someone else had the legal right to remove in the event of a default).

"A UCC-1 statement is a legal notice that some creditors file to publicly declare their right to seize assets from anyone who defaults on a lease granted to them for their solar project. In other words, it allows the lender the right to repossess the solar panels in case of a default. This is not a lien on your home. A buyers’ mortgage lender who is unfamiliar with solar financing may mistake a UCC-1 filing to be a lien on your home when performing a title search - but it isn’t. Mortgage lenders place liens on houses, auto lenders place liens on vehicles, solar lenders and banks that file UCC-1 statements on solar projects do not place liens on anything but the solar panels."

Will Investing In Solar Result in a Lien on My Home? | Positive Energy Solar

So you're interested in switching to solar energy, but you aren't sure whether you should own or lease a solar energy system and whether it will place a lien on your home. In this blog, we'll look at the differences between owning and leasing your solar panels, and which options could result in...

www.positiveenergysolar.com

 

[Zoe]

Title insurance and lawyers pick that stuff up. Don't worry about the loan on the solar panels. That's your client's problem. Not your problem.

 

[Zoe]

I would almost guarantee it is a fixture if it is attached to the house. It is not personal property. That's like a split central a/c unit. One portion is outside and one portion is inside.

They are both fixtures. They are not personal property.

 

[Zoe]

BTW, there are huge tax incentives for people on many new electric and energy efficient and solar or whatever right now. Talk to your accountant if you want a tax incentive on a qualified improvement for the tax incentive break. .

 

[Zoe]

I have a history on this. My father in law put a solar system on his roof in like 1962. He built the house. He worked for utility company and again as a building inspector for a different muncipality. He also built his own house in 1962 with solar system. He later had it removed and went conventional. He stayed electric on the conversion. He was also world war 2 veteran in combat. Yeah.

He has gone to streets of gold now.

 

[Zoe]

From an appraiser standpoint, you call it a fixture. The bank can figure out how to secure their lien on any possible personal property liens. They find out if a personal property lien has been recorded in the title search. It has no bearing on your valuation as long as you call it a fixture and the system is operating unless the market is giving a premium for the solar system. You can do assumptions there also.

 

[George Hatch]

If the assignment is for MV, then it is the reactions of the market participants to this feature that we are trying to observe, report and emulate in our valuation. Not what the lenders as a group are doing or what this particular lender is doing. Lenders are not mentioned in the definition of MV. They can cut their LTV because they don't want to lend on the market's reaction to these attributes but they can't unilaterally dictate what the market participants do and don't value.

I kinda doubt they have completely thought the situation through.