Can you get solar panels for a flat?

In most cases, yes. What changes is how. Find your situation in the table.

Who owns the roof?

This decides everything, and the answer is in your lease. Look for the section that describes what you’ve bought, often called “the demised premises”, and the section on alterations.

• The roof is usually not yours. In most blocks, the roof, the outside walls and the structure belong to the freeholder, even for the top-floor flat. Fixing anything to them without consent is a breach of the lease and can be trespass.
• Sometimes it is. In maisonettes, flats over shops and some converted houses, the top flat’s lease includes the roof and the roof space. You still have to follow the alterations clause.
• A share of the freehold isn’t a free pass. You own the freehold jointly with the other flats. You need their agreement, and your own lease still applies.
• The airspace above the roof normally belongs to the freeholder too.

What the alterations clause means

If consent is given, it comes as a written licence for alterations. Expect to pay the freeholder’s reasonable legal and surveyor’s costs, which commonly run to several hundred pounds. Leases differ, even between flats in the same building, so have a solicitor read yours before you spend money on anything else.

Who pays? The four routes

There’s a fifth option where a third party pays: an investor or community energy group fits panels on the roof at its own cost and sells the power to the building at a discount. It’s most common on larger blocks and social housing.

One point on the service charge. A freeholder can normally only charge leaseholders for what the lease allows, and many leases cover repairs but not improvements. Solar panels are an improvement. Where a freeholder does plan to charge the flats, any work costing a leaseholder more than £250 needs a formal consultation first, known as Section 20. So a whole-block project needs both the lease and the leaseholders on side.

Solar panels for a flat with its own roof

If the roof is yours, or you have a licence to use it, this is close to a normal home installation. Here’s how to install solar panels for flats of this kind, step by step:

1. Confirm your rights in writing. A solicitor’s note on the lease, or the signed licence for alterations.
2. Get a survey. The installer checks the roof, shade and, most importantly for flats, the cable route from the roof down to your own consumer unit and meter.
3. Agree the route. If cables have to pass through a shared loft, stairwell or riser, that needs consent as well.
4. Check planning. Usually none is needed (see planning).
5. Installation. One to two days, with scaffolding. Tell the neighbours below.
6. Paperwork. MCS certificate, electrical certificate, and registration for export payments.

Flats use less electricity than houses, typically 1,800–2,500kWh a year, so a small system is often the right size. Four to seven panels, 2–3kW, suits most (how many panels fit your roof). A small battery helps if you’re out all day, because a flat’s daytime use is low (what size solar battery?, are solar batteries worth it?). The battery itself has to go inside your flat or in a space you control, and installers now avoid escape routes and lofts.

If the building is a converted Victorian or Edwardian house, see solar panels on a terraced house and solar on slate for the roof details.

Solar panels for a block of flats

For most flats, the realistic way to get roof solar is to do the whole block at once. There are two versions.

Communal solar: powering the shared areas

The panels connect to the landlord’s supply, which runs the lifts, lighting, door entry, pumps and any communal heating. The saving comes back to everyone through a lower service charge. It’s the simplest scheme legally, because nothing connects to individual flats. The limit is that shared areas don’t use much power in a small block, so the system should be sized to that use, not to the roof.

Shared solar: one roof, every flat

Until a few years ago, you couldn’t split one solar array between several flats, because each flat has its own meter. Sharing equipment now does this. The best-known product in the UK is SolShare, made by Allume Energy. It sits between the array and the flats’ supplies and sends each flat its share of the power as it’s generated.

Shared solar has mostly been fitted by councils and housing associations so far, because they own the whole building and can get grant funding. It works just as well for a private block where the freeholder or the residents’ management company wants to do it. New blocks are increasingly being designed with it from the start, since the Future Homes Standard makes solar a requirement on most new homes in England from March 2027 (solar on new builds).

For the roof itself, most blocks have a flat roof, where panels sit on weighted frames with no drilling. A structural check comes first (solar panels for flat roofs, commercial solar panels).

No roof? Solar panels for a flat balcony

If you want to know how to install solar panels for flats without a roof, this is the answer. Since 27 August 2026, approved plug-in solar kits of up to 800W can be plugged into an ordinary socket in Great Britain, with no installer. One or two small solar panels hang on the balcony railing or stand on a terrace, and a built-in inverter feeds the power into your flat.

• Cost: about £350–£450 for an entry-level 800W kit, and up to £1,200 for one with a small battery.
• Output: around 600–700kWh a year if it faces south with no shade, less if it’s upright on a railing or faces east or west.
• Saving: roughly £120 a year, so it pays for itself in about three to five years.
• One per home: the rules allow one plug-in system per household, plugged straight into a wall socket, with no adaptors or multi-way extension leads.
• Tell the network: you have to notify your local electricity network operator. It’s a short online form.
• Not on timber: plug-in panels can’t be fixed to wooden or timber-clad balconies or walls.
• Consent still applies: a balcony railing is usually part of the building’s exterior. Leaseholders should ask the freeholder or managing agent, and tenants should ask the landlord.
• It’s portable: you can take it with you when you move, which makes it the obvious choice for renters.

A balcony kit won’t run a whole flat, but it will cover the fridge, router and standby loads through the day. Full details are in balcony solar panels and plug-in solar panels UK.

Solar panels for flats UK: cost and savings

*At the October–December 2026 price cap of 26.32p/kWh and 12p export, assuming about half the power is used in the flat. Prices include 0% VAT, which applies until 31 March 2027 (VAT on solar panels).

Two things make the sums for a flat different from a house. Small systems cost more per panel, because scaffolding and labour don’t shrink with the size. And flats use less power in the day, so more is exported at the lower rate. That’s why payback on a flat is usually a couple of years longer than the eight to nine years typical for a house (solar panel payback, solar panel cost, are solar panels worth it?). Scaffolding on a tall block can also add a good deal, so ask for it to be itemised.

Renting, council flats and housing associations

Private tenants

You can’t fit anything to the building without your landlord’s written consent, and it rarely makes sense to pay for a fixed system on a home you don’t own. A plug-in balcony kit is the practical choice, with the landlord’s agreement. If you’d like the landlord to fit proper panels, the case to make is that it helps them meet the new energy standards for rented homes (solar panels for landlords).

Can I pay for solar panels on a council flat?

Not for the roof. The council owns it and decides what goes on it, whether you’re a tenant or a leaseholder who bought under Right to Buy. What you can do:

• Ask what’s planned. A growing number of councils and housing associations are fitting shared solar to blocks using government funding for social housing. Tenants don’t pay for it.
• Raise it through your tenants’ and residents’ association. Landlords prioritise blocks where residents are asking.
• Leaseholders in council blocks may be asked to contribute to major works. You must be consulted first, and you can ask how solar will reduce your bills or service charge.
• Ask about a balcony kit. You’ll need the landlord’s permission, and some will have a policy on it now that plug-in solar is legal.

Free solar for private homes is limited to lower-income households in poorly insulated properties (free solar panels, grants for solar panels).

Planning permission and building safety

• Roof panels on a block of flats are usually permitted development in England, the same as on a house. On a pitched roof they can’t stick out more than 200mm. On a flat roof they can’t stand more than 0.6m above the highest part of the roof (planning permission for solar panels).
• Walls and balconies. From 27 August 2026, panels on a wall or balcony can generally project up to 0.4m, or 0.2m where the wall faces a road.
• Listed buildings have no permitted development rights for solar. Listed building consent is always needed (solar on listed buildings).
• Conservation areas. Panels on a wall facing a road need planning permission (solar in conservation areas).
• Tall blocks. Buildings of seven storeys or 18 metres and above are classed as higher-risk, and work on them can need approval from the Building Safety Regulator. Any installer working on a block should also allow for fire breaks, wind loading and safe access.
• Planning isn’t consent. Permitted development only deals with the council. You still need the freeholder’s agreement under the lease.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own versions of these rules. In a Scottish tenement, the top flat often owns the roof above it, but the roof is maintained jointly, so check your title deeds and speak to your neighbours and factor first (solar panels in Scotland).

Meters, export payments and insurance

• Your meter. Panels have to connect to your own flat’s supply. In many blocks the meters are in a shared cupboard, which affects the cable route and may need consent.
• Export payments. A properly installed system with an MCS certificate can earn Smart Export Guarantee payments for the power you don’t use. You’ll need a smart meter (solar panels and smart meters, export tariffs compared). Plug-in kits generally don’t qualify.
• Insurance. The block’s buildings insurance is arranged by the freeholder, who must be told about anything fixed to the roof. Tell your own contents insurer about a balcony kit (solar panels and insurance).
• Roof repairs. The licence should say who pays to lift and refit the panels if the roof needs work (removal and refitting).
• Selling. A buyer’s solicitor will ask for the licence, the MCS certificate and the warranties. Keep them together (moving house with solar panels, solar panels and home value).

How to get your block to say yes

Most refusals come from a freeholder who’s been asked a vague question and can see only risk. A clear proposal gets a different answer.

1. Read the lease and note the alterations clause.
2. Talk to your neighbours. A request from six flats carries more weight than one, and a whole-block scheme is easier to approve than a single flat’s.
3. Get a survey and a written design. Where the panels go, how they’re fixed, the cable route, the weight on the roof and the installer’s insurance.
4. Answer the freeholder’s worries up front. Roof warranty, leaks, fire safety, access for repairs, and who removes the panels if the roof needs replacing.
5. Offer to pay their reasonable costs for checking the proposal.
6. Put it in writing to the freeholder or managing agent and ask for a decision by a date.
7. If the answer is no, ask for the reasons in writing. Where your lease says consent can’t be unreasonably withheld, a refusal without good reason can be challenged, and the Leasehold Advisory Service gives free initial advice.
8. Think longer term. Leaseholders in many blocks have the right to take over management through a Right to Manage company, or to buy the freehold together. Either gives residents far more say over the building.

Solar panels for flats: frequently asked questions

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Leases differ, so have a solicitor check yours before relying on any point here. Free initial advice on leasehold law is available from the Leasehold Advisory Service. Plug-in solar rules are as set out in the 2026 regulations and product specification that took effect on 27 August 2026. Planning rules are for England under the General Permitted Development Order as amended in August 2026, and differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Shared solar figures are from Allume Energy and the UK Green Building Council, and we have not tested the product. Costs, outputs and savings are typical 2026 estimates with 0% VAT, which applies until 31 March 2027, and savings use the Ofgem price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 (26.32p/kWh) and a 12p export rate. Always obtain quotes from MCS-certified installers and get any consent in writing.