Selling a Home With Solar Panels in St. George, Utah: Leased vs Owned

Selling a house with solar panels in St. George, Utah comes down to two questions: who owns the panels, and who sends the power bill. If St. George City Power serves the home, the city's net metering agreement ends automatically when the house changes hands, under section 4.2 of the agreement form the city updated in April 2025, so every buyer signs a new one. If the panels are leased or on a power purchase agreement, Fannie Mae's Selling Guide says their value cannot be counted in the appraisal, and the installer's UCC-1 fixture filing will show up in the title search at the Washington County Recorder. None of that kills a sale. It just has to be handled in the first week under contract instead of the last.

Does net metering transfer when you sell a house in St. George, Utah?

No, not on St. George City Power. The city's Renewable Net Metering and Interconnection Agreement says it terminates automatically on any change of the utility account holder, any change in ownership of the system or the property it sits on, or any move of the system. Section 16 adds that the agreement cannot be assigned without the city's prior written consent, which the city may grant or withhold at its sole discretion. So the buyer applies fresh and signs a new agreement, and that agreement needs a notarized signature before the city will approve the system to run on its grid.

The new agreement is a process, not a guarantee of the old terms. The city adopted net metering in 2005 and revised it in 2015, adding a one-time application fee, a one-time bi-directional meter fee and a monthly Solar Reliability Charge based on the kilowatt-hours the system produces. The city's net metering page says the fee amounts are in the program appendix, and I could not find a current posted dollar figure for any of the three, so I am not going to quote one. Applications go through the city's CityInspect permit portal, and Energy Services is at 811 E. Red Hills Parkway, 435-627-4800.

There is one piece of good news for the seller. The city's net metering page says that when a net metered account closes with a kilowatt-hour credit on the meter, the final bill reflects that credit, calculated at the city's Renewable Power Rate. You do not lose banked production because you moved. Read St. George's net metering information page.

What about Dixie Power and Rocky Mountain Power homes?

The answer changes with the utility, and in Washington County that can change from one side of the Virgin River to the other. St. George City says electric service south of the river, in areas like Bloomington, Bloomington Hills and Little Valley, comes from Dixie Power, and I wrote up who serves which addresses in my Dixie Power vs St. George City Power post.

Dixie Power's Member Reference Manual says exported solar energy is credited at avoided cost, the rate Dixie pays its own supplier, which it notes is lower than the retail rate. Banked credits roll forward to later bills, and each year at the end of March any unused credits are donated to the Heat Assistance Program. The sample net metering bill printed in that manual, dated July 2025, shows 898 kWh of generation credited at $0.0343 per kWh against an energy charge of $0.0675. That is a sample bill, not a published tariff, and Dixie did not publish a current export rate that I could find. Dixie's solar program page also says rooftop panels are affixed to the home and stay with it unless a purchase contract says otherwise. I found no Dixie document saying what happens to a member's net metering arrangement when the house sells, so the buyer should call Dixie at 866-673-3297 before closing.

Rocky Mountain Power is the one utility where the old deal can follow the house. Its Schedule 135 net metering tariff closed to new applications on November 15, 2017 and ends on December 31, 2035, and paragraph 11 says that service transfers to a later customer at the same premises as long as a valid interconnection agreement is in effect. Paragraph 12 says it can be ended if the system is taken out of service, enlarged after interconnection or moved to another program, so a buyer who wants to add panels should know that before closing. Newer RMP systems sit on Schedule 137 net billing, where the Utah Public Service Commission approved export credits of 4.855 cents per kWh for June through September and 4.033 cents for October through May, effective March 1, 2026.

Hurricane, Washington City, Santa Clara and the other city systems run their own programs, and I could not find current first-party solar terms for any of them, so this table leaves them out rather than guess. Read my Dixie Power vs St. George City Power post.

Do leased solar panels make a house harder to sell?

They make it slower, not impossible. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide, section B2-3-04, says panels that are leased or covered by a power purchase agreement cannot be included in the appraised value, and the lender counts the lease payment in the buyer's debt-to-income ratio unless the payment is tied only to the energy produced. Freddie Mac's guide says the same thing about appraised value. So a buyer is taking on a monthly payment for equipment the appraiser is told to ignore, and the price has to make sense without the panels.

FHA adds its own condition. HUD's single family handbook lets a home with a leased system or a PPA get an FHA loan only when the agreement does not restrict the home's transfer, for example by requiring a third party's consent. Ask the lender to read the lease early on any FHA offer, because that is the loan type where the contract language itself can be the problem.

The transfer is usually routine once it starts. Sunrun says the seller starts it in Sunrun's portal with the buyer's and escrow's contact details, everyone signs through DocuSign, the buyer goes through a soft credit check unless the contract is prepaid, and the transfer completes at closing. Tesla says it moves the agreement to the new owner about 98 percent of the time, that you should start as soon as you are under contract, and that the buyer takes over the existing term rather than starting a new one. Sunnova filed for bankruptcy in 2025, and its customer pages now point to SunStrong Management, which says it took over servicing and runs its own sell-my-home notice process. If your panels came from Sunnova, find out who services the contract today before you list.

In my experience the sales that go sideways are the ones where the buyer first hears about the lease from the title commitment. Put the lease or PPA in the listing documents, give the buyer the monthly payment, the escalator if there is one and the months left on the term, and the conversation stays about the house.

What is a UCC-1 filing on solar panels, and why does title care?

It is the public notice that someone other than the homeowner has a claim on the panels. Under Utah Code 70A-9a-501, a fixture filing goes in the same office where mortgages are recorded, which in Washington County is the County Recorder at 111 East Tabernacle in St. George, so it appears in the title search on the house. Utah Code 70A-9a-334 gives a purchase-money fixture filing priority over earlier real estate interests when it is filed before the panels become fixtures or within 20 days after.

Leases, PPAs and many solar loans carry one. Tesla calls its UCC-1 a notice rather than a lien, but lenders still treat it as a title item. Fannie Mae says a UCC fixture filing that has priority over the new mortgage must be subordinated, and Freddie Mac's guide says a filing that claims the real estate itself has to be subordinated, released or covered by a title endorsement. Tesla charges a $150 document processing fee for a temporary release or subordination, so ask your own installer what it charges and how long it takes.

The practical move is to ask the title officer to pull the recorded documents the day the contract is signed. If a UCC-1 shows up and the panels are supposed to be owned free and clear, you want to know that before the buyer's lender does.

Should I pay off my solar loan before I sell?

It depends on how the loan is secured. A solar loan tied to the panels by a UCC-1 usually gets paid off from the seller's proceeds at closing, the same way the mortgage does, and the lender then releases the filing. Tesla's support page says that once a Tesla loan is paid in full the transfer can be completed and the UCC-1 document is provided. A loan with no filing behind it is a personal debt, and the house can close without touching it.

Either way, ask your solar lender for a written payoff early, because it is one more payoff the escrow officer has to collect, and solar lenders are not always quick. My closing cost calculator shows title and escrow costs for any price, and a solar payoff comes out of your proceeds on top of those. Open the St. George closing cost calculator.

Do owned solar panels add value to a St. George home?

They can, but no rule makes them add a fixed amount. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rules that tell an appraiser to ignore leased panels do not hand out a number for owned ones, so the appraiser has to find support in comparable sales, and a solar home with no solar comparable sales nearby is a harder case. I could not find a published Washington County study putting a dollar figure on owned panels, and I am not going to borrow a national one.

What I have seen work is paperwork. A buyer will pay for a system they can understand, so hand over twelve months of power bills, the system size in kilowatts, the installer's name, the warranty documents, the inverter's age and the roof's age, since the panels have to come off for a reroof. In St. George the bills do a lot of the selling on their own, because a July bill on a large home can be the biggest monthly utility cost a buyer from a cooler state has ever seen.

Can the buyer claim the federal solar tax credit?

No. The IRS says the 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit applies to property installed from 2022 through December 31, 2025, and is not available for any property placed in service after that date. The credit also goes to the person who paid for the new system in the year it was installed, so a buyer of a resale solar home never had a claim to it. If a listing or a sales rep tells a buyer otherwise, that information is out of date. Dixie Power's own solar page still describes the 30 percent credit as running through 2032, which the IRS page no longer supports.

Utah's own law points sellers to the right paperwork. Under the Residential Solar Energy Consumer Protection Act, Utah Code Title 13, Chapter 52, a solar company selling, leasing or signing a PPA on or after September 3, 2018 has to hand the customer a separate written disclosure stating whether the system or agreement can transfer to a buyer of the home and on what conditions. Find that page before you list. It answers the buyer's first question in the company's own words. Read Utah Code 13-52-204.

A checklist for listing a solar home in Washington County

Before the sign goes up, I want five things in hand: whether the system is owned outright, financed, leased or on a PPA; the contract and the Utah solar disclosure page that came with it; twelve months of power bills from the utility that serves the address; a title search showing any UCC-1; and, for a lease or PPA, the company's transfer instructions and the buyout figure if the buyer would rather not assume it. With those, a solar house sells like any other house here. Without them, the panels become the negotiation.

My selling guide covers the rest of the process, from pricing to the closing table, and my monthly market report has current prices and days on market by city. Read my guide to selling a home in St. George. See the St. George market summary. Browse St. George homes for sale.

Frequently asked questions

Does net metering transfer to the buyer when you sell a house in St. George, Utah?

No, not on St. George City Power. The city's net metering agreement ends automatically on any change in ownership of the home or the system, so the buyer applies for and signs a new agreement. On Rocky Mountain Power's legacy Schedule 135, service does transfer to a later customer at the same premises through December 31, 2035.

Do leased solar panels count in the appraisal?

No. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both say leased or PPA panels cannot be included in the appraised value, and the lease payment usually counts in the buyer's debt-to-income ratio. The house has to appraise on its own.

What is a UCC-1 on solar panels?

It is a fixture filing recorded with the county recorder that gives public notice of a solar company's or lender's claim on the panels. In Washington County it shows up in the title search, and the buyer's lender will usually require it to be subordinated or released before closing.

Can a buyer get the federal solar tax credit on a resale home?

No. The IRS says the 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025, and the credit belonged to whoever paid for the new system when it was installed.

What happens to my solar credit with St. George City Power when I move?

You keep it. The city's net metering page says that when a net metered account closes with a kilowatt-hour credit on the meter, the final bill reflects that credit at the city's Renewable Power Rate.

Selling a solar home in St. George?

I have sold real estate in St. George for 13 years, and solar houses close fine when the lease, the title and the power bills are lined up before the first showing. If you want help sorting out what your system means for your price, or you want me to read a buyer's questions about a lease before you answer them, I am glad to walk through it.

Call me at 435-200-5508. You can also send me a message on my contact page. Open the contact form.