"Sounds like XXX Solar to me"

“They did 3 of my homeowners like that”

I stumbled across (yet another) cautionary tale that I thought I’d share because it illustrates a point that I think would be good for Tucson home owners to keep in mind.

There was a post in a ‘solar professionals group’ that I am a member of that started with “Horror stories”. Paraphrased:

A roof was installed (“even though they didn’t need one and it was the installers request”). There was some sort of delay and the original loan approval expired- and the reapproval didn’t go through.

A couple of things to pull out of this question and the following discussions that surrounded the original posting.

1. The installing company sounds like they tried to squeeze a roof repair/replacement into the deal when it might not have been necessary. (Also sounds like the home owners didn’t ask for it either based on follow on posts)

2. The loan approval is based on current conditions the customer has (income, debt, credit, etc.) and are basically time sensitive because those conditions can (and often do) change.

3. Someone at the install company should have understood this and applied for the loan extension- nearly all the solar pros and contractors that responded criticized the finance department, not the customers.

4. After roof install but before solar install- the loan fell out. The roof install apparently was sub contracted- so an honest contractor did honest work to install the roofing and is left with no real way to collect for the material and work.

The thread exploded with lots of responses like:

“Looks like somebody is getting a free roof and solar. Already has bad credit. What a dumpster fire”

“Someone in finance Dept needs to lose their job. That’s really the only answer.”

“Separate yourself from that installer, never use them again”

There’s much more I am not highlighting, for sure but pretty much the consensus from everyone involved in the discussion was the solar company should immediately cease using the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) company involved- and many asked/wanted to know which EPC it was so they could scratch them off the list…

The original poster appeared to not disclose the EPC, but others chimed in with their speculation with one response standing out to me the most:

“Sounds like XXX Solar (solar company). They did 3 of my homeowners like that”

That wasn’t the only speculation-

“I’m curious if you know what happens with XXX (solar company) cause this same thing just happened in XXX (city) with one of my XXX (solar company) customers.”

Ok, enough of the blow by blow…

Here’s my thoughts.

When we hire a contractor to do work, we expose ourselves to these kinds of potential issues. That is why it is so important to really understand who it is that will be doing the work. We really gotta do our own due diligence when entering into contracts like this.

That goes for all of the home repair and renovation type stuff, not just solar.

I mean, I’ve seen people spend more time sifting through the oranges at the supermarket trying to pick the best ones than it appears some folks spend sifting through potential home improvement (including solar) contractors.

Food for thought…

If you are looking into getting solar for your home, I have a book coming soon that will help you pick the tastiest ripe orange of a solar company called Tucson Solar Insider Desk Guide for Buying Solar. Click here to get notified when I release it.

Be Good!

Curtis