Questions to Ask Before You Sign a Solar Contract

United States only. This page names no company, quotes no figure and contains no price. Every question below is answered by a document, not by us.

Most solar regret traces to three questions that were never asked, and none of them is technical. They are about who you are actually contracting with, what the financing really costs, and what happens to your export arrangement.

Below are twenty-four questions grouped by who can answer them. Print it, take it to every meeting, and write the answers down.

The four that must be in writing

If you get nothing else, get these four on paper before you sign anything.

1. What is the cash price of this system, and what is the total amount I would repay under the financing you are proposing? Two separate numbers on the same page. The gap between them is the cost of the financing, and it is frequently larger than people expect. Dealer fees are how a low advertised rate becomes an expensive loan.

2. Which legal entity holds each obligation? Who is selling, who is installing, who holds the workmanship warranty, and who holds the loan or lease. These are frequently four different companies and that is normal; not knowing which is which is not.

3. What tariff will I be on for exported electricity, and what is scheduled to change? This is the assumption underneath every savings figure in the proposal. What net metering is and why the version matters is the background; the answer for your address is your utility's.

4. What assumptions did your savings projection make about future electricity rate increases? A real number that lives in the proposal software. It is the single biggest lever on the savings figure and it is almost never volunteered.

About the company

5. What is your full legal business name and your state contractor license number?

6. How long have you operated under this entity?

7. Do you install with your own crews, or subcontract? If subcontracted, to whom?

8. Which individual certifications will be held by people actually on my job, and are they current? Certifications are held by people, not companies.

9. Are you insured, and can I see the certificate?

10. Who do I call in year seven when something stops working, and will that be you?

About the system

11. What panels and what inverter, by make and model?

12. What is the estimated annual production, and what software and assumptions produced it? What makes a production estimate realistic is worth reading before you accept one.

13. What did you assume about shading, roof orientation and pitch, and can I see that model?

14. How was the system size chosen? What consumption figure did you use, and where did it come from?

15. Where will the equipment physically go, including the inverter and any disconnects?

16. What roof work, if any, does this require, and how old is my roof? A system installed on a roof with a few years left in it is a system that has to come off and go back on. That is a real cost and it should be discussed before the contract, not after.

About the money

17. What is the payment schedule, and what is due before installation?

18. If financed: what is the APR, the term, the total financed amount, and every fee including any dealer or origination fee?

19. Is there a prepayment penalty?

20. Does the payment change over time, and if so on what schedule? Escalator clauses are a specific mechanism worth understanding before you meet one.

21. What happens to this agreement if I sell the house?

22. Will any lien or filing be recorded against my property, and of what kind?

23. What are you assuming about tax credits in the savings figure, and are you telling me I will receive them? A salesperson is not qualified to tell you your tax position. Ask a tax professional whether any credit applies to you and for how much, and treat any assumption in a proposal as an assumption.

About what happens afterward

24. What exactly does the workmanship warranty cover, for how long, and is it backed by a third party?

Plus four more that are worth asking even though they are not usually on lists:

Who owns the monitoring account, and will it be in my name?

What documents do I receive at handover? Permit, final inspection, interconnection agreement, as-built drawings, serial numbers, warranty documents.

Who handles the interconnection application, and what is the expected timeline? Interconnection has its own process and sometimes its own fees.

What is not included? Roof repair, tree work, electrical panel upgrades, trenching. The panel upgrade is the most common surprise, and it is a real cost that appears after the site survey rather than in the sales meeting.

How to use the answers

Ask the same questions of all three companies and write the answers in a column each. The value is not in any single answer. It is in the differences, and the differences are where the proposals stop looking similar.

Two patterns worth watching for:

A company that answers everything precisely and one that answers in ranges. Precision is not honesty by itself, and vagueness on questions 1, 2, 3 and 18 is informative.

A company that gets annoyed. This is a large purchase and every question above is reasonable. How a company responds to being asked is a preview of how it responds to a warranty call.

What this page is not

It is not tax advice, legal advice or financial advice, and questions 20 to 23 in particular are areas where the answer depends on your own circumstances. A tax professional answers the credit question. An attorney answers the contract and lien questions. Your utility answers the tariff question. Your state licensing board answers the license question.

This site reads and cites documents. It does not know your situation and does not pretend to.

FAQ

If I only ask four questions, which four? The cash price beside the total amount you would repay under the proposed financing, on the same page. Which legal entity holds each obligation, meaning who sells, who installs, who holds the workmanship warranty and who holds the loan or lease. Which tariff you would be on for exported electricity and what is scheduled to change. And what the savings projection assumed about future electricity rate increases. Get all four in writing before anything is signed.

Is it a problem that several different companies are involved? Four separate entities in one solar transaction is normal in this industry, so the number itself is not the issue. Not knowing which entity holds which obligation is. Ask which one you have the contract with, which one will be on your roof, which one owes you the workmanship warranty, and which one holds the finance, and write the four names down.

Can the salesperson tell me which tax credits I will get? No. A salesperson is not qualified to tell you your tax position, so any credit shown inside a savings figure should be read as an assumption rather than a promise. Ask what the proposal assumed, then ask a tax professional whether it applies to you and for how much.

Why does my roof's age matter before I sign? Because a system installed on a roof with only a few years left in it has to come off and go back on when that roof is replaced, and that is a real cost. It belongs in the conversation before the contract rather than after. Ask what roof work the installation requires and what is excluded, alongside tree work, electrical panel upgrades and trenching. The panel upgrade is the most common surprise, and it usually appears after the site survey rather than in the sales meeting.

How do I actually compare the answers I get? Ask every company the same questions and write each company's answers in its own column. The value is in the differences rather than in any single answer, and that is where proposals that looked similar stop looking similar. Vagueness on the four written questions is informative, and so is a company that gets annoyed at being asked, since that is a preview of how it will handle a warranty call.

The short version

Get four things in writing before anything is signed: the cash price beside the total financed amount, which legal entity holds each obligation, which tariff you will be on and what is scheduled to change, and what rate escalation the savings projection assumed. Then run the rest of the list past all three companies and compare the columns. The differences between the answers are the actual comparison, and the questions nobody wants to answer in writing are the ones worth pressing.