Home Battery Rebate Regrets: Quotes And Deposits

With state home battery incentives suddenly vanishing or slashed and federal rebate ‘stackability’ issues remaining, what now in terms of quotes already accepted and deposits taken?

In New South Wales, the state government is still working on getting the NSW battery rebate to play nice with the upcoming federal home battery rebate so both can be claimed — as things stand now, technically it can’t be.

And as we reported yesterday, the WA Residential Battery Rebate has been greatly boosted in terms of the number of rebates available; from 20,000 to 100,000. But while it has been confirmed it will be stackable with the national subsidy, the maximum state rebate levels will be slashed from:

• Up to $5,000 for Synergy customers ($500 per kWh of battery capacity up to 10 kWh).
• Up to $7,500 for Horizon Power customers ($750 per kWh of capacity up to 10 kWh).

to:

• Up to $1,300 for Synergy customers ($130 per kWh of battery capacity up to 10 kWh).
• Up to $3,800 for Horizon Power customers ($380 per kWh of capacity up to 10 kWh).

This has understandably not been well-received by some. Nor has a change in the requirement for a battery to be just Virtual Power Plant (VPP) capable to WA rebate recipients being *required* to join a VPP.

Added to all this, Victoria’s solar battery loans are no more, and the Northern Territory government has just (quietly) announced its super-generous up-to-$12,000 battery rebate has ended due to reaching the program’s funding cap.

These situations have left some rethinking their planned purchase. But some have already accepted quotes and paid a deposit, such as commenter Adam from Western Australia; who said:

“I’m one of those who has already paid a deposit. I did so due to the state rebate originally only being available to the first 19000 applicants and I didn’t want to miss out knowing that these would likely be snapped up quickly. I also did it on the understanding that I would get both the state and federal rebates which would have made my purchase financially viable for me. With this major change it is now not financially viable for me (marginal at best) and I’m hoping that I can get my deposit back.”

I asked SolarQuotes’ resident-fact checker Ronald Brakels about his views on the status of quotes and deposits given the changes and the following is Ronald’s opinion. It’s in relation to the WA rebate specifically but would have relevancy in various other scenarios:

Start Ronald’s Opinion ——- 

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Any opinions I give or conclusions I draw are only based on what I’ve read about consumer law over the years:

If a customer accepts and signs a quote, they enter into a contract.

Both the federal and WA battery rebates go to the installer, who then uses them to offer a lower price to customers.

If an installer has assumed the state battery rebate would be available and offers a quote at a lower price as a result, they can be required to install at the quoted price.

I assume installers would be wise enough to state that the quoted price is conditional on the rebate(s) being received. But they have to be clear about it. Just including it in the small print on a quote may not be enough. Ideally, they should inform the person verbally about the condition, and it should also be featured prominently on the written quote.

Consumer law says companies must live up to any promises made about products or services. I think that if an installer puts a price on a quote that includes rebates, but also clearly states it’s conditional on the rebates being received, then I think it was reasonable for the customer to think that was at least there was a chance the rebates would be received; and if they aren’t then the quote doesn’t apply.

If the quote didn’t include rebate(s) in the price but had a provision saying the price would be less if rebate(s) were received that would be different.

A quote is a contract and on ending contracts the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACC) says:

“A consumer can generally end a contract with no charge if:

 

• the business has said anything false or misleading about the goods, services, terms or conditions
• a service has not met a consumer guarantee
• the consumer is in a cooling-off period.”

I would say that if a quote includes rebates in its price, and then these rebates turn out not to be available, it fails to meet consumer guarantees and so the contract can be ended without penalty. But this doesn’t mean the installer has done anything wrong — provided the conditions were made clear to the customer.

To sum up, in my opinion, if a person can’t get a rebate that was included in the quoted price, they should be able to get out of it without penalty. It’s the installer who’s more at risk of having to install at a low price if they only mentioned that the quoted price was conditional on rebates being received in small print.

—– End Ronald’s Opinion.

The WA Government also has some related words of warning for suppliers and installers; among it:

“Companies who have taken deposits and promised specific equipment, delivery times, prices, or access to the rebate and are unable to fulfil these promises once details are confirmed may find themselves dealing with Consumer Protection.”

An information for industry page concerning the WA battery rebate can be found here.