Home solar sales fraud

What it is

A homeowner is offered rooftop solar, sometimes a “free” roof, sometimes a system that will “replace” the electric bill, and ends up with a loan they didn’t understand, for a system that saves less than promised or doesn’t work as promised at all.

Selling solar is legal. What the enforcement cases below describe is the way it was sold: false claims about savings and government incentives, callers implying a link to a utility or an agency, contracts signed on a tablet without being reviewed, and financing costs folded into the price. Everything about individual companies on this page is drawn from government announcements or press reports of them, and they are allegations unless a case says otherwise.

The scale in the biggest recent case is large. New York’s Attorney General alleges that Attyx, formerly SUNco, generated about $275 million in the state through the conduct described in the complaint.

How it actually works

1. The hook

   An ad on social media offers a free roof or free solar panels, or a phone call arrives, in the Arizona and FTC case, the alleged call volume ran to tens of millions of calls to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry.

2. The borrowed authority

   According to the FTC and Arizona, some callers falsely claimed an affiliation with a utility or a government agency, and told consumers their monthly payment would replace their electric bill.

3. The visit and the tablet

   A salesperson visits and has the homeowner e-sign on a tablet. New York’s complaint alleges contracts were unsigned or not reviewed with the customer.

   Where it could have stopped

   This is the moment to stop: no signature on the day of the pitch. Connecticut’s Vision Solar judgment makes a ban on same-day contract signing an industry standard, and a real offer can survive a night of reading the loan terms.

4. The loan behind the offer

   The “free” or “no-cost” system is financed. New York alleges lending fees were hidden inside inflated prices, and reporting describes one homeowner’s loan at $160,000.

5. The claimed incentives

   Buyers are told that government incentives and tax credits will offset the cost. New York alleges these were misrepresented, and that the targets were households unlikely to qualify.

6. Installation, delay or failure

   Connecticut’s judgment cites unpermitted work that left systems unable to connect to the grid and, in some cases, systems never activated. Arizona’s release alleges installation delays meant customers paid for financing and their old utility bill at once.

7. The bill keeps coming

   The loan payments continue regardless. Texas’s 2026 lawsuit against CAM Solar alleges customers kept being charged for panels that had been removed or damaged; the suit seeks civil penalties and compensation.

Why it works

The pitch fits a real worry. Electric bills are a genuine pressure on households, and Connecticut’s Attorney General framed his warning to homeowners around exactly that.

“Free” and “no money down” hide a financing decision. The price is spread over a loan, so the number that gets discussed at the door is a monthly payment, not the total repaid.

A tablet moves faster than reading. Signing on a screen at the kitchen table, in the alleged New York cases, replaced the pause in which a buyer might have read the terms.

Incentives sound official. Talk of government programs and tax credits, or a caller implying a utility link, borrows credibility the seller doesn’t have, and the FTC and Arizona say some callers falsely claimed affiliations.

The targets are less able to recover. New York alleges older and fixed-income households were deliberately sought out; a large loan is hardest to absorb for exactly those homeowners.

Where it comes from

This is a domestic sales-practices problem, enforced mostly through state attorneys general and civil suits rather than criminal prosecution.

Enforcement is state by state. New York, Connecticut, Arizona and Texas are each cited here, and Connecticut lists further pending suits against other companies, including Sunrun Inc. Those are pending and are not findings.

Lenders are being drawn in. New York names two lenders as defendants, and Connecticut settled with a lender to Vision Solar’s customers in 2025.

Judgments can be hollow. Connecticut’s $5 million judgment against Vision Solar can’t be paid from company assets after its bankruptcy, which is why the state pointed consumers to its Home Improvement Guaranty Fund.

Complaint volumes vary. In the Texas coverage cited here, CAM Solar drew 8 complaints to the Texas Attorney General’s office over five years, compared with 123 for Sunrun and 81 for Sunnova in the same period as reported; a complaint count is not a finding.

Real cases

Red flags

• “Free” solar or a “free” roof. Someone is paying; ask who, and where the loan is.
• A caller who sounds like a utility or a government program. Hang up and call your utility using the number on your bill.
• Pressure to sign today, or a tablet handed over before you’ve seen the full loan terms.
• Promised savings or “your payment replaces your bill” with nothing in writing to support it.
• Tax credits promised as a certainty. Whether you qualify depends on your own tax situation, not on the salesperson.
• A loan total you cannot get in writing before signing.
• Repeated unsolicited calls to a number on the Do Not Call Registry.

If it’s happening to you

Don’t sign anything on the day it is offered, and don’t sign anything on a screen you haven’t been able to read in full.

1. Ask for the total you’ll repay and the loan terms in writing, separate from the sales pitch.
2. Check the company against your state attorney general’s press releases and complaint records.
3. Ask a tax professional about any incentive you’re being promised before you rely on it.
4. If you’ve already signed, read your contract for cancellation rights and act quickly; look up your state’s rules for home-improvement contracts and ask your attorney general’s office what applies.
5. Keep everything: the ad, texts, contract, loan documents and payment records.
6. Report it to your state attorney general’s consumer protection division and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Unwanted sales calls can also be reported to the FTC. See where to report for other countries.
7. Look for a state relief fund or settlement. Connecticut, for example, has a Home Improvement Guaranty Fund with up to $25,000 per eligible consumer.

Where the money goes

Mostly through ordinary lending and contracting channels, not a laundering chain. The homeowner’s loan pays the installer and the lender, and the alleged harm is in the price and terms rather than in hidden movement of funds.

New York alleges lending fees were concealed inside inflated prices, so part of what the homeowner repays goes to the lender as a fee the customer wasn’t told about. When a company fails, as Vision Solar did, there may be nothing left to pay a judgment, and what recovery exists comes from a state fund or from a separate lender settlement.

By the numbers

No published dataset breaks this scheme out as its own category yet, so there is no chart to show. The data page explains which agency categories exist and why some schemes are invisible in official statistics.