A cautionary tale on creative financing for Solar Panels

[peakbagger]

The standard recommendation is pay for solar panels out of pocket or take a short term load from credit union or bank. With some front end tax planning someone can even take partial advantage of the tax credit in advance by under withholding) Unfortunately some folks want to go with crowd to have solar panels on their roof and are open to sales tactics and end up being conned into creative financing including no money down arrangements. This article pretty well covers the perils of making long term commitments to reduce the cost of solar install.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-sunrun-solar-panels/

I am surprised that the new owner let them get away with leaving the mounts in place on the roof. If done correctly they should las the life of the roof but are pretty ugly.

Unlike car loans and house mortgages, there rarely are any standardized disclosures required by the firms selling these deals. This is not an isolated case, folks pop up on various solar forums frequently with similar tales of woe usually with results that are a lot worse. I am surprised that realtors do not have any liability to disclose these effective liens on mortgage. Guaranteed unless its a cash transaction for a house which is pretty, rare a mortgage firm is going to pick up on a lien or effective lien on property. for solar. The end result is the deal falls apart or someone ends up writing a check to the solar company or far more likely its successor.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

The standard recommendation is pay for solar panels out of pocket or take a short term load from credit union or bank. With some front end tax planning someone can even take partial advantage of the tax credit in advance by under withholding) Unfortunately some folks want to go with crowd to have solar panels on their roof and are open to sales tactics and end up being conned into creative financing including no money down arrangements. This article pretty well covers the perils of making long term commitments to reduce the cost of solar install.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-sunrun-solar-panels/

I am surprised that the new owner let them get away with leaving the mounts in place on the roof. If done correctly they should las the life of the roof but are pretty ugly.

Unlike car loans and house mortgages, there rarely are any standardized disclosures required by the firms selling these deals. This is not an isolated case, folks pop up on various solar forums frequently with similar tales of woe usually with results that are a lot worse. I am surprised that realtors do not have any liability to disclose these effective liens on mortgage. Guaranteed unless its a cash transaction for a house which is pretty, rare a mortgage firm is going to pick up on a lien or effective lien on property. for solar. The end result is the deal falls apart or someone ends up writing a check to the solar company or far more likely its successor.

That's a good article. Really like the writing.

The Sunrun CEO sounds like a real piece of work. Top 40 under 40, indeed. So greedy. $5,589,500 in 2017 comp.



Buyer beware.

 

[peakbagger]

On one of the other sites I read, a former Sunrun salesman confirmed the business model. He got a 4K commission for selling one system. If they didn't sell 100K of systems in a year they were out the door. SunEdison and Vivant all had similar cut and run tactics. I have seen some Vivant installs with major shading issues.