Solar Installer Went Out of Business? What to Do, Step by Step

If your solar installer has gone bankrupt, closed, or simply stopped returning your calls, this is the practical guide to getting your system back on stable footing. It walks through what to do, in the order to do it. The reassuring part, and we mean this literally, is that your system is almost certainly still making power, you still own it, and you have time to do this right. Almost none of what follows is an emergency, and most of it is more tedious than difficult.

Two things to settle before the steps, because they remove most of the fear. First, a company’s bankruptcy is a financial and legal event; it does not reach up to your roof and switch anything off. If you want the full explanation of what a bankruptcy does and does not touch, we cover it on its own. Second, the expensive equipment on your roof is still under its manufacturer’s warranty, which survives the installer’s failure; what you have lost are the installer’s own promises about their labor, and we lay out exactly which warranties survive in their own guide. One caveat shapes everything below: this sequence assumes you own your system, with cash or a loan. If you lease or have a PPA, you do not own the equipment and cannot freely hire your own service company, so your path is different, and the question becomes who now holds your contract.

One branch before the steps. If your system was installed but never switched on, meaning the utility never granted Permission to Operate, or the building permit was never finalized and inspected, your situation is different and more involved than the one this guide describes. A system that never went live is not yet saving you anything, the permit may still name the company that vanished, and the utility interconnection may need to be resubmitted under a new contractor. If that is you, the steps below still apply, but lining up a new licensed installer becomes the urgent first move rather than a middle one, and it is worth getting help early. The rest of this guide is for a system that is up, running, and now unsupported.

Step 1: Gather your documents

Before you call anyone, collect your paperwork in one place, because nearly every step that follows depends on it. You are looking for your original installation contract; your permit package and any inspection records; your equipment details, especially the make, model, and serial numbers of your panels, inverter, and battery, plus any system or site identification number; your Permission to Operate letter and your net metering agreement, which prove the system is legally connected and tell a new installer which billing rules you are on; your equipment warranty certificates if you have them; your monitoring login; and your financing paperwork, whether a loan or a lease or PPA.

The serial numbers, the system ID, and the install date matter more than anything else here, because together they are the key that unlocks your manufacturer warranties, which are prorated from the date your system went in. If you can find nothing else, find those. And if your records are thin, do not panic; your local building department keeps the permit and inspection package and can usually provide it, often through an online portal, which also tells you the exact equipment that was installed.

Step 2: Confirm who holds your financing, and keep paying

Find out who currently services your loan, or who holds your lease or PPA, and confirm it. In a bankruptcy, financing is routinely sold to or serviced by a different company than the one that sold you the system, so the entity you pay may have changed even though your obligation has not. The fastest ways to find out are the notices arriving in your mail, your original loan agreement, and your credit report, which shows the current servicer.

Keep making your payments. This is the one place where doing nothing is the wrong move. Stopping payment because the installer failed does not punish the installer; it damages your credit and creates a new problem on top of the one you already have. Your loan or lease is a separate agreement from the installer’s service promises, and it survives their collapse.

There is one nuance worth knowing, though it is a legal question rather than a do-it-yourself step. Many solar loans were arranged through the seller, and those contracts often carry a federal protection called the Holder Rule, which can make the lender answerable for some of the seller’s failures, with any recovery capped at what you have paid. That can matter precisely because a bankrupt installer cannot be pursued directly. It is not a reason to stop paying on your own; it is a reason, if you believe you were genuinely wronged, to talk to a consumer attorney or file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We explain the Holder Rule on its own elsewhere.

Step 3: Preserve what you can recover, and mind the deadline

You have likely lost the installer’s workmanship and roof warranties as practical matters, but there are two places you may still recover something, and one of them has a clock on it.

The first is the bankruptcy itself. When a company files, the court sets a hard deadline, called a bar date, for creditors to file a claim, and that includes you for the value of the promises you were owed. The court’s notice will state the exact date; watch your mail for it, because if you miss it the claim is almost always gone for good. Filing is inexpensive and is done on a standard form, and you should be realistic about it: as an ordinary unsecured creditor you are near the back of the line, so any recovery is often pennies on the dollar. But a small recovery preserved beats a full one forfeited on a missed date.

The second, in California, is the contractor’s license bond. Every licensed California contractor must carry a bond, currently twenty-five thousand dollars, and a homeowner harmed by the contractor’s conduct can file a claim against it through the surety company, which you can identify from the contractor’s record on the state license board’s website. Set your expectations honestly here too: when a company fails, that single bond is a shared pool that many customers are claiming against at once, though California gives residential homeowners priority, and there is a limited window to file. It is worth doing and rarely a full recovery.

Both of these are general information, not legal advice, and if real money is at stake, a brief consultation with a consumer attorney is usually worth it.

Step 4: Line up a new licensed installer and move your manufacturer relationship

These two tasks go together, because the new installer is usually the one who initiates the handoff with the manufacturer, so treat them as a single move.

You need a currently licensed California solar contractor willing to take on a system someone else built. Not all of them want this work; many prefer new installations to servicing an orphan, so line up two or three candidates rather than depending on one. Look for an active California license, the C-46 solar or C-10 electrical classification, which you can and should verify yourself on the state license board’s website, along with a willingness to work with your specific equipment brands and a clear answer on what they charge. Good places to find one are the manufacturer’s own certified-installer locator for your equipment, which has the added benefit of keeping your warranty intact, and the handful of companies that now specialize specifically in adopting orphaned systems.

Once you have a willing installer, moving your manufacturer relationship to them is usually straightforward, and here is a correction to a widely repeated myth: for a homeowner who is keeping their home, this is generally free. The major manufacturers let you authorize a new service company at no charge, and one large inverter maker that briefly imposed a transfer fee reversed it in 2025. Any money you pay at this stage is almost always the new installer’s own service or diagnostic charge, set by that installer, not a fee from the manufacturer. The handoff generally needs a signed authorization from you and your equipment serial numbers, and the process differs a little by brand; confirm the current details, since fees and steps in this corner of the industry change.

A word of caution that matters most right here. A distressed homeowner who just lost their installer is exactly the customer some operators try to talk into a whole new system they do not need. In almost every case an orphaned system needs a repair or a part, not a teardown. Get any diagnosis in writing, get a second opinion before authorizing anything expensive, and never sign or pay under time pressure. If you can, bring a trusted family member or advisor into the conversation before you authorize paid work; it is one of the simplest and most effective protections against being oversold.

Step 5: Restore your monitoring

Once the handoff is complete, you can get your monitoring back, the app or portal that shows how much your system is producing. Monitoring is commonly tied to the original installer’s account with the manufacturer, which is why it goes dark when they fail and usually comes back only after the new relationship is in place. It is the last step rather than the first because it depends on the ones before it, and because, while a blank dashboard is unsettling, it does not affect whether your system is actually working. With some equipment you can confirm the system is alive directly, even before the transfer finishes, and a good new installer will show you how.

A few other things to know

Three smaller items tend to surface and are worth a sentence each so they do not surprise you later. If you financed the system, there may be a UCC-1 filing recorded against the equipment; it is not a lien on your house, only on the panels, but it can complicate a future sale or refinance, so plan to have your servicer clear it when the loan is paid. If you have a battery, any state storage rebate such as SGIP is filed by an installer, not by you directly, so a pending one may need your new installer to complete it. And your homeowners insurance generally covers the panels as part of your dwelling for things like storm damage, but it does not cover faulty workmanship or normal wear, so it is not a replacement for the installer warranty you lost.

When to bring in help

If your documentation is incomplete, if you cannot tell who holds your financing, if you are not sure which manufacturer process applies to your equipment, or if you simply do not want to project-manage this while it sits on your worry list, that navigation is exactly what the practice handles. What you get is a documented roadmap for your specific situation: who to call, in what order, with what information, so the whole thing turns from an open-ended worry into a finite list of tasks.

However you proceed, the shape of the recovery is the same. Your system is working. Your equipment is protected. The job in front of you is administrative, not technical, and it has a clear end.

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The Installer’s View is an independent solar advisory practice for California homeowners. We do not sell, install, or service solar equipment, and we are not a law firm. This article is general educational information about a typical recovery process, not legal, financial, or engineering advice; your contracts, your equipment, and your circumstances differ, and for anything involving money owed or a legal claim you should confirm your own situation, ideally with a qualified professional, before acting.