A plug-in solar device comes with you when you move, because it isn’t a fixture. Before you unplug it, tell your old distribution network operator it’s been decommissioned. Notify the operator at your new address once it’s running there. If you rent, check what your consent said about putting things back.
That’s the whole job. Almost all the advice written about moving house with solar panels assumes a roof-mounted system, where the panels stay put and the paperwork transfers with the deeds. A plug-in kit works the opposite way round. The hardware leaves and the paperwork gets closed.
The short version
Take the kit. Send your old network operator a G98 Form D within 28 days of unplugging it, and the operator covering your new address a Form B once it’s connected. Keep the ENA register reference and the on-product compliance declaration with the kit, because you’ll need both again. If you rent, the panels are yours but the holes in the wall are not.
A plug-in solar panel kit isn’t part of the house
A rooftop solar PV array is a fixed installation. It’s bolted to the structure, it passes with the property on sale, and the conveyancing brings in warranties, an MCS certificate, an export contract and sometimes a roof lease. Our comparison of plug-in and rooftop systems sets out how differently the two are treated.
A compliant plug-in device is a chattel. It sits on a balcony railing or a freestanding frame, it plugs into an ordinary socket, and in law it’s yours in the same way a fridge-freezer you bought is yours. Nothing about the sale of the house or the end of a tenancy moves ownership of it, unless you agree that it does.
So nobody else is going to close your paperwork. There’s no installer to send the decommissioning form, no MCS body to update, and no conveyancer whose checklist includes it. From 27 August 2026 the duty to notify sits on you at both ends of the move.
Deregistering with your old network operator
Engineering Recommendation G98 governs small generation on the low voltage network. Section 8.5 of Issue 2 is headed "Notification of Decommissioning", and clause 8.5.1 reads:
"The Customer shall notify the DNO about the permanent decommissioning of a Micro-generator by providing the information as detailed under Appendix 3 Form D. Documentation may be submitted by an agent acting on behalf of the Customer and may be submitted electronically."
Form D is titled "Micro-generator Decommissioning Confirmation", and its own header sets the deadline: a form and declaration "to be provided to the DNO by the Installer no later than 28 days after de-commissioning all, or some of the Micro-generators in a Customer’s Installation".
Note the mismatch. Clause 8.5.1 puts the duty on the Customer, while the form is addressed to the Installer. For a kit you fitted yourself you’re both, so there’s nobody else it can land on. G98 defines a Customer as "a person who is the owner or occupier of premises that are connected to the Distribution Network", which is why the duty follows occupation rather than the deeds.
The product itself is supposed to tell you this
IPS v2 requires every compliant device to carry a statement that notification to the distribution network operator about connection and disconnection is mandatory, with a link to instructions, plus a QR code pointing at the current registration and deregistration guidance. Deregistration was a footnote when generation meant panels bolted to a roof for twenty-five years. On a device designed to be unplugged and carried it’s a live duty, and the specification treats it as one.
Form D wants your details and MPAN, then the manufacturer and model, type-test reference and registered capacity of what’s been removed. The declaration at the foot also has you enclose "a copy of the system schematic which has been left on site at the Customer’s incoming meter location", which is written for a fixed system and doesn’t map onto a plug. Send what you have and say what you don’t.
Where to send Form D: your operator, page by page
Form D is part of G98 itself, in Appendix 3, so it exists whichever operator runs your local network. What varies is the route in, the inbox and the deadline. Our field-by-field walkthrough of the G98 forms covers what goes in each box and carries the MPAN table for identifying your operator. Then pick it from the list:
- **Electricity North West** takes G98 paperwork by email to a dedicated mailbox within 28 days of commissioning, and publishes its own completion guide.
- **National Grid Electricity Distribution** runs an online form alongside Form B and the Operation Diagram, on a 28-day post-commissioning rule. It also covers North Wales.
- **Northern Powergrid** offers an account-based online form or a downloadable Form B, and publishes its own copy of Form D as "Application to decommission microgeneration".
- **SP Energy Networks** wants Form B within 30 days rather than 28, plus a circuit diagram and a test report. It publishes Form D as a "G98 Micro-Generator Decommissioning Confirmation".
- **SSEN** uses Form B and two email addresses, one for north Scotland and one for southern England, on a 28-day deadline.
- **UK Power Networks** routes notification through Smart Connect, an installer-only portal, which creates a problem if you fitted the kit yourself.
Northern Ireland is a separate system. G98 applies in Great Britain, and the ESQCR limb of SI 2026/848 that makes use lawful extends to England, Wales and Scotland only. Move across that border and the position differs at one end.
Notifying the network operator at your new address
Your new address has its own MPAN and may sit in a different operator’s licence area, so don’t assume the old one still applies. The first two digits of the bottom line of the MPAN on your new electricity bill identify the distributor, and the table on our G98 form guide decodes them.
Treat the new connection as a new notification rather than a transfer. We searched the full text of G98 Issue 2 for any change-of-ownership or relocation provision and found none. There’s no mechanism for moving a registration between addresses, or from one occupier to the next. So it’s Form D at the old address and a fresh Form B at the new one, even though it’s the same solar panels in the same box.
Check the household limit before you plug in
IPS v2 permits one device per final ring circuit, but its own note records that G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 2026 restricts installations to one device per household "unless and until that is amended". Two limits apply and the tighter one wins. If the previous occupant left a device connected, plugging yours in as well puts the property over the line. Find out before the van arrives.
Notify after the device is running at the new address, not before, because the deadline runs from commissioning. Keep the acknowledgement with the rest of your kit paperwork.
Renting: reinstatement, and what your consent actually said
The panels are yours. The state you leave the balcony in is what costs renters money.
Consent to install is almost always conditional, whether that’s a clause your landlord added to the tenancy or a line in an email. The condition that matters here is reinstatement, meaning putting the fabric back roughly as you found it. Clamp-on railing brackets normally come off with nothing to show for them. Drilled fixings, wall anchors and adhesive pads don’t, and making good is on you. Our guide to asking a landlord about balcony solar covers getting the terms in writing at the start, which is when this is easy to sort out.
On deposits, the fixture point does the work. A portable device is personal property, so it can’t be treated as having passed to the landlord, and there’s no basis for a deduction simply because you took it away. Our page on the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 and balcony solar goes through that in detail.
Leaseholders are on different ground. Where a lease has a qualified covenant against improvements, section 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 preserves the landlord’s ability to require an undertaking to reinstate where the work doesn’t add to the letting value of the flat. See our page on plug-in solar in blocks of flats.
Leaving the solar panels behind for the next occupant
Sometimes taking it isn’t worth the effort. If you’re leaving it connected, don’t send Form D. The device hasn’t been decommissioned, it’s changed hands. What you owe the next occupant is the paperwork, because they’ll need it to notify in their own name: your acknowledgement, the ENA register reference, the on-product IPS compliance declaration, the manual and the QR code. Tell them in writing that notifying is now their responsibility, and that a G98 registration doesn’t follow the property.
If you’re a homeowner selling up and you intend to leave the kit, put it on the fixtures and fittings list your solicitor circulates. It won’t pass with the property by default, and a buyer who assumed otherwise has a grievance you can avoid with one line. Don’t expect it to lift the property value the way a roof array is said to, because it isn’t part of the property.
One caution on the hardware. Manufacturer warranty terms are frequently written to the original purchaser and don’t always survive a transfer.
Moving into a home that already has a plug-in device
You’ve inherited a piece of grid-connected generation and, as the new occupier, the G98 duties with it. Ask the outgoing occupant or the estate agent for the ENA register reference, the compliance declaration and the notification acknowledgement.
Then check the device against the register rather than the packaging. As at 11 August 2026 there were four entries on the ENA Type Test Register under the device type "Plug-in Solar", and all four were assessed Non-compliant, so none had been verified compliant. Non-compliant is a holding category rather than a rejection and those entries get reviewed again, but it does mean anything already fitted in a house you’re buying is worth checking. Our compliance checker walks through the tests, and the certification tracker records where the register stands.
If nobody can produce the paperwork and you can’t identify the device on the register, you’re holding something whose status you can’t establish. Have that conversation before completion.
Your supplier, your tariff and export payments
Your energy supplier and your network operator are different organisations with different roles, and moving home affects both separately. Notifying one does nothing for the other.
The supplier side is the ordinary business of closing one account and opening another: a final meter reading, a supply at the new address, a tariff. Owning a plug-in kit changes none of that, and the effect on your electricity bills only resumes once it’s generating again.
Export is where expectations need managing. A plug-in device generates a small surplus at times, and without a battery that excess energy goes back to the grid whether or not anyone pays for it. The Smart Export Guarantee is the mechanism that would pay, and MCS certification or an equivalent scheme is the standard route in, which a self-installed kit won’t have. At least one licensee publishes a non-MCS route, so this isn’t a flat no across the market, though it needs an Electrical Installation Certificate and a DNO acceptance letter among other things. Our SEG tariffs guide sets out the eligibility rules. For an 800 VA kit, self-consumption is where the value is and any export payment is marginal either way.
The battery, the inverter, the EV charger and the heat pump
Not everything electrical in the old house is as portable as the solar panels. The microinverter is part of the plug-in device and travels with it. There’s nothing to disconnect beyond the plug, and reinstalling it at the other end means finding a socket.
Battery storage is a different matter. A device that imports from the consumer’s installation in order to store energy for later supply falls outside the statutory definition of a plug-in microgenerator in SI 2026/848, so battery-integrated kits were never on the plug-in route at all. If you have solar batteries at the old address, they went in conventionally and they come out the same way, which means an electrician and a separate notification. Our page on why battery kits are excluded explains the mechanism.
An EV charger and a heat pump are both fixed, both notifiable, and both need a qualified installer to remove and refit. Neither is something you unplug, and a replacement at the new property is sometimes cheaper than having the old one relocated.
A moving checklist
- Photograph the setup before you dismantle it, mounting included, as a record of the balcony’s condition.
- Unplug the device and note the date. Your 28 days start here.
- Send Form D to the operator covering your old address, by that operator’s route.
- Remove the mounting hardware and make good any fixings, if you rent or lease.
- Keep the register reference, compliance declaration, manual and acknowledgements together. They travel with the kit.
- At the new address, identify the operator from the first two digits of your MPAN’s bottom line, and check nothing is already connected, because the household limit is one device.
- Check IPS v2 5.8 doesn’t rule out the surface you’re mounting on, then set it up and notify with Form B inside your new operator’s deadline.
Frequently asked questions
Can you take solar panels with you when you move house? A plug-in kit, yes. It isn’t a fixture, it’s your personal property, and it’s designed to be unplugged. A roof-mounted array is different, because removal means scaffolding, an electrician and a roof to make good.
Do I need to tell my DNO when I remove a plug-in solar device? Yes. G98 clause 8.5.1 requires the Customer to notify the network operator of permanent decommissioning using Form D, and the form sets a 28-day deadline. IPS v2 also requires the product itself to say that notification about disconnection is mandatory, and to carry a QR code to the deregistration guidance.
Can I transfer my G98 registration to my new address? No. There’s no transfer mechanism in G98 Issue 2. Deregister at the old address with Form D, notify afresh at the new one with Form B.
What happens to SEG or export payments when I move? An export arrangement is tied to the meter point and the supplier, not to you, so it doesn’t travel. In practice a self-installed plug-in kit is unlikely to have been earning anything, because the standard route requires MCS certification or an equivalent scheme.
Does moving a plug-in solar system void the warranty? It depends on the manufacturer’s terms, which vary and are often written in favour of the original purchaser. Check the document for your product before you dismantle anything, not afterwards.
What should I do when I move into a home with solar panels that plug in? Get the ENA register reference, the compliance declaration and the previous occupant’s acknowledgement, check the device on the register, and notify the network operator in your own name. The registration doesn’t pass to you automatically.
Is it better to move the existing kit or buy a new one? Move it. There’s no installation cost to recover, so buying again only makes sense if the new property can’t take the kit you own, on aspect, mounting or the prohibited surfaces.