Can your landlord refuse plug-in solar?
There is no special statutory right to reasonable consent for most renters, whatever several sites currently claim about the Renters Rights Act 2025. Here is what the law actually says, quoted from source.
Rules and product details last checked on .
Key takeaways
- For most renters, there is no statutory right to have consent unreasonably withheld. The old protection, in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, is disapplied for the standard mechanism assured tenancies use.
- Several sites currently claim the Renters Rights Act 2025 creates a new right to request solar consent, with a 28-day landlord response window. We read the Act’s full text on legislation.gov.uk. That section does not exist.
- It comes down to your tenancy agreement’s own wording, not a general statutory backstop, for most assured shorthold tenancies converted to the new periodic form.
- A non-fixed installation may not engage an alterations clause at all. We cover the practical mounting distinction in our guide to where you can put plug-in solar.
- One question we could not resolve from a source we can cite: whether an express alterations clause in an assured tenancy still gets the 1927 Act’s reasonable-consent protection, separate from the implied term the disapplication actually targets. We set out both readings below rather than picking the convenient one.
Search for this question and you will find confident answers pointing in different directions. This page is about permission from your landlord, not whether plug-in solar is legal to connect at all, which is a separate, already-settled question. Some sites say a landlord cannot unreasonably refuse. Some say nothing about a legal basis at all. At least two say the Renters Rights Act 2025 gives you a specific right to request consent, with a 28-day deadline for the landlord to respond. We checked that claim against the Act itself. It is not there.
The old rule, and what it actually covers
The starting point for “reasonable consent” in English property law is section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927. Subsection (2) covers alterations and improvements specifically:
In all leases whether made before or after the commencement of this Act containing a covenant condition or agreement against the making of improvements without a licence or consent, such covenant condition or agreement shall be deemed, notwithstanding any express provision to the contrary, to be subject to a proviso that such licence or consent is not to be unreasonably withheld.
Read on its own, that looks like exactly what a renter installing plug-in solar would want: if your tenancy has a clause requiring the landlord’s consent before you alter anything, the consent cannot be refused unreasonably, whatever the clause itself says.
The section applies broadly, “in all leases”, with named exceptions: agricultural holdings under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, farm business tenancies under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, mining leases, and occupation contracts under Wales’s Renting Homes Act 2016. None of those is the tenancy most renters have.
Why it does not simply carry over to your tenancy
The exception that matters for almost everyone reading this is not named in section 19 itself. It sits in the Act that created the assured tenancy in the first place.
Section 15 of the Housing Act 1988 implies a term into every periodic assured tenancy that the tenant will not assign, sub-let, or part with possession without the landlord’s consent. Subsection (2) then disapplies the 1927 Act’s protection from that specific term:
Section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 (consents to assign not to be unreasonably withheld etc.) shall not apply to a term which is implied into an assured tenancy by subsection (1) above.
Read precisely, that disapplication targets the implied assign-or-sublet term, not a separate alterations clause. Legislation.gov.uk’s own annotation against section 19 nonetheless flags the whole section as “excluded by Housing Act 1988 … s. 15(2)” for assured tenancies, which is the broader reading most practitioners appear to work from.
This is the point we could not resolve from a source we can cite. If your tenancy agreement has its own express clause requiring consent for alterations, separate from the implied assign-or-sublet term, we have not found a definitive answer on whether section 19(2)’s reasonable-consent proviso still attaches to that express clause. We looked for a solicitor’s firm, a housing charity, or a reported case settling it plainly and did not find one. If you do, we would like to see it.
What is not in doubt is the practical starting point. No general statutory backstop reliably answers this the way it does for older, longer-lease commercial tenancies. Whatever your tenancy agreement says about alterations is doing more of the work than most renters assume.
| Instrument | What it does | Applies to your assured tenancy? |
|---|---|---|
| Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, s.19(2) | Reasonable-consent proviso on alterations covenants | Named exceptions only; assured tenancies not named directly |
| Housing Act 1988, s.15(2) | Disapplies s.19 from the implied assign/sub-let term | Yes, but only for that implied term, on the section’s own wording |
| Renters’ Rights Act 2025 | Ends assured shorthold tenancies, reforms eviction grounds, creates a landlord database | Yes, but contains no alterations or solar-consent provision |
The claim about the Renters Rights Act 2025
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 became law on 27 October 2025. It ends assured shorthold tenancies, moves tenancies onto a periodic footing, narrows the grounds for eviction, and creates a landlord database, among other reforms.
We read its full table of contents and the relevant sections directly. There is no section addressing tenant improvements, no mechanism for requesting consent for equipment or fixtures, and nothing naming solar panels. The closest section to any kind of tenant-initiated request deals with removal expenses, not alterations.
That has not stopped at least two sites in this niche stating, as fact, that the Act gives tenants a right to request solar consent with a 28-day landlord response window and a requirement to give written reasons for refusal. We suspect this is a conflation with a different 28-day figure entirely: the one that appears in the network operator’s own connection guidance, which is about notifying your distribution network operator after commissioning a kit, and has nothing to do with your landlord. Whatever the cause, the specific claim does not correspond to anything in the Act as passed.
What actually determines whether a landlord can say no
With the statutory backstop uncertain at best, three things do the real work.
What your tenancy agreement actually says. Most modern assured tenancy agreements contain some form of alterations clause. Read yours before you assume either that you are free to install anything, or that you need permission for everything. A clause that only restricts structural alteration may not reach a kit that stands on a weighted frame and plugs into an existing socket.
Whether the installation counts as an alteration at all. This is a mounting-method question, not a legal one, and we cover it in detail in our guide to where you can put plug-in solar. A kit resting on a patio or balcony floor, unbolted, is a materially different proposition from one screwed into a wall or railing.
Whether you have removed the landlord’s two real objections before asking. A landlord who refuses outright, with no stated reason, is on weaker ground than one raising a specific concern. The two concerns that come up repeatedly, damage on removal and electrical safety, both have straightforward answers: a mounting method that leaves no holes, and a kit that is certified as a complete package and notified to the network operator as the rules require. Put both answers in writing when you ask, rather than waiting to be asked.
What we have verified, and what we have not
Verified against the primary source. The full text of section 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, its stated exceptions, the full text of section 15 of the Housing Act 1988 including the exact scope of its disapplication of section 19, and the absence of any tenant-improvement or solar-consent provision anywhere in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 as passed. All checked directly on legislation.gov.uk on 2 September 2026.
Not resolved by anyone we can cite. Whether section 19(2)’s reasonable-consent proviso still applies to an express alterations clause in an assured tenancy, separate from the implied assign-or-sublet term that Housing Act 1988 section 15(2) explicitly targets. We have set out the narrow reading and the broader reading used in legislation.gov.uk’s own annotation, rather than picking the one that is more convenient for a site in this niche.
Not legal advice. This page explains what the statutes say. It is not a substitute for advice on your specific tenancy agreement, which is a contract and can grant you more than the statutory minimum.
Our editorial policy explains how we handle claims we cannot check.
This page carries the date it was last checked. If you have found a source that resolves the open question above, or think we have read the statutes wrongly, tell us and we will check it and update the date.