How do I get out of a solar panel contract?

Short answer

It depends on three things: how long ago you signed, which kind of contract you have, and what the paperwork actually says. In the first days after signing, a cancellation window usually applies — three business days under the FTC Cooling-Off Rule for a sale made at your home, and five business days under Texas law for contracts signed on or after September 1, 2025. After that window, a solar loan ends only by payoff, transfer, refinance, or a documented dispute, and a lease or PPA ends only by buyout, transfer, or the end of its term. There is no general right to walk away — the routes are the ones written into your own contract.

First: which contract do you actually have?

“Solar contract” covers four very different deals, and the exit routes differ for each. A purchase with a loan: you own the panels and owe a lender — see how to get out of a solar loan. A lease: the company owns the panels and you pay a monthly rent. A PPA (power purchase agreement): the company owns the panels and you pay for the power they make — see how to get out of a solar lease or PPA. And PACE financing, used in some states: repaid through your property tax bill and secured by a tax lien, which needs its own handling. The first page of your agreement, and the federal disclosure page if there is a loan, say which one you signed.

The cancellation window: counted in business days, not months

For a sale made at your home, the FTC Cooling-Off Rule (16 C.F.R. Part 429) generally gives three business days to cancel, and the seller must give you a cancellation form. Several states add their own solar rules: Texas gives five business days for contracts signed on or after September 1, 2025 (three under the older home-solicitation rule before that); California gives three business days, or five if you are 65 or older; Florida, Arizona, and New Mexico each give at least three business days. The state pages walk through each one.

Every one of those windows is short, and every one counts from signing. If you are reading this months after you signed, the window has almost certainly closed, and the next two sections are where your case actually lives.

After the window: the routes your contract allows

If it is a loan: pay it off with a written payoff letter; transfer it to a buyer when you sell, if the loan allows transfer; refinance it; or raise a documented problem with how it was sold. Each route is written in a different section of the loan — the payoff terms, the assignment clause, the default section.

If it is a lease or PPA: buy it out at the price or formula the agreement sets; transfer it to an approved home buyer; or wait out the term and take the end-of-term option. The buyout clause, the transfer section, and the yearly escalator decide what each route costs.

Stopping payment is not an exit. What happens if you stop paying a solar loan is a separate and consequential question — read it before you miss a payment, not after.

When the sale itself was the problem

The strongest cases usually start with a gap between what was promised and what was signed: “free” panels, “no more electric bill,” a guaranteed tax credit, or a loan balance far above the quoted price. The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reported in August 2024 that hidden fees folded into solar loans typically run 10 to 30 percent of the cash price and can exceed 50 percent. Put the proposal next to the contract, the savings estimate next to your bills, and the cash price next to the amount financed — the method is in solar promises vs. your paperwork.

A documented gap is what complaints and legal claims are built from: your state attorney general, the CFPB, and the FTC all take solar complaints, and a federal rule called the FTC Holder Rule can, in general terms, let a buyer raise against the loan holder the claims they could have raised against the seller, capped at the amounts paid under the contract. Whether any of that fits your deal is a legal question for an attorney in your state.

What not to do

Do not pay anyone who promises your contract will simply vanish; no one can promise that honestly. Do not sign anything new — a refinance, a settlement, a modification — before reading the payoff and default sections of what you already signed. And do not ignore a UCC-1 fixture filing on the panels when you sell or refinance: what a UCC-1 filing is explains why title companies treat it like a claim that must be cleared.

Documents to gather

• The full signed agreement, with every addendum — and its date
• The federal disclosure page, if there is a loan (APR, amount financed, total of payments)
• The sales proposal and any savings or production estimate you were shown
• The cancellation notice or form, if you received one
• Your most recent statement (it names the servicer or lease company)
• Utility bills from before and after the system was installed
• Texts, emails, and flyers from the salesperson

Questions people also ask

Can I cancel a solar contract after signing?

In the first days, usually yes: the FTC Cooling-Off Rule generally gives three business days for a sale made at your home, and some states give more — Texas gives five business days for contracts signed on or after September 1, 2025, and California gives five to buyers 65 or older. After the window closes, a contract ends only the ways it says it can: payoff, transfer, refinance, buyout, or the end of the term, plus whatever a documented problem with the sale supports.

How do I get out of a solar contract without penalty?

Inside the cancellation window, by written notice sent in time — that is the only route with no cost by design. After the window, every route has a price written in the contract: the payoff figure, a transfer fee, a buyout schedule, or a refinance’s new total cost. A documented sales problem can change that picture, but whether it does is a legal question, not a promise anyone can make in advance.

Is there a lawsuit or a government program that cancels solar contracts?

No general one. State attorneys general and the FTC have sued individual solar companies, and some settlements created complaint processes for those companies’ customers — Arizona’s Sunrun consent agreement is one example on our Arizona page. Those cases turn on documented complaints about specific sellers; they do not cancel contracts across the board. Your own paperwork is still the starting point.

What is the difference between getting out of a solar loan and a solar lease?

Ownership. With a loan you own the panels and owe money, so the exits are payoff, transfer, refinance, or a dispute. With a lease or PPA the company owns the panels, so the exits are buyout, transfer to a buyer, or the end of the term. The two guides on this site walk through each set of routes from the clauses in your own agreement.

How the workbooks help

Your Actions starts by identifying which contract you actually signed and which routes it leaves open — in the order your paperwork allows — and The In-Depth Version sets out every finding in your papers in full, so you can hand it to anyone you choose to consult.

One package — both books always included. Each book is delivered by email within 3–5 business days of purchase; delivery occurs after the 3-day cancellation window closes.

Read a sample workbook (PDF) More homeowner questions

Related guides

• Getting out of a solar loan
• Getting out of a lease or PPA
• Promises vs. your paperwork