Unauthorized Solar Loans and Forged Signatures: Your Options

What should you do about solar loan fraud in your name?

Solar loan fraud, meaning a loan opened in your name without your agreement or an electronic signature applied to documents you never saw, should be treated as identity theft from the first day. Report it at IdentityTheft.gov, dispute it in writing with the lender and the credit bureaus, and ask for the application and every record of how it was signed. Who ends up owing what turns on facts like who held the tablet and where the documents were sent, so put the file in front of an attorney early.

This page is about loans you never agreed to: a forged signature, or a “credit check” that turned out to be a loan. If you signed knowingly and the terms differ from what you were told, see solar loan terms that differ from what you were promised. If the problem is a lien or UCC filing you didn’t know about, see solar lien without consent.

How do unauthorized solar loans happen?

State attorneys general have described the pattern in recent lawsuits. Each of these is a set of allegations, not a court finding.

• New York v. Attyx (SUNco), Solar Mosaic and WebBank, filed March 17, 2026 and pending. The attorney general alleges salespeople pushed consumers “to electronically sign contracts, often without their knowledge,” and “repeatedly told consumers that they were merely signing application or credit-check forms.”
• Connecticut v. SunRun, two dealers and two salespeople, filed July 19, 2024 and still pending. The attorney general alleges a dealer “falsely applied an incorrect electronic signature with the consumer’s initials reversed” to a 25-year solar lease after the homeowner had turned the offer down, and that an employee impersonated the consumer on a confirmation call.
• Michigan v. Orbit Marketing (Climax Solar) and its lenders, W.D. Mich. No. 1:26-cv-02084, filed July 15, 2026, with motions to dismiss pending. The state alleges the installer “controlled the signing process on company devices,” and that the financing companies kept servicing and collecting “even after consumers reported disputed signatures.”

A federal appeals case shows one way a forgery can work. In Migliore v. Vision Solar, the homeowner alleged that a salesman created a fake email address, sent the documents there, and forged her signature on a 25-year loan of $99,749.82; the documents had gone to an email address with her last name misspelled. Treasury’s buyer guide warns about the setting these cases share: signing on the seller’s device is “what scammers ask you to do when they’re hiding the details.”

Is an electronic signature valid if you never meant to sign?

Federal law frames that question two ways. The E-SIGN Act says a signature or contract “may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form.” It also defines an electronic signature as one “executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.”

A signature applied by someone else, or tapped by you on a screen you were told was a credit check, raises the question of whether you executed or adopted it with intent to sign. Neither the statute nor the FDIC’s examination guidance on it says how that applies to a solar loan; that is an argument for your attorney to make on your facts. Treasury lists the E-SIGN Act among the laws that apply to solar sales.

What should you do first?

Pull your credit reports and place a fraud alert. IdentityTheft.gov says a free one-year fraud alert placed with one of the three credit bureaus must be passed to the other two, and that you can get free reports at AnnualCreditReport.com. Note every account and inquiry you don’t recognize. A credit freeze is a separate, free option.

Report it to the FTC at IdentityTheft.gov. The site creates an Identity Theft Report and a recovery plan from what you enter, and that report is what many later steps require. Federal rules define identity theft as “a fraud committed or attempted using the identifying information of another person without authority.” No agency has said how that definition applies to a salesperson signing your name in your own home, so ask your attorney how to describe what happened.

Decide about a police report. The FTC says “You may choose to file a report with your local police department,” and lists what to bring: your FTC report, photo ID, proof of address and any other proof of the theft. The CFPB’s summary of identity theft rights says a business may ask for “proof of your identity, a police report, and an affidavit” before giving you records, so a report can save time later.

Write to the lender and the servicer. Say the loan is not yours, ask them to stop reporting it, and ask for a letter confirming you aren’t liable, as IdentityTheft.gov suggests. Under federal law a creditor must give you “copies of applications and other business records” for accounts opened through identity theft if you ask in writing, according to the CFPB’s summary. Ask for:

• the credit application and every page you supposedly signed or initialed;
• the email address and phone number the documents were sent to and signed from;
• the electronic signature records showing when, and from which account or device, each signature was made, including any signing log or certificate the e-signature platform produced;
• the recording or notes of any welcome or confirmation call.

Federal rules also require the company that reports your account to investigate a direct dispute about “whether there is or has been identity theft or fraud,” and the CFPB says such furnishers generally must respond within 30 days.

In California, the state’s solar consumer guide, which customers of the large utilities must sign to connect a system, has them confirm that if they e-sign it they are using “an email address that was created and controlled by me prior to the sale.” An email address you never created is a detail worth flagging in your letter.

Ask the credit bureaus to block the account. IdentityTheft.gov: “If you have an FTC Identity Theft Report, credit bureaus must honor your request to block this information.” The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the block within four business days after the bureau receives proof of identity, a copy of the report, the items to block and your statement (15 U.S.C. 1681c-2). The CFPB says a bureau can refuse or remove a block if the information you provide is not correct or the debt was not caused by identity theft. Without a report you can still dispute, and a bureau generally has 30 days to reinvestigate (15 U.S.C. 1681i).

If a collection agency contacts you, answer in writing. A third-party debt collector that gets your written dispute within the 30-day validation period must stop collecting until it sends verification (15 U.S.C. 1692g). IdentityTheft.gov suggests telling the collector that someone stole your identity and you don’t owe the debt.

Check for a filing on the panels or the house. A loan you never signed may still have produced a UCC filing; solar lien without consent shows how to search for one and how a filing ends.

What order should you work in?

1. Inside a cancellation window? If the sale date is recent, send a written cancellation by the method the contract and the law require, alongside your fraud dispute, and copy the lender the same day. For a solar sale made at your home, the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule generally gives you until midnight of the third business day after the sale, counting Saturdays. State windows vary and can be longer; see the state-by-state table and the cancellation deadline tool.

2. Identify your contract and every company. A forged loan can involve an installer, a lender and a servicer that are separate businesses, and a warranty provider besides. Your dispute letters should go to the lender and the servicer, and your complaints should name the installer too.

3. Ask in writing, and complain for free. The CFPB’s complaint page starts with “Have you tried reaching out to the company?” Your dispute letter is that step. Then file with the CFPB, which takes solar loan complaints, with your state attorney general, with your state contractor licensing board about the installer, and with the FTC through IdentityTheft.gov or ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Treasury, the CFPB and the FTC jointly urge consumers who believe they were treated unfairly or deceptively to complain “with CFPB, FTC, or their relevant state consumer protection office.” A 2024 CFPB consumer advisory says “you can also consult an attorney at the same time.” Filing a complaint against a solar company lists where each complaint goes.

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

4. If the lender refuses, get a free case review.

Forged and unknowing signatures reach an attorney quickly. Choosing whom to pursue is a legal decision with consequences. In Migliore, the Third Circuit held on November 21, 2025 that the homeowner’s claims against the lender and the loan arranger failed because “She has not plausibly alleged the salesman was their agent.” The court said she “might have had viable claims against the salesman’s company and its CEO” but had abandoned them. That ruling binds only federal courts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands, and the facts of each case differ.

A state’s lawsuit may not reach your account. When Mosaic settled with Tennessee and Kentucky by consent judgment on September 16, 2026, it agreed, without admitting liability, to stop collecting at least $303,460.75, ask credit bureaus to delete the debt, and file UCC termination statements within 60 business days. That covered only debt of customers of Solar Titan USA, a Knoxville company, that Mosaic still held on March 6, 2026, and debt already sold was excluded; the states’ claims against Solar Titan are pending under a receiver. And lenders may keep collecting while you dispute, as Michigan alleges happened to Climax Solar customers, which is why the record you build from the first day matters.

A firm that offers a free case review can look at the signing records, the timeline and your letters and tell you whether you have a claim and against whom. Before you hire one, confirm that it:

• reviews your documents before it quotes anything, and tells you if a free step such as a dispute letter, a credit block or a complaint is still open;
• names the attorney licensed in your state who will handle your file, so you can look the lawyer up with the state bar;
• puts its fee, and what happens to that fee if the lender refuses, in writing before you pay;
• never tells you to stop paying your loan, lease or PPA;
• never promises an outcome and never claims a connection to your installer or lender.

Hiring a solar attorney explains what such a claim looks like.

5. Other routes. If you did sign the loan and your complaint is about its terms, the routes are a payoff or refinance (see solar loan payoff and refinance) and the claims covered in disputing a solar contract.

Should you keep paying a loan you never signed?

Get advice from an attorney licensed in your state before you change anything about payments. Missed payments can lead to collection activity and negative credit reporting while the dispute runs, and an attorney can tell you how to handle payments on a loan you dispute. Keep a record of every payment you make. What happens if you stop paying explains the consequences.

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. Whether an electronic signature binds you, and whether a lender is responsible for a seller’s forgery, turn on your documents, your state’s law and the court that hears the case, so put your records in front of an attorney licensed in your state before you send a notice, sign a release, or change any payment.