Portability is the main reason to buy balcony solar as a tenant, and it is a real one — the system is your property, it unbolts, and the payback clock does not restart because you changed address.
It is also the part most often oversold. Moving it is at your cost, you need permission all over again, and there is a version of this where the new balcony will not take it. All three are worth knowing before you buy, not on moving day.
What comes off, and what stays
The panels, the railing brackets and the microinverter are yours and they all come off. That is the system.
What stays is the connection point inside the flat — the fused spur or dedicated way the electrician put in. That gets disconnected and made safe rather than ripped out, because tearing it out would leave more making-good than leaving it tidy and dead. If your landlord would rather it was removed entirely, say so at the time and it can be.
The whole lot fits in a car. Two panels are about 1.7 m each and awkward rather than heavy.
What it costs
Taking it down is a visit at our standard rate, and it is the sort of job that rate is designed for — an hour, no scaffolding, disconnect and make good.
Putting it back up at the new address is not a visit, it is an installation: survey the new railing, mount the brackets, run the cable, make the connection, test, certify, notify. Same labour as fitting it new.
What you are spared is the hardware. You already own the panels, the inverter and the brackets, and they have not worn out because you changed postcode. Against a roof array — which you leave behind entirely and buy again from scratch at the next house — that is the whole argument.
Concrete numbers, because "it depends" is no use to anyone planning a move: taking it down is £100, putting it back up at the new address is £450. So about £550 for a move, against £1,380 to start again from nothing — and you keep a system you have already paid for.
What you owe the flat you are leaving
Where the brackets clamped, nothing — that is the point of clamping. The railing goes back to how it was and there is nothing to make good.
Where a through-fixing was needed, the holes get filled and made good, and that should have been agreed with your landlord in writing before it was drilled. If it was, this is a five-minute conversation. If it was not, it is a deposit dispute, which is why every page on this site keeps telling you to get consent in writing first.
Leave the electrical certificate with the flat as well as taking a copy. It is evidence that the work was done properly, and it costs you nothing to hand over.
Two things that can stop it going back up
Be aware of both before you assume the system is coming with you, because neither is in your control.
The new railing might not take it
A balustrade has to carry the wind load of a 1.7 m panel, and balconies vary enormously — a solid glass balustrade, a slender modern rail and a Victorian iron one are three different structural problems. The new address gets a fresh survey and the answer might be no.
It might also be a smaller no: a balcony with under about 2.4 m of railing takes one panel rather than two, and we do not currently sell a one-panel system. Measure before you sign a lease if the solar matters to you.
You need permission all over again
A new landlord, a new factor, a new set of owners. The consent you got at the old flat has no bearing on the new one, and the letter you sent last time has to be sent again.
The good news is you will be much better at it the second time, and you will have an electrical certificate from the first installation to show — which is the single most reassuring thing a landlord can be handed.
Timing it around a move
Take it down before the van, not after. Once the keys are gone you are asking a favour of somebody who has no reason to grant it.
Do not try to make the removal and the refit the same day. The new place needs a survey before anything goes up, and the survey needs to happen before you have a van full of panels and nowhere to put them.
The system will spend a few weeks in a cupboard between addresses, and that is fine. Store the panels flat or on edge, somewhere dry, and do not stack anything on the glass.
What happens to the warranties
The manufacturers’ warranties are on the hardware and the hardware is yours, so they move with you and with it. Keep the paperwork and the inverter’s reference number.
What does not travel is our position on the original installation. If somebody else takes it down and puts it back up, the work at the new address is theirs and not ours, and a fault caused by their refit is not something we can be responsible for. That is not us being difficult — it is the same logic that means a good installer will not warrant a system they did not fit.
Frequently asked
- Can I take it down myself?
- The mechanical part, yes, if you are reasonably handy — the brackets unbolt and the panels lift off. The electrical disconnection at the consumer unit should be done by somebody qualified, at both ends. Doing the unbolting yourself and paying for the electrical side is a perfectly sensible way to split it.
- Do I have to tell the network operator I have moved it?
- Yes, at the new address — the G98 notification is tied to the property, not to you, so the new installation gets a fresh one. There is no fee and we handle it if we do the refit.
- What if the new place has a roof?
- Then think seriously about not moving it. A roof array generates around five times as much and gets paid for its surplus, and the balcony system is worth more sold on than bolted to a house that could have had the better product. We will tell you that rather than take the refit fee.
- Can I sell it instead?
- It is yours, so yes. It is ordinary solar hardware with a certificate and a known history, which is a better second-hand proposition than most. Whoever buys it needs their own installer, their own permission and their own G98 notification.