A Florida couple appears to have gotten a great deal on free solar panels for their new home. A year and a half later, they opened a letter and realized they might be in trouble with a $45,000 loan.
One homeowner shared their unfortunate discovery on Reddit’s r/legaladvice forum after refinancing their mortgage raised questions about solar panel ownership. The property listing on Zillow says “FREE SOLAR PANELS!!!” in the description – and they were guaranteed multiple times, including that there would be no debt on the equipment at closing.
“We don’t know what to do. Should we ignore it?” the original poster wrote. “The loan is not in our name and we never agreed to take over the loan, so of course we cannot be responsible for the balance. But does that mean we don’t own the panels?”
Their contract states that the OP and spouse purchased the house with “all existing improvements and fixtures…unless specifically excluded”; solar panels were never mentioned. Solar lenders will not provide information without the deceased account holder’s permission.
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As for the OP, other Reddit users shared their thoughts on the difficult situation.
One commenter said: “Unless you take over the lease, or it’s listed as a title lien, like ‘Kick the Rock’.”
Another added: “If you have proof that the seller listed the panels as part of the property at the time of purchase, you may be legally protected.”
“Logically, the solar company hasn’t been paid in four to six years. If they haven’t taken the panels off the house, I think it’s extremely unlikely that they plan to do so now,” someone else shared.
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