‘It’s nerve wracking’: How some solar panel contracts can be risky for homeowners

ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orlando grandmother turned to Action 9 for help after water started pouring into her home. She blames a solar company for the leak after it installed panels on her roof. The contract she signed to finance the panels could also put her in jeopardy of losing her home.

Ruby Brookes has lived in a small Orlando home for 30 years but is now facing a big mess.

“I’m standing to the sink, and I felt something drip on me, and it was the water,” Brookes said pointing to her kitchen ceiling.

In 2022, a door-to-door salesperson convinced her solar panels would be a good investment.

Brookes told Action 9, “They make it sound like, you know, they were going to… it’s going to help me out in the long run.”

A separate company was hired to do the installation. Even though she had an old roof with damage, Brookes claims the installer, Urban Solar, assured her there was no problem with installing panels. After the installation, she claims her roof started leaking. The company sent someone to address the leaks, but she said it didn’t work.

“It started off as a small spot like that, but now it’s started rippling,” she said.

Urban Solar told Action 9, a site survey company that inspected the roof didn’t notify them of the poor quality of the roof and they assumed they were good to proceed with installation, since that was the standard practice. Urban Solar said after it responded in April to seal the solar penetrations and address the leaks, it hadn’t received notice of additional leaks until contacted by Action 9.

Independent roof inspector Joe Bragg with WJA consultants said, in general, adding solar makes homes more vulnerable to damage.

Bragg said, “Solar secured into any roof, let alone a preexisting roof, comes with its own problems. We’re starting to see it in the industry more often.”

For Ruby Brookes, the problems didn’t end there. She claims the solar panels themselves stopped working. And while looking at her paperwork, Action 9 saw she was signed up for solar through the PACE program. PACE stands for property assessed clean energy. It’s a government-approved program that allows the financing of clean energy projects to be attached to a person’s property taxes as an assessment instead of as monthly payments to a bank.

In Ruby Brookes case, her tax bill would normally be around $100 a year. With the PACE assessment on her bill it added around $3000 more each year for 30-years. So, with interest she and/or future homeowners will end up paying more than $90,000 for the panels.

Brookes said, “I just want to be done with it. I don’t want to be bothered with it. It’s not serving any purpose to me, not doing me any good.”

But if she stops paying like she wants to do, since the assessment is part of her property taxes, she could lose her home after two years of non-payment. It could be sold at auction.

Brookes said, “It’s nerve wracking. It’s nerve wracking.”

Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal asked Urban Solar if it would remove the panels and cancel the contract. It said it couldn’t do that because the funds have been dispersed and the work has been performed. But the company did instruct its service team to return to Brookes’ home and fix any concerns at no cost. It also said it would offer a discount to remove and then re-install the panels if she has her roof repaired.

The company believed a tripped breaker, or a Wi-Fi connection issue might have been the reason for the panels not working. A service manager let her know if the company made a site visit and it was just to address a Wi-Fi reconnection, there would be an additional cost and Ruby Brookes refused to move forward.

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