The installation of solar panels is the source of abundant legal literature. This case decided by the Court of Appeal of Pau examines the issue of the right of withdrawal and its consequences, as the lawyer Grégory Rouland explains on his legal blog. In this case, a customer from the Tarbes region withdrew a few days after installing photovoltaic panels on her roof. He was within his rights as he reacted before the legal deadline of 14 days. The case got off to a bad start from the start because the company that was supposed to recover the installed appliances did not obtain the right of access to its client’s property.
It was in the Tarbes court that the installer managed to force this lady to do so “allow him to enter his home to recover all the equipment (photovoltaic panels and inverters) and restore the roof, under penalty”. But the matter does not stop there, because the decision was “questionable” according to Me Rouland, since it only mentioned the recovery of the equipment and the restoration of the property. However, no word on the small damages and holes left in the walls by the cables and the inverter.
Incomplete formulation
In fact, it turns out that some holes had not been filled at all, others had been made roughly with silicone, that clearly visible traces remained at the level of the electrical panel and that everything would have required painting. Ultimately it was in the Court of Appeal of Pau that the solar installer’s client won his case. Based on articles 1352 et 1352-1 of the Civil Code the magistrates recalled that the forfeiture of the sales contract resulted in the parties being restored to the situation in which they found themselves before signing the purchase order. The text of the Tarbes court was incomplete because it only mentioned the restoration of the roof and the installer stuck to the letter without worrying about a real restoration of the different parts of the house affected by the panels to their original state.