If you live in a house, you’ve probably gotten a knock at your door from a solar panel salesman. These salesmen often make promises about all the benefits of going solar, but not all those promises may pan out.
In fact, residential homeowners, especially the elderly, the disabled and low-income folks, often complain they found themselves struggling with the reality of solar panels after agreeing to some of these deals.
Dave Lieber has long cataloged issues with the residential solar panel industry for the Dallas Morning News.
He said the promised tax refund and reduced electric bill don’t always come to pass. Solar panel owners don’t even always keep electricity during black outs, Lieber said, unless they also purchase a big battery that doesn’t come with the panels.
McKinney-based lawyer Neal Prevost has made a career out of filing lawsuits on behalf of those who feel they have been mistreated by solar salesmen, Lieber said.
“He’s figured this thing out and he’s probably the number one solar lawyer in the United States, definitely in Texas. In just a year, he has already built up 2,100 cases,” Lieber said. “He’s (working in) 10 different states.”
Often these complaints boil down to the terms of the contracts being signed for panels, such as solar companies signing elderly customers up for long term deals that don’t make sense at their stage of life.
Lieber said there is a bill on Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk that would help to regulate the solar sales industry.
“It’s a really strong bill. It requires a lot of things, because there’s hope that that would regulate these guys who are knocking on your door,” he said. “When they knock on my door (in my city), they have to have a city pass around their neck to show that they registered at City Hall, and the solar guys never do.”
But not every city has a registration system for door-to-door salesmen. This bill would up those requirements in the solar sector.
“They’d have to register. They’d have to do continuing education,” Lieber said. “They’d be fined if they abused the process.”
While many people are happy with their solar panels, Lieber said he also talks to plenty of people who feel ripped off.
“The problem is you get three or four different entities you’re dealing with. You’re dealing with the guy who knocks on the door, he provides the lead to the next guy who comes by, who actually does the selling, and then there’s the financial contract that they have to sign,” he said.
“So if there’s a problem, they go back and they say, ‘hey, help me.’ Number one goes back and says it’s number two’s fault. Number two says it’s three’s fault. Number three says it is number one’s fault, so nobody can get satisfaction when there’s a problem because everybody’s passing the buck.”
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Lieber recommends people considering solar panels do plenty of research before signing on the dotted line.
“You’ve got to basically do your homework and you’ve gotta really dig in and figure out what’s going on,” he said. “You have to read the contracts because they tell you one price and then if you sign it, it’s a whole different price. So it’s just rife with corruption and you just have to be on your toes, man, and really figure this out before you commit.”
Lieber also said people should know that there’s a federal law that allows them to back out of these agreements within three days.
“There’s the three-day rule where you can rescind after three days and that’s a federal rule,” he said. “A lot of times, Prevost wins his cases because he proves that they never offered the customer the idea that they could drop out before three days was over.”
