How to cancel a solar contract

Can I cancel a solar contract?

Usually, yes, but what canceling means depends on what you signed and how much time has passed. Every solar contract in Florida, Texas, and Illinois carries an initial window to cancel for any reason, no penalty. After that window closes, your options change by structure: a loan gets paid off or refinanced, a lease or PPA gets bought out or assumed, and a subscription can be walked away from after month 36.

That last sentence hides a real difference in difficulty. A subscription's worst case is a small, finite number of months. A lease's worst case is a lessor-calculated buyout on a 20-to-25-year obligation. This page walks through both honestly, not just the one we sell.

How many days do I have to cancel after signing?

Every state we serve gives you at least the federal minimum, and Texas gives more. Federal law provides three business days to cancel a sale made at your home. Florida matches that at three business days. Texas gives five business days on a residential solar retailer contract specifically, on top of a general three-day door-to-door right. Illinois gives three business days. Count business days, not calendar days, and the seller must state the deadline in your contract.

Cancel in writing, not by phone, and keep a copy with the date. Federal law sets the floor (FTC Cooling-Off Rule); Florida's right sits in its own statute (Fla. Stat. § 501.025); Texas layers a solar-specific five-day right from its licensing agency on top of a general three-day right (TDLR,Texas AG); and Illinois writes its right into its consumer fraud statute (815 ILCS 505/2B).

Not sure what your own paperwork says? The solar contract checker pulls the cancellation clause, the escalator and the other terms worth reading out of a PDF or phone photos, on your device, while the window is still open.

What if the window already passed?

Then you're negotiating an exit, not exercising a right. What you're negotiating depends entirely on what kind of agreement you signed: a purchase financed with a loan, a 20-to-25-year lease or PPA, or a subscription with a 36-month commitment inside a 10-year agreement. Each has a different door out, and none of them work like the three-to-five-day window above.

Can I get out of a solar loan?

Not by canceling it once the rescission window closes. A solar loan is a financing agreement: you either keep paying, pay it off in full, or refinance it elsewhere. If a UCC-1 fixture filing was recorded against your home to secure the loan, that filing stays on record until the loan is paid and the lender releases it, whether or not you're still living there.

If your paperwork doesn't mention a filing, that isn't confirmation there isn't one. A fixture filing is recorded in county land records, not in the place most people think to check first; the mechanics are in do solar panels put a lien on your house. A lender underwriting your next sale or refinance will run that search whether or not anyone mentioned it to you (Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-3-04).

Can I cancel a solar lease or power purchase agreement?

Not for free, and this is the structure where cancellation is genuinely hard. A lease or PPA typically runs 20 to 25 years, and getting out early means paying a buyout the lessor calculates from its own forecast of what you'd have paid over the remaining term, not from what the equipment is worth on your roof.

At a sale, your buyer has to qualify for and assume the remaining term, or you settle the buyout at closing, and removal for convenience is frequently refused outright by the lessor's own contract terms. The full mechanics, including a documented case of a buyer with a 785 credit score being denied a lease transfer, are inwhen the buyer won't assume your solar lease.

Can I cancel a subscription?

Yes, and this is the one structure built to make that easy: your commitment is 36 months inside a 10-year agreement, and you can cancel any time after month 36 with no fee. Canceling inside the first three years is different. The provider's options there are discretionary, not guaranteed, so get the clause in writing before you sign anything.

That's not a workaround for a contract you've already signed elsewhere, it's a description of how this particular structure is built, and it only applies if a subscription is what you actually have. Read your own cancellation clause. Make the salesperson show it to you rather than describe it, ours included. The mechanics next to a lease's are laid out insolar lease vs. subscription.

Cancellation by structure, side by side

Who has a genuinely hard time canceling?

Anyone on a 20-to-25-year lease or PPA inside its first few years, when the buyout is largest and removal for convenience usually runs against the contract. Anyone who financed with a loan secured against the home and can't pay it off or refinance it elsewhere. A subscription inside its first 36 months is next hardest, though its worst case stays small and finite next to the other two.

If a seller pressured you, misrepresented savings, or skipped a disclosure the law requires, your cancellation window may have closed but a complaint doesn't have to. Florida's consumer protection office and Texas's TDLR both take complaints against solar sellers, at no cost to file (FDACS,TDLR).

Get your own numbers

Run your bill through the estimator. It takes about a minute, and a real person follows up with figures for your actual roof. Or start withhow the whole model works. Whatever you sign, read the cancellation clause yourself before you rely on this page, or anyone's pitch, to describe it for you.