Getting Landlord Consent for Solar on a Leased Restaurant

The single most common reason a viable restaurant solar project stalls is not money, engineering, or planning — it is the lease. Most hospitality operators are tenants, the roof belongs to someone else, and the project dies in an unanswered email to a managing agent. It does not have to. Landlord consent for commercial solar is being granted more readily every year, because the regulatory pressure on landlords has quietly flipped the incentive. Here is how to run the conversation properly.

Why landlords are saying yes more often

The lever is the Energy Performance Certificate. Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards already make it unlawful to let a non-domestic property rated below EPC E (since 1 April 2023), and in June 2026 the government proposed that privately rented non-domestic buildings over 1,000 square metres reach EPC B by 2031 (subject to secondary legislation, where cost effective). Buildings under 1,000 square metres stay at the EPC E minimum with no new deadline. Whatever the final rules land as, the direction is clear: landlords hold buildings whose lettable status depends on their energy performance, and rooftop solar can improve an EPC without disruption to the interior or a change of use — and in the standard tenant-funded structure, with no landlord capital at all.

Put bluntly: a tenant offering to improve the landlord’s compliance position at the tenant’s expense is making the easiest ask in commercial property. The proposal just has to be framed that way.

Check your lease before you ask

Three clauses determine the shape of the request. The alterations clause governs whether roof works need consent and in what form — most leases require landlord consent for structural or external alterations, usually “not to be unreasonably withheld.” The demise defines what you actually rent: some leases include the roof within the demised premises, many stop at the ceiling. If the roof is outside your demise, you need a licence to access and use it, not just consent to alter. And the yield-up/reinstatement clause decides what happens at lease end — whether the system must be removed, or can transfer to the landlord (often the cleanest answer, and a negotiating chip: the landlord keeps a revenue-relevant asset at no cost).

Lease length is the other gating fact. A solar payback of four to seven years wants at least that much term remaining, or a break-clause-aware structure. Approaching a renewal? That is the single best moment to negotiate solar into the deal.

The structures that work

Tenant-funded with licence for alterations is the standard route: you fund and own the system, claim the Annual Investment Allowance, keep the savings, and agree reinstatement or transfer terms at yield-up. Landlord-funded with a green lease provision flips it: the landlord invests (they may have their own capital allowance and EPC motivations), and recovers through a modest rent adjustment or service charge — attractive where your lease is short or your capital is committed to the kitchen. Shared structures split the cost and the benefit, common in hotel and multi-let buildings. Whichever route you take, landlords and their agents respond far better to a documented request than to a concept, so a request should set out the proposed system design, a structural note on roof loading, a short statement of the likely EPC impact, and confirmation of the installer’s insurance cover.

The conversation itself

Lead with their interests, not yours: EPC uplift toward the proposed EPC B for larger buildings (and a margin above the existing E floor), an improved asset at no cost, a tenant investing in the premises (which is, to any landlord, a tenant intending to stay and pay rent). Anticipate the standard concerns — roof warranty (ask the installer to confirm the roofing warranty holder’s requirements in writing), structural loading (a chartered engineer’s verification is the usual answer), and what-if-you-leave (answered by the reinstatement terms). Contested requests tend to cluster around short leases and buildings already scheduled for redevelopment.

Your lease position is the first thing to pin down before any request goes out. The numbers the landlord conversation rests on live on the costs page, and the tax position — including who claims what under which structure — is covered in the VAT and capital allowances guide.