How to Get Out of a Solar Contract: All Eight Routes, by Contract Type

You were sold this at your kitchen table

Somebody knocked, sat down with a tablet, and pitched you a smaller power bill. What you signed is a loan, a lease or a PPA that can run twenty years or more, often with a payment allowed to rise every year, sometimes with a lien on the equipment, and in the cases regulators have gone after, with a lender that paid the installer before the system ever switched on. The industry counts on you assuming you are stuck. You have more routes out than the salesperson mentioned, and four of them cost nothing.

First, name your contract

Nothing on this page works until you know which of three things you signed. The salesperson may have used all three words in one visit. The paperwork only has one of them.

Cash or loan purchase. You own the panels. If you financed, you have an installment loan, usually solar-specific, arranged through the installer on a tablet. The CFPB found these run 8 to 25 year terms at stated APRs of 1 to 7 percent, and that some are secured by a lien on the panels themselves.

Lease. A company owns the panels on your roof and you pay a fixed monthly amount to use them. Treasury says these contracts often last 20 years or more, that your payment may be allowed to rise every year, and that at the end you do not automatically own anything, after two decades of paying.

PPA, or power purchase agreement. A company owns the panels and sells you the electricity by the kilowatt-hour. The CFPB puts typical PPA terms at six to twenty-five years, with escalators in many contracts that raise the rate 1 to 5 percent a year.

The tax question follows the ownership. Treasury is blunt about it: with a lease or a PPA the credits and incentives go to the system’s owner, which is the company billing you.

The first four routes are free

Eight routes out. Four of them cost nothing but time and postage. Work the list in order and stop at the first one that works. Everything below number four costs you money, the amount grows as you go down, and the companies on the other side of your contract would much prefer you start at number five.

1. Cancel before installation

Applies to: loan, lease, PPA. Cost: nothing.

Federal law gives you a cooling-off period on a sale made at your home. Under 16 CFR 429.1 the buyer may cancel until midnight of the third business day after the date of the transaction, and the seller has 10 business days to refund your money, return anything you traded in, and cancel and return any negotiable instrument. The rule covers sales of consumer goods or services of $25 or more solicited somewhere other than the seller’s place of business. Solar qualifies because it is goods and services. Real estate does not, which is why this rule rescues a solar buyer and never rescued a timeshare buyer.

Treasury tells solar shoppers the same thing in plainer words: the right to cancel the transaction lasts for at least three days from the date it is signed. Salespeople rarely dwell on this right. It is in your paperwork because the law requires it to be.

Your state may give you more, and your own contract can give you the most, because a solar agreement typically ties its no-cost cancellation to a project milestone instead of a date. The seller knows where that milestone is, so read that clause today.

Who it works for: anyone who signed recently, or anyone whose project has not reached the permit stage yet.

What disqualifies you: the calendar, and a notice sent the wrong way. Send it by the method the contract names and keep proof, so the seller cannot claim it never arrived. Detail on the cancellation page.

2. Breach or non-performance

Applies to: loan, lease, PPA. Cost: nothing to start.

If your system was never finished, inspected, interconnected or switched on, the company has not delivered what you are paying for. This is the single most common real claim in residential solar right now.

Michigan’s attorney general lays out how this works in its July 2026 suit against Climax Solar and its lenders: a “pitch, sign, fund, fail, and collect” model in which financing companies released substantial funds on paperwork and interim milestones before systems were completed, connected to the grid, or approved by the utility to operate, leaving consumers with systems that were unfinished, underperforming, unsafe, or never turned on, and still responsible for both the utility bill and the loan.

If you financed, one federal rule matters more than lenders want you to realize. The FTC Holder Rule requires consumer credit contracts arising from a seller-arranged sale to carry a notice stating that any holder of the contract is subject to all claims and defenses which the debtor could assert against the seller of goods or services, with recovery capped at amounts the debtor paid. Treasury lists that rule, 16 CFR Part 433, among the laws that apply to residential solar. In plain terms: the lender that funded a broken deal does not get to point at the installer and walk away. Lenders would rather you never read that paragraph of your own contract.

Who it works for: anyone with a system that does not do what the contract says it does, and a paper trail of asking the company to fix it.

What disqualifies you: a system that works and simply saves less than the pitch suggested. That is a misrepresentation question, covered next, and not a breach.

3. Misrepresentation and dealer-fee claims

Applies to: mostly loan, sometimes lease and PPA. Cost: nothing at the complaint stage.

This is where the industry’s conduct is on the public record, and the first step is free: a complaint to your state attorney general and to the CFPB and FTC. Treasury’s advisory routes consumers to exactly those places, and those offices act on what they receive. Every major case in this industry started with complaints, and the dealer fee sits at the center of most of them: a markup folded into your loan principal instead of being disclosed as a cost of credit.

The lenders on the other side of these deals have been sued over exactly this. Minnesota sued GoodLeap, Sunlight Financial, Solar Mosaic and Dividend Solar Finance in March 2024, alleging roughly $35 million in hidden fees on nearly 5,000 loans, with most of those fees increasing borrowers’ costs by 15 to 30 percent. Michigan’s Climax suit alleges more than $22 million in hidden financing costs across about 1,700 consumers and $81 million in financed transactions, with dealer fees averaging more than 27 percent of the amount financed.

Who it works for: anyone whose loan principal exceeds the cash price of their system, anyone who was promised a tax credit without being asked about their tax liability, and anyone who disputes the signature on a document.

What disqualifies you: nothing. This route is free, and you should take it even if you also take another one. Start at the dealer fee page and find your number before you write.

4. Transfer at sale

Applies to: loan, lease, PPA. Cost: whatever closing costs it adds.

Selling the house moves the problem onto your buyer, and only with the company’s approval. On a financed purchase the CFPB describes two options that leave the panels with the home: the buyer assumes the loan if the lender allows it, or you pay off the balance before the sale. On a lease or PPA the buyer has to qualify and assume the agreement, which is a term of your contract that the company controls.

The lien is the part nobody at the kitchen table mentioned, and it surfaces at closing. Treasury tells solar buyers to find out whether the financing includes a UCC-1 lien on the system, and warns that these liens can affect whether a prospective buyer will want your house at all.

Who it works for: anyone already planning to move.

What disqualifies you: a buyer who will not qualify, a lender that will not permit assumption, and a lien nobody dealt with until the week of closing.

5. The contractual buyout

Applies to: lease and PPA. Cost: real money, set by the contract.

Now the free routes are behind you, and the company holding your contract gets to name its price. A lease or PPA has a buyout provision, and it is the contract’s own answer to the question you are asking. Treasury tells lease and PPA signers to understand whether they are required to purchase the system at the end at “fair market value,” and to ask up front about exit fees and early termination fees. The same clauses govern an early buyout.

There is no statute setting this price. Your contract sets it, and the company wrote your contract, so read the section before you call and get any quoted figure in writing.

Who it works for: owners far enough into the term that the number is survivable, and owners with cash.

What disqualifies you: an eligibility date you have not reached, and a fair market value calculation you cannot check.

6. Loan payoff or refinance

Applies to: cash or loan purchase. Cost: the balance, or a better rate.

If you own the panels, there is no ownership question left. What remains is debt, and the lender set its terms. And a solar loan with a dealer fee baked into the principal is an expensive consumer loan wearing a green jacket.

The CFPB found that solar-specific loans typically run 8 to 25 year terms but are usually repaid in 7 to 9 years because of prepayments, many of them forced: it is commonplace for these loans to re-amortize to a higher monthly payment at the 19th month if the borrower does not prepay about 30 percent of the principal, the presumptive size of the old federal tax credit.

That structure is worth naming for 2026 buyers, because the IRS now says the Residential Clean Energy Credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025. A loan designed around a 30 percent credit, sold to someone who cannot claim one, is a payment shock with a date on it.

Who it works for: anyone with a solar loan and a credit profile that can get a better all-in rate.

What disqualifies you: nothing about the panels. This is a refinancing question, and you can work it while every other question here is still open.

7. Stop paying

Applies to: loan, lease, PPA. Cost: your credit, and possibly the panels.

This is a real route and the one with the longest tail. On a secured solar loan the CFPB notes the lender has the right to repossess the panels for nonpayment. On a lease or PPA you are defaulting on a twenty-year contract held by a company whose remaining business is collections.

Michigan’s complaint describes what the collections side looks like when it goes wrong: negative credit reporting, liens, and collection activity tied to projects that were incomplete or defective, with financing companies continuing to service and enforce loans after consumers reported disputed signatures, failed inspections and unsafe conditions.

Who it works for: almost nobody as a first move.

What disqualifies you: a mortgage application in your near future, and any live claim under routes 2 or 3 that you would rather not undercut.

8. Your counterparty goes bankrupt

Applies to: loan, lease, PPA. Cost: not your choice.

Nobody picks this route. The company that sold you the system picks it for you by failing. Sunnova filed Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas, the court approved the sale of substantially all assets on July 31, 2025, and confirmed the plan in November 2025, with core operations moving to SunStrong Management under Solaris Assets.

The contract survives, because to this industry your contract is an asset to be sold. The payment obligation survives. The service and warranty you were promised are the open question, which is the whole subject of the bankruptcy page.

The decision path

Answer in order and stop at the first yes.

Did you sign within the last three business days, or has your project not reached permitting? Send the cancellation notice today, by the method the contract names, with proof of delivery. Every contract type. You are done.

Is the system unfinished, uninspected, not interconnected, or not producing what the contract promises? Write the company, in writing, with dates. If you financed, write the lender too and cite the Holder Rule notice printed in your own contract. File the attorney general complaint the same week. It is free, and it tells the lender you know the rule it was hoping you would miss.

Does your loan principal exceed the cash price of the system? That gap is the dealer fee. Document it, put it in the attorney general complaint, and get a refinance quote in parallel.

Are you selling the house anyway? Start the lien and assumption questions with your lender or lessor now. Waiting until closing hands them the timeline.

None of the above, and you have a lease or PPA? Read your buyout section. That number is the exit, and no third party can make it smaller, whatever a cancellation company promises.

None of the above, and you have a loan? Then this is a debt problem, and you can shop your way to a better lender than the one the installer chose.

One rule holds across all eight: the free routes come before anyone’s fee. Cancellation, non-performance, an attorney general complaint and a transfer at sale cost nothing. The solar cancellation companies that advertise to people in your position are a second wave feeding on the first: a company that offers to run these routes for a few thousand dollars is selling you your own phone calls.

This is general information, not legal advice. Every route here turns on contract language and state law that we cannot see from here, so before you send a notice, sign a release, or stop making a payment, put your actual contract in front of an attorney licensed in your state.