Selling
Selling a Brentwood Home With Solar: What Happens in Escrow
Owned panels convey with the deed. A lease needs the buyer approved, a solar loan usually leaves a lien on title, and the NEM rate follows the system for 20 years. What to do before you list.
A seller tells me the solar "comes with the house." Three weeks into escrow, it turns out to come with a contract, a credit application, and a lien. I have lost count of how many Brentwood files have started that way. Solar is not a problem when you sell. It is a problem when you find out about the paperwork late.
We are an inland valley. Summers run hot and long, air conditioning runs accordingly, and rooftop solar spread across Brentwood faster than in a lot of Bay Area towns. A very large share of the homes I list have panels on them.
What are the three ways a Brentwood home can have solar?
Owned outright. The seller paid cash or paid off the loan. The panels are a fixture, they convey with the property, and there is nothing to assign. This is the cleanest version, and it is the one buyers pay for.
Financed with a solar loan. The seller is still making payments. The panels are theirs, but a lender holds a security interest that usually has to be paid off through escrow, exactly the way a second mortgage would be.
Leased, or on a power purchase agreement (PPA). A third party owns the equipment on your roof, and you pay either a fixed monthly amount or a per-kilowatt-hour rate for the power it produces. Nothing about that transfers automatically. The buyer has to be approved by the solar company and sign an assumption.
The first question I ask any seller with panels is which of these three they have. Most people are sure. More of them are wrong than you would expect, because the salesperson who sat at their kitchen table used the word "own" loosely.
The preliminary title report tells you more than the solar contract
Sellers routinely tell me they had no idea anything was recorded against their home. A solar payoff is also one more line on the settlement statement, worth reading alongside what Brentwood sellers pay at closing.
Does the buyer inherit the old net metering rate?
Usually yes, and this is worth real money, so do not let it go unmentioned in your marketing.
California's original net energy metering tariffs, NEM 1.0 and NEM 2.0, credited exported solar power at retail rates, and both are closed to new enrollment. Anyone who applied to interconnect on or after April 15, 2023 goes on the Net Billing Tariff instead. PG&E calls it the Solar Billing Plan, and it credits exports at a value usually lower than the retail rate.
Under CPUC Decision D.14-03-041, a customer may stay on their NEM tariff for 20 years from the date the system interconnected. PG&E states it plainly: "The 20-year NEM legacy program rules are tied to the system, not the owner." If the original owner used 15 of those years, the buyer inherits the remaining five.
CPUC Decision D.14-03-041
A legacy NEM rate stays with the system for 20 years from interconnection, whoever owns the house.
PG&E: the 20-year NEM legacy program rules are tied to the system, not the owner. Verify with the permission-to-operate date and a recent True-Up statement.
20 years
NEM legacy period, tied to the system
That is a real selling feature on a Brentwood home that went solar in, say, 2018, and a fact to verify rather than assume. Ask for the permission-to-operate date and a recent True-Up statement showing the tariff, and put both in the disclosure package.
Two cautions. The Net Billing Tariff's own nine-year legacy period works differently. The CPUC guarantees it to the original customer who interconnected the system, so newer systems do not carry that protection along to a buyer. And a 2025 bill, AB 942, originally proposed ending legacy status when a home is sold. It was amended in the Senate, its last recorded action was August 29, 2025, and it has not become law. If that changes, I will write about it here.
Newer Brentwood homes came with solar built in
Brentwood has kept building, and California's Energy Code prescriptively requires a solar PV system on all newly constructed single-family homes. If your home was permitted in the last several years, the panels were almost certainly part of the original build.
The wrinkle most people miss: California requires solar companies to hand buyers a Solar Energy System Disclosure Document under Business and Professions Code section 7169, the form spelling out cost, financing, and "the impacts that the financing options, lease agreement terms, or contract terms will have on the sale of the consumer's home." That statute expressly does not apply to a system installed as a standard feature on new construction.
Translation: if you bought new and the panels came with the house, you may never have received the one document that explains what happens to your solar when you sell. Dig through your builder closing packet before you list. If the solar paperwork is not there, ask the provider for the contract and transfer requirements in writing.
If you are in an HOA, Trilogy at the Vineyards included, locate the architectural approval for the panels. It belongs in your resale disclosure packet with everything else the association requires. I walk through that packet in Trilogy HOA resale disclosures.
What to do before you list
Start these four to six weeks out, at the same time you are working through the rest of your pre-listing prep.
The solar pre-listing checklist
- Find the contract. Purchase agreement, loan documents, lease, or PPA. Whichever you have, you need the actual paper.
- Call the solar company's transfer department and ask for the assumption or payoff process in writing, along with the current payoff or remaining term.
- Pull a recent PG&E True-Up statement and the permission-to-operate date. This documents the tariff and the interconnection date.
- Order the preliminary title report early and check for a UCC fixture filing.
- Disclose all of it. A lease is a contract the buyer is being asked to take on. It goes in the disclosures, in full, with the monthly payment and any annual escalator spelled out.
Item five is where sellers get themselves in trouble. A buyer who learns about a monthly solar payment two days before closing does not renegotiate calmly. A buyer who read it in the disclosure packet before writing the offer priced it in and moved on.
If you have panels on your Brentwood or Trilogy home and you are not sure what you signed, send me the paperwork. I will read the contract, pull the prelim, and tell you whether you are looking at a fixture filing, an assumption, or nothing at all. Nobody gets to pull the wool over your eyes on a UCC-1.
(925) 200-0717 — I answer my own phone, and a solar contract is a ten-minute read for me.
This post is for general informational purposes only and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Solar contracts, lease terms, utility tariffs, and title requirements vary by system and by provider, and the rules described here can change. Review your own documents with your solar provider, your title company, and where appropriate a qualified attorney or tax professional before making decisions about your sale.
Margie Lupo, Broker Associate, SRES® · eXp Realty of Northern California, Inc. · DRE #01193496 · Brokerage DRE #02188495 · Equal Housing Opportunity
Sources
- California Public Utilities Commission, Net Energy Metering and Net Billing — accessed August 26, 2026
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Solar Billing Plan — accessed August 26, 2026
- California Contractors State License Board, Solar Energy System Disclosure — accessed August 26, 2026
- California Energy Commission, Solar PV, Solar Ready, Battery Energy Storage System — accessed August 26, 2026
- California Legislature, AB 942 bill history — accessed August 26, 2026
Frequently asked questions
Do solar panels increase the value of a Brentwood home?
An owned system generally helps, because the buyer inherits reduced electric bills with no offsetting obligation. A leased system is more mixed: the buyer gains the power but takes on a monthly payment and a contract term. There is no fixed dollar figure, which is why I price panels case by case against comparable sales.
Can I pay off my solar lease at closing so the buyer takes a clean house?
Often, yes. Most leases and PPAs include a buyout provision, and the buyout amount typically declines over the term. Ask the solar company for a written payoff quote early. The number is frequently larger than sellers expect, and you want it before you set a list price, not after.
What if the buyer does not qualify to assume the lease?
Then you have two options: pay the contract off through escrow, or find a different buyer. This is exactly why the transfer application should start at the beginning of escrow, not with a week to go.
Do the panels have to come off if the roof needs replacing?
That is a question for a roofer and your solar provider, and the removal-and-reinstall cost is real. If your roof is near the end of its life, price that conversation into your prep budget rather than letting an inspection raise it for you.
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