My solar company went bankrupt. Do I still have to pay the loan?

Almost always, yes. The loan is a contract with a lender, not with the installer, so it keeps running when the installer closes. What can change is what you are able to argue. Many consumer loans carry a federal notice that lets you raise claims against the seller with whoever holds the loan, up to what you have paid. Here is how to check yours.

Why the loan outlived the installer

You signed two things on install day, even if it felt like one. A contract with the installer to build the system, and a loan agreement with a lender to pay for it.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's August 2024 report on solar financing describes how most of these loans come about: solar-specific loans, often from large financial technology firms, offered through a point of sale partnership with the installer. The salesperson presented the loan. The lender made it. When the installer closes, the partnership ends. Your agreement with the lender does not.

The companies left standing say the same thing. Sunnova's closure page tells customers their payment arrangements remain the same. SunPower Inc.'s page tells customers of the old SunPower Corporation who paid in cash or with a loan to contact their lender.

The CFPB report also notes that some solar loans are secured, typically with a lien on the panels themselves, and that a secured lender has the right to repossess the panels if you stop paying. Whether yours is secured is in your loan agreement, and often in the public record. See who owns my solar panels.

Find the Holder notice in your loan papers

This is the one paragraph worth finding tonight.

The Federal Trade Commission's Holder Rule, 16 CFR Part 433, makes it an unfair practice for a seller to accept the proceeds of a purchase money loan unless the credit contract contains this notice, in at least ten point bold type:

NOTICE. ANY HOLDER OF THIS CONSUMER CREDIT CONTRACT IS SUBJECT TO ALL CLAIMS AND DEFENSES WHICH THE DEBTOR COULD ASSERT AGAINST THE SELLER OF GOODS OR SERVICES OBTAINED WITH THE PROCEEDS HEREOF. RECOVERY HEREUNDER BY THE DEBTOR SHALL NOT EXCEED AMOUNTS PAID BY THE DEBTOR HEREUNDER.

Read it slowly. Where it applies, the lender, or whoever bought your loan later, stands in the seller's shoes for the claims you could have made against the installer. The last sentence sets the limit: what you can recover under it does not exceed what you have paid under the contract.

The rule has edges. Its definition of a purchase money loan covers a loan applied to a purchase from a seller who referred you to the lender, or who is tied to the lender by common control, contract or business arrangement. Credit card purchases are outside it.

Two things follow. First, if the notice is in your contract, a complaint about the installation is also something to raise with the lender, in writing. Second, whether your facts make a claim that is worth anything is a question for a lawyer, not for a contractor. We only point you to the paragraph.

Four things to check on the loan itself

The bankruptcy did not change your loan terms. Some of those terms surprise people anyway, and they tend to surface at the same moment.

1. Who holds it now. Loans are sold. The name on your latest statement is the one to write to, not the name on the day you signed.
2. Whether the payment is about to jump. The CFPB found it commonplace for solar loans to re-amortize at a higher monthly payment at the 19th month of the term if you have not made a substantial prepayment by then, frequently 30 percent of the principal, sized to match the presumed federal tax credit. Your agreement says whether yours works this way and on what date.
3. The loan amount against the cash price. The CFPB found some lenders add markups and fees, called dealer fees in the industry, that can increase the loan principal by 30 percent or more above the cash price, often without saying so. Put the cash price in your installation contract next to the principal on your loan agreement.
4. Whether it is secured. The loan agreement says, and a lien may be on record against your property.

If the job was never finished

Call the lender first. It paid for a system it wants producing.

In the Freedom Forever case, pv magazine USA reported on September 9 2026 that the bankruptcy court granted the company's former financing partners relief from the automatic stay so they could resume and complete stranded installations, hire new contractors and bring systems to permission to operate. The report names Credit Human, EnFin, EverBright, GoodLeap, Participate, Project Solar and Sunrun. Sunnova's closure page says SunStrong is working with GoodLeap to complete certain in-progress installations.

If the lender has not called you, ask it in writing who is finishing the job and when. The technical side of an unfinished job is in your system was never actually connected.

Stopping payment does not fix the roof

It is tempting. It is also the one move that puts the damage on your side of the ledger, because the loan is in force whatever the state of the installation. Use the routes that exist instead:

• Write to the lender. Describe the problem, attach photographs, and quote the Holder notice if your contract has one.
• File a proof of claim in the installer's bankruptcy by the court's deadline. It is free. The Delaware bankruptcy court's notice of February 25 2026 says creditors can file one electronically without a login and without a fee, and that a mailed offer to file one for a fee may be a scam. For Freedom Forever the deadline is on our Freedom Forever page.
• Complain to the CFPB about the lender if it will not answer. The bureau takes complaints online and at (855) 411-2372.
• The Nevada State Contractors Board's Residential Recovery Fund can pay owner-occupants of a single family home who contracted with a properly licensed contractor, up to $40,000 on a claim, if a complaint is filed with the board within four years after the completion of work.

Before you pay any company to cancel, shrink or renegotiate a solar loan, talk to a Nevada lawyer first.

Where a contractor fits, and where it does not

We are not a lender and not a law firm. The debt is between you and the company that holds it. What a licensed contractor can do is the part the lender cannot: inspect the system, tell you in writing what is wrong and what it costs to fix, and claim on the manufacturer warranties that are still live. That written finding is also the evidence a lender, a trustee or a lawyer will ask you for.

The wider checklist for a closed installer is in your solar company went out of business. If your servicer is SunStrong, see Sunnova customers or SunPower customers.

We recheck this page quarterly. Last checked 2026-09-28. If a number here has moved, tell us and we will fix it the same week.