Who Is Responsible for Solar Warranties After a Company Closes?

Who is responsible for your solar warranty after the company closes?

Each warranty belongs to the company that wrote it. When a solar company goes bankrupt, the manufacturer’s warranty on your panels, inverter or battery stays the manufacturer’s obligation, while the installer’s own workmanship warranty becomes a claim against whatever is left of the installer, with results that turn on your contract and the case. If you lease or have a power purchase agreement (PPA), the company that owns the panels generally carries maintenance under the contract, even after a new servicer takes over your account.

The installer, the lender, the loan servicer and the warranty provider can be four different companies, and California’s solar consumer guide notes that for purchased systems, manufacturers “provide most solar warranties.”

Which solar warranty is which?

A manufacturer’s product warranty is the equipment maker’s written promise that a panel, inverter or battery is free of defects for a set period. NREL describes it as protection “against failures due to manufacturing defects.”

A panel performance warranty is the panel maker’s promise that output stays above a floor that steps down over the years.

A workmanship warranty is the installer’s promise about its own labor, such as the mounting, the roof attachments and the wiring. The FTC tells shoppers to get bids that state what warranties apply to “the equipment” and to “the installation workmanship.”

A lease or PPA service obligation is the system owner’s contractual duty to maintain the equipment it owns on your roof.

Promise	Who made it	What the installer’s closure does to it	Where you take a claim
Panel, inverter or battery warranty, including panel performance	The manufacturer	It remains the manufacturer’s promise; you lose the installer who used to file claims and do the labor	The manufacturer
Workmanship warranty	The installer	It becomes a claim against the installer or its bankruptcy estate	A proof of claim in the bankruptcy case; your contractor board; your lender, if the loan has the Holder Rule notice (recovery capped at what you paid)
Lease or PPA maintenance and any production guarantee	The system owner	The contract continues; the servicer may change	Whoever bills you now
Solar loan	No warranty	Payments continue	The loan servicer

What happens to your warranty when a solar company goes bankrupt?

A filing freezes most collection against the company: 11 U.S.C. 362 stays “any act to collect, assess, or recover a claim against the debtor” that arose before the case. A homeowner with an unhonored workmanship warranty becomes one of the company’s creditors, and the claim usually runs through the case by a proof of claim filed before the court’s deadline. Payment depends on the estate: in the Titan Solar Power Chapter 7 cases, the Arizona bankruptcy court says that “in most of the cases filed, it appears that there are no assets available to pay creditors.”

No court record or agency guidance reviewed here sets a general rule for workmanship warranties; your contract and the orders in your case decide it.

What did the bankruptcy courts do with solar warranties?

Sunnova (Bankr. S.D. Tex. No. 25-90160). The July 31, 2025 sale order says the buyer group assumes “only those liabilities expressly assumed” in its purchase agreement and “is not and shall not be a successor” to Sunnova, including under “any product warranty liability law or doctrine.” SunStrong Management took over servicing of most in-service systems, and the plan took effect November 14, 2025. The list of customer warranty obligations the buyer agreed to take on could not be confirmed, so this page does not say Sunnova’s warranties moved to anyone. Connecticut’s attorney general and consumer protection department have received about 65 consumer complaints about SunStrong, including that it is “failing to uphold warranties,” and the attorney general sent it a civil investigative demand on February 27, 2026; those are complaints and an investigation, with no findings.

SunPower (Bankr. D. Del. No. 24-11649). SunPower filed Chapter 11 on August 5, 2024; its plan took effect November 14, 2024. The company now using the SunPower name says its purchase “did not include taking any interest in customer PPAs, leases, or in any solar systems, batteries, or other equipment” installed before September 30, 2024. It sends those cash and loan customers to their lender, sends lease and PPA customers to their financier or SunStrong, and points owners to their installation agreement “for specific manufacturers of the components of your system.” Its statements on Blue Raven Solar, one of the SunPower debtors, conflict: its warranty page says Blue Raven customers of any installation date have installation-agreement warranties that “are still valid,” while its acquisition notice says it took no liabilities for projects Blue Raven completed on or before September 30, 2024. If Blue Raven installed your system, ask SunPower Inc. in writing which applies.

Titan Solar Power (Bankr. D. Ariz., Chapter 7, lead case 2:24-bk-04978). This Arizona installer is a different company from Solar Titan USA, which Tennessee’s attorney general sued in 2023. The court’s FAQ says Titan Solar Power “will not be providing services to customers” and that “In some cases, Titan Solar Power provided installation and repair warranties for certain periods of time.” A Chapter 7 trustee filed manufacturer contacts for the panels, inverters and batteries the Titan Solar Power companies used.

Lumio (Bankr. D. Del. No. 24-11916). Lumio filed Chapter 11 on September 3, 2024 and sold assets to Zeo Energy. Zeo’s purchase agreement lists the liabilities it took on and excludes all others; the customer item on that list covers scheduled “project installs where work was performed, on-going or completed” on or after the filing date, so systems Lumio finished earlier are not on it.

ADT Solar (a business exit, no bankruptcy). ADT’s board approved leaving residential solar on January 19, 2024. Its support page says ADT handled warranty requests “as a courtesy” that was “outside of our contractual obligation,” and sends owners to each manufacturer. Spruce Power announced in December 2024 that its Spruce Pro unit “will facilitate the management and resolution of workmanship and equipment warranty claims” for ADT’s former solar customers.

In these records, equipment warranties stayed with the manufacturers, and no sale order or purchase agreement reviewed here has a buyer taking on an installer’s warranties for systems finished before the filing.

How do you claim a manufacturer’s warranty when the installer is gone?

California’s guide tells owners to “save the equipment warranties, particularly for the inverter, which may need to be replaced sooner than other equipment.” If yours are lost:

1. Find the equipment. Check your contract, the equipment labels and your monitoring app for models and serial numbers.
2. Get the matching warranty. Manufacturers publish warranties by effective date, so find the version in force when your equipment was bought.
3. Check the deadlines. Enphase’s current microinverter warranty requires claims “within ninety (90) days of discovering the defect.”
4. Budget for labor. Enphase’s warranty “does not include any cost of labor” to uninstall the failed unit or install the replacement, and SolarEdge says labor is “not covered by the Limited Warranty” unless it agrees otherwise in writing in advance.
5. File in writing with serial numbers, photos and screenshots, and keep the return number.

If a manufacturer refuses a covered claim, see when a solar company won’t honor the warranty.

What if you lease or have a PPA?

The maintenance promise sits in the same contract that requires your payments. Treasury’s lease guide says “The leasing company owns the system and is generally responsible for system maintenance.” Spruce Power, which owns leased systems, tells investors it agrees “to maintain the solar energy systems during the length of the term” of its customer agreements, and warns that if the installers and manufacturers whose warranties back it up “file for bankruptcy, cease operations” or fail to perform, it may not be adequately protected. In our reading, if your contract says the owner maintains the system, a failed installer is the owner’s risk.

SunStrong tells customers whose accounts moved to it that “There will be no changes to your existing financing agreement terms,” apart from escalators and sales tax. Hold it to that, since the maintenance and production terms sit in the same agreement.

What happens to your solar loan?

The installer’s bankruptcy does not erase the loan; the lender is usually a separate company, and the Arizona court’s Titan Solar Power FAQ says “Many customers are still making payments for their solar panels through a financing company.” The lender gives no system warranty, but your loan may carry the FTC Holder Rule notice, which says any holder “IS SUBJECT TO ALL CLAIMS AND DEFENSES WHICH THE DEBTOR COULD ASSERT AGAINST THE SELLER” and that recovery “SHALL NOT EXCEED AMOUNTS PAID BY THE DEBTOR HEREUNDER.” A broken workmanship warranty can then be raised against the loan holder, with recovery capped at what you have paid. When the lender Solar Mosaic went through Chapter 11, its September 2025 confirmation order said “all claims and defenses related to any Consumer Credit Transaction Claims” against Solar Mosaic LLC, its financing partners and its securitization vehicles “are preserved.”

Keep paying, and get professional advice before you change any payment; see what happens if you stop paying and who services each bankrupt company’s loans.

What should you do, in order?

1. Inside a cancellation window? If you signed recently, cancel in writing by the method the contract and the law require, and copy the lender the same day. Windows vary by state; check the state table and the deadline tool.

2. Identify your contract and every company. Note your contract type (cash, loan, lease, PPA or PACE), then list the installer, each manufacturer, the lender and servicer or system owner, and any successor in a bankruptcy notice.

3. Ask in writing, and complain for free. File the manufacturer claim and write to the servicer or owner. For a system you bought, the FTC says: “If you have a problem with a system you bought, try to resolve it with the company first,” then report to ReportFraud.ftc.gov and your state attorney general. For a loan, the CFPB’s complaint page asks, “Have you tried reaching out to the company?” For a lease or PPA, Treasury, the CFPB and the FTC “encourage consumers that believe they have been a victim of unfair or deceptive practices to file a complaint with CFPB, FTC, or their relevant state consumer protection office.” Add your contractor licensing board, and a proof of claim if a bankruptcy notice sets a deadline. Our complaint guide lists where each goes.

Disclosure: Candid Yak works with Titan Advocacy Group, a solar consumer advocacy firm, and may be paid when readers hire it.

4. If they refuse, get a case review. A manufacturer that won’t pay labor its warranty excludes is applying its terms. A review makes sense when a company with a real obligation refuses in writing and your documents show a gap between what you were promised and what you signed, such as a proposal describing an installer warranty the contract does not contain. Keep the proposal, ads, texts and financing disclosures that show it. A firm that offers a free case review and is worth hiring:

• reads your contract, warranties and court notices before quoting anything, and says so when a free route is still open;
• identifies by name the attorney assigned to your warranty claim, someone licensed in your state whose record you can pull up with the state bar;
• puts its fee in writing first, including what happens to it if the company refuses;
• never tells you to stop paying your loan, lease or PPA;
• never promises a result or claims a connection to your installer, lender or servicer.

See solar cancellation companies and hiring a solar attorney.

5. Other routes. A lease buyout ends a lease or PPA on its own terms, and a loan can be paid off or replaced with a consolidation loan. Arizona and Nevada recovery funds pay some homeowners harmed by licensed contractors, up to $30,000 per Arizona claimant and $40,000 per Nevada claim (roof damage page). The main guide covers every route.

Disclosure: Candid Yak works with Titan Advocacy Group, a solar consumer advocacy firm, and may be paid when readers hire it. This page’s author, Kira Fairbank, is a manager at Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm.

This is general information, not legal advice. What happens to a warranty after a solar company closes turns on the warranty’s wording, your contract and the orders in that company’s bankruptcy case. Put those documents in front of an attorney licensed in your state before you file a claim, sign a release, or change any payment.