The Commercial Landlord’s Guide to Rooftop Solar
The value sits in the paperwork as much as the panels. Solar now comes up in almost every conversation Steve Palise has with commercial property owners, because commercial roofs are big and flat and mostly empty while electricity is one of the biggest outgoings in the building.
Sooner or later, a tenant will ask to put panels up, or you will weigh up doing it yourself. This guide gives you the twelve answers Steve gives his own clients before anyone climbs on the roof.
What It Covers
Steve trained as a chartered mechanical and structural engineer before he became a buyer’s agent, so roofs, loads and electrical systems are familiar ground, and this guide works through the questions that land in his inbox whenever solar enters the picture.
You will see whether a tenant’s request to install is good or bad for you, how to fund a system yourself and sell the power back to the tenant for a return, and where you stand on a Power Purchase Agreement if the tenant breaks the lease early.
It also covers the practical side owners worry about, including whether panels will damage the roof, what happens to your building insurance, who carries the maintenance, how the system wires into the switchboard, and how metering and billing actually work.
Heritage listings, kerb appeal and the warranties worth holding out for all get a straight answer too. Palise Property does not sell or install solar and earns no commission if you go ahead, so the advice is the advice, nothing more.
Why It’s Useful
When solar comes up, most of the value and most of the risk sit in the documents rather than the hardware, and getting the consent, the lease amendment, the structural certificate, the insurance confirmation and the exit terms sorted upfront is what separates a system that lifts your returns from one that becomes a headache when a tenant leaves.
This guide tells you what each of those documents needs to say and why.
Priced and structured properly, solar is one of the few building improvements that can leave the tenant, the landlord and the valuer all better off at once.
Lower outgoings make the property easier to lease, and once the system is paid off it produces cheap power that becomes a real drawcard when you are competing for tenants.
Whether a tenant has just asked for permission or you are running the numbers on funding it yourself, this guide helps you make the call with your eyes open.
