Selling Your Home With Permanent Lights: What Transfers and What Doesn't

The lights go with the house. That part is simple. The part sellers get wrong is the warranty — under our Installation Agreement, a change of ownership that skips the transfer process doesn't just fail to move the coverage, it voids it. One booked inspection before closing keeps the remaining coverage alive for whoever buys your home, and it's the kind of detail that makes a listing look well kept.

The Hardware Goes With the House

A permanent lighting system is screwed into your fascia or soffit, wired through the exterior, and terminated at a controller and transformer. In a real estate contract, that combination is normally treated as a fixture rather than a moveable possession — it is attached to the building and included in the sale unless it is specifically excluded in writing.

That covers the aluminium channel, every LED node inside it, the low-voltage wiring, the controller box and the transformer. Buyers get a working, professionally installed system on possession day with nothing to reinstall.

One caution: we are a lighting company, not your lawyer. Your purchase contract governs what is and isn't included in your specific sale, and fixture questions are exactly what your realtor and real estate lawyer are for. If you intend to do anything other than leave the system in place, say so in writing early.

The Warranty Transfers — But Only If You Do This First

This is the section worth reading twice, because the default outcome is bad and the fix is easy.

Starise coverage runs five years on lighting components against verified manufacturer defects and 90 days on installation workmanship. Section 7.2 of our Installation Agreement makes that coverage transferable to a subsequent homeowner at the same installation address, subject to conditions:

• The system must be inspected, tested and diagnosed by Starise before any transfer takes effect, to confirm it is functioning to specification.
• If it passes, the remaining coverage transfers to the new homeowner for the balance of the original term. A buyer taking possession in year two of a five-year term inherits three years.
• If the inspection finds defects, damage or unauthorised modifications, the warranty does not transfer until those are resolved, at the seller's or buyer's expense. Who pays is a negotiating point — settle it before closing, not after.
• A diagnostic and inspection fee applies to any transfer request. Service call fees begin at $150 plus tax and vary with travel, scope and time on site.
• Coverage stays tied to the original installation address. It does not move to a different property.
• Warranty rights cannot be assigned without our written consent — which is what the transfer process is for.

And the consequence that catches people out, stated plainly in the agreement: any change of ownership that has not completed the inspection-and-transfer process voids warranty coverage. Not "keeps it with the seller" — voids it. Nobody holds coverage after that, which means a buyer who discovers a failed node in year three has no claim, and the first they'll hear about it is when they call us.

Two related points sellers should check before listing:

• Did you register the warranty? Registration is meant to happen within 30 days of installation. If you never did, sort it out before you start the transfer — you'll need your invoice number, which is printed at the top of your Starise invoice and on your payment receipt. Register or check a warranty here.
• Was your install price-matched? Under Section 7.5, installations performed under a price-match arrangement carry no warranty at all, express or implied. If that was your deal, there is nothing to transfer, and it is better for everyone that the buyer hears that from you rather than assuming otherwise.

The App Is the Part People Forget

The lighting control app is a third-party product — Starise does not own or operate it, and the account inside it belongs to whoever created it. So the app does not transfer the way the hardware does.

Practically, the handover looks like this: you remove your account's access, the buyer installs the app and creates their own account, and the controller is re-paired to their home Wi-Fi once the internet is switched into their name. Saved scenes and custom patterns you built may not survive that handover, so if you've spent a season perfecting a look, take screenshots of the settings and leave them with the house.

Worth telling the buyer: the lights themselves do not stop working without Wi-Fi. The last scene keeps running and schedules continue. Wi-Fi is for changing what they do, not for keeping them lit — which is the whole subject of can permanent lights be controlled without internet.

What Doesn't Transfer

• Your app account and anything personal in it. Don't hand over your login — the buyer makes their own.
• Your Wi-Fi credentials. Obvious, but it's the step that gets skipped, and it's why a buyer's first week sometimes involves lights that won't respond.
• Warranty coverage on a different property. The five-year term is tied to the address it was installed at.
• Coverage for things it never included. The warranty excludes Wi-Fi and router problems, app configuration, storm, hail, wind, snow and ice damage, animal interference, third-party modifications and cosmetic fading. Setting that expectation honestly with a buyer is better than a surprise later.

Can You Take the Lights With You?

Technically the system is removable. Practically, almost nobody does it, and for good reasons.

The channel is cut and fitted to the specific runs, peaks and corners of the house it's on. It will not fit the next one. Removing it means patching and repainting every mounting point on the fascia, immediately before you sell — the opposite of what you want a buyer to see. You'd need to exclude the system from the purchase contract in writing, in advance. And the warranty wouldn't come with you regardless, because it's tied to the original address.

The system is also worth more to you in place. It photographs well, it shows well after dark, and it's a finished feature rather than a hole in the trim. If you're weighing what it contributes at sale time, we go into the property value question in do permanent lights increase home value.

The Handover Checklist

Run this once, a few weeks before closing:

• 1. Confirm the warranty is registered in your name, using your invoice number.
• 2. Book the transfer inspection with Starise. Do it early enough that anything the inspection finds can be resolved, or negotiated, before possession.
• 3. Agree who pays the inspection fee and any repairs — you or the buyer. Put it in the deal.
• 4. Give the buyer's name and contact details so coverage can be recorded against them for the balance of the term.
• 5. Screenshot your favourite scenes and schedules before you remove your account.
• 6. Show the buyer the controller and transformer at the walkthrough — usually in the garage or near the panel. People should know where their own hardware is.
• 7. Leave the paperwork with the house: invoice, warranty registration confirmation, and the app name. A folder on the counter is a good look.

Listing a Home That Has Permanent Lighting

Since the system is staying, get some value out of it in the listing.

• Shoot at dusk, not at night. Blue hour — roughly twenty minutes after sunset — is when the lights read clearly and the house is still visible behind them. A fully dark shot loses the architecture.
• Run warm white for listing photos. Colour is fun to own and polarising to sell. Warm white reads as architectural lighting to every buyer.
• Say what it is in the listing copy. "Permanent app-controlled LED roofline lighting, professionally installed, warranty transferable" is concrete. "Christmas lights included" undersells it and sounds temporary.
• Book at least one evening showing. Winter listings in Alberta are shown in the dark half the time anyway — a lit exterior is an advantage, so use it deliberately.

Warranty terms described here reflect Starise Lighting Inc.'s Installation Agreement as published at the time of writing; see the full terms for the governing language. This article is general information about our own products and processes, not legal or real estate advice.