Installer gone

When the installer has gone out of business

Your panels keep making power, and most of what protects you survives the company. Here is what still works, who to deal with now, and how to get the system fixed.

Checked November 12, 2026

What survives, and what doesn't

• Equipment warranties usually survive. They come from the makers of the panels, inverters and batteries, not the installer.
• The installer's workmanship warranty usually doesn't. That covers its own work, like wiring and roof penetrations.
• A solar loan is still owed. The lender is a separate company and expects its payments.
• A lease or PPA continues with a new company. The contracts are sold or handed to another company, which you now pay and which takes over repairs. The terms (payment, escalator, years) stay the same.

The big recent cases

• SunPower (bankrupt in 2024): leases and PPAs are serviced by SunStrong Management, (833) 514-1858. Owners who bought with cash or a loan are told to contact their lender. The SunPower name now belongs to a different company.
• Sunnova (bankrupt in June 2025): SunStrong took over servicing its customers' systems.
• Freedom Forever (bankrupt in April 2026): the case was converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation after no buyer was found.

If your bills now come from a different company, that company is the one to deal with. Our solar bankruptcy tracker lists every big failure since 2022 and who took over.

What to do, in order

1. Keep paying the loan, lease or PPA unless a lawyer tells you otherwise. Stopping can mean default and damage to your credit, and doesn't get the system fixed.
2. Find out who you deal with now. Your latest bill or loan statement names the company. For a loan, it's the lender.
3. Get your monitoring working. If the installer's app stops, the equipment maker's app usually still works: Enphase, SolarEdge and Tesla run their own. Then check what the system is making.
4. Gather your paperwork: the contract, the equipment list (panel and inverter models), warranties, the building permit, and the utility's permission to operate.
5. For a repair on a system you own: contact the maker of the failed part about its warranty, then hire a licensed solar contractor that services other companies' systems. Expect to pay for a diagnostic visit and for labor the old workmanship warranty would have covered.
6. Lease or PPA: the new servicer must repair it. If the system made less than promised, you may be owed money under the production guarantee. If they don't answer, see what to do when the leasing company won't answer.
7. Bankruptcy claims: if you paid for work that was never done, watch for the deadline to file a claim in the bankruptcy case, which is posted with the case.

Paying a loan for a system that was never finished

Put the dispute in writing to the lender, not only the installer, and keep photos and every letter. If the lender won't help, file a complaint with the CFPB: submit a complaint, which sends it to the lender and asks for a written answer, and with your state attorney general's consumer protection office.

More for solar owners

• Is my solar system working?Check a year, a month or the lifetime total against what your system should make.
• Production guarantee checkLease or PPA: see whether the system fell short of the guarantee and what you're owed.
• How to read a California true-up billThe once-a-year solar bill from PG&E, SCE or SDG&E, line by line.
• Selling a house with solarOwned, financed or leased: UCC-1 filings, lease transfers and buyouts.
• Replacing a roof with solar on itRemoving and reinstalling the panels: cost, who does it, and warranties.
• Lease and PPA terms by companyEscalators, transfers and buyouts at Sunrun, Tesla, SunStrong and others.
• Solar company bankruptcy trackerWho services SunPower, Sunnova, PosiGen and other failed companies' contracts now.
• When the leasing company won't answerHow to get a repair or a refund, step by step, in writing.
• Reminders: a spring check and upcoming deadlinesAdd them to your calendar. Nothing is sent to us.

Sources: NRG Clean Power: your solar company went out of business; SunPower: update for customers of the former SunPower Corporation; EnergySage: what SunPower's bankruptcy means for your system; Sunnova: financial restructuring announcement; pv magazine: Freedom Forever bankruptcy converted to Chapter 7; Solar Power World: what homeowners should do after Freedom Forever filed for bankruptcy; NuWatt: what to do when your solar company goes bankrupt; 24/7 Wall St.: solar loan payments after the installer disappears; CFPB: submit a complaint.

General information, not legal or financial advice. Your contract and your utility's current rules decide.