Plug-in solar panels became legal to use across Great Britain from 27 August, and the government says they could cut household electricity bills by up to £110 a year. For landlords, that means a new and fairly likely request from tenants: permission to fit one of these devices at a rented property. As Property118 reports, the devices can be placed in outdoor areas or elsewhere at a home and plug directly into a standard socket, making them far simpler to install than a traditional rooftop solar array.
Because these panels do not need scaffolding, roof penetrations or a full electrical rewiring job, tenants may see them as a low-cost, low-hassle way to shave money off their energy bills. That is good news for tenants struggling with running costs, but it puts landlords in a position they have not really had to think about before: approving or refusing a request for a device that sits on their property but is owned and installed by someone else.
Why landlords cannot just ignore this
Most tenancy agreements say nothing specific about plug-in solar panels, simply because the devices have not been legal to use in this way until now. That leaves a grey area. A tenant might reasonably assume a plug-in panel is no different to plugging in a garden light or an electric heater, while a landlord might see it as an alteration to the property that needs written consent. Landlords who do not have a clear position risk either unreasonably refusing a request that causes no real harm, or waving through an installation without checking it is done safely.
The sensible move is to treat these requests the same way as any other tenant alteration request: get details of the specific product, check where it will be sited, confirm how it connects to the property's electrics, and make sure it will not affect buildings insurance, an EPC assessment, or any warranty on existing wiring. A short written policy, even a simple one, gives both parties clarity rather than leaving it to be argued over when a request lands.
Safety and liability questions landlords should ask
Because these are relatively new devices being rolled out at scale, landlords will want reassurance that any panel a tenant proposes to fit is properly certified and installed in line with manufacturer guidance, particularly around how it connects into the property's electrical system. Outdoor siting also raises questions around weatherproofing, cabling routes, and whether the installation could create a trip hazard or affect the building's exterior. None of this makes plug-in solar panels a bad idea, but it does mean landlords should not simply say yes without a basic conversation about how and where the device will be fitted.
There is also the question of who benefits. If a tenant funds and fits the panel themselves, the electricity savings are theirs, but the landlord may still want some record that the installation was consented to and done safely, both for their own peace of mind and for any future sale or remortgage where a buyer's solicitor asks about alterations made during a tenancy.
Where this fits into wider landlord costs
Requests like this tend to surface alongside a broader set of questions landlords are already dealing with, from EPC upgrades to general property improvements aimed at keeping a rental competitive and efficient. Landlords weighing up larger energy-efficiency works, rather than a single plug-in device, sometimes need to move quickly to fund them, and it is worth understanding the borrowing options available for that, including our guide to bridging finance for buy-to-let landlords looking to fund property improvements at speed.
