How to find out if a home has a solar lease before making an offer

A solar lease is one of the most impactful undisclosed liabilities a buyer can inherit at closing — and it's one of the easiest to find before you write an offer, if you know where to look. This guide walks buyer's agents through every data source, in order of speed and reliability.

Why this matters before the offer

Finding a solar lease after offer acceptance is a negotiating problem. Finding it before the offer is a pricing opportunity. The two situations are fundamentally different.

Before an offer: you know the lease terms, the monthly payment, the buyout amount, and whether your buyer qualifies to assume it. You price accordingly, negotiate a seller credit for the buyout if needed, or walk away before anyone is emotionally committed.

After offer acceptance: you're two weeks from closing, your buyer is excited, the sellers have already made plans. Now you're unwinding a lease, renegotiating price, or blowing the deal — all under time pressure and with a seller who feels ambushed even though they knew about the lease all along.

The five minutes you spend checking for a solar lease before writing an offer is worth hours of damage control later.

Step 1: Ask the listing agent directly

Call, don't email. Ask specifically: "Does the property have a solar system, and if so, is it owned outright, financed through a loan, or under a third-party lease?" Many agents don't know the difference between a loan and a lease — if the answer is vague, ask whether there's a monthly payment to a solar company separate from the mortgage. If yes, that's a lease or PPA (Power Purchase Agreement), which has similar transfer implications.

Don't rely on MLS remarks. "Seller-owned solar" appears in listings where the system is actually leased — sometimes through agent error, sometimes through deliberate misrepresentation. The MLS is a marketing document. The UCC search is the legal record.

Step 2: Run a UCC search

A UCC-1 (Uniform Commercial Code) financing statement is filed by the solar company when it leases panels to a homeowner. It's a public record. It shows up in title search — but you don't have to wait for title to find it.

Search the state Secretary of State's UCC database by the property address or the seller's name. Most states have free online searches at the SOS website. Search for the seller's legal name as debtor. If a solar company appears as the secured party, the system is leased.

Common solar lessors to look for: Sunrun, Sunnova, Tesla Energy (formerly SolarCity), Vivint Solar (now Sunrun), SunPower/Complete Solaria, Sunlight Financial, Dividend Finance. Also search for regional names — the UCC holder may be a financing entity, not the installer.

Note: UCC filings are indexed at the state level, not the county level, in most states. A few states (including some counties in California) file at the county recorder level instead. Check both if you're unsure of the local practice.

Step 3: Request a utility bill or account statement

A leased or PPA solar system shows up on the utility bill differently than an owned system. Look for a line item crediting solar production — but also check whether there's a separate payment going out to the solar company. Better yet, ask the seller to provide the solar company's most recent invoice or account statement. This document shows the monthly payment, the lease end date, the escalator clause (if any), and the buyout schedule.

If the seller claims to own the system but can't produce a paid-in-full receipt or a loan payoff letter, that's a flag worth investigating further.

Step 4: Check permit records

The local building department issued a permit when the solar system was installed. That permit record typically shows the contractor name, the permit date, and whether the final inspection was completed. It may also note whether the installation was for a leased or owned system in some jurisdictions.

More importantly, the contractor name tells you which company installed the system — which tells you which financing entity to look for in the UCC search. Many of the largest installers had captive financing arms: Freedom Forever used Sunlight Financial; SunPower used its own financing and also Sunrun; ADT Solar used multiple lenders.

Find permit records at the county or city building department's online portal. Search by address. Most jurisdictions have made these records publicly accessible online since 2020.

Step 5: Visual clues on the property

This is the least reliable method but can prompt the right questions. Walk the property or review listing photos for a monitoring device — a small wall-mounted unit (typically Enphase or SolarEdge branded) inside the garage or utility room. Leased systems often have a sticker from the solar company on the inverter or monitoring device showing ownership. A "Property of Sunrun" or "Sunrun monitoring" sticker is a definitive indicator of a lease.

Also look at the meter. Net-metered systems have a bidirectional meter installed by the utility. If the meter has been upgraded and the home has solar, the utility has a record of the interconnection — which you can request, and which will note whether it's associated with a third-party ownership arrangement.

What to do when you find a lease

First, determine who holds the UCC and whether they're still operationally active. A lease with Sunrun is straightforward — large company, clear process, standard 2–3 week transfer timeline. A lease with a company that went bankrupt in 2024 is a different problem entirely.

Second, get the buyout amount and the lease terms in writing before the offer. Know what your buyer is walking into.

Third, decide the negotiating position: seller pays off the lease at closing (most common for high-equity sellers), buyer assumes the lease with a price credit to offset monthly payments, or price the lease obligation into the offer and let the buyer assume it.

Fourth, add appropriate contingency language to the purchase agreement that conditions closing on successful lease transfer or payoff verification. Your real estate attorney can advise on the specific language for your state.