Colette Wildman decided to install solar panels on her roof several years ago to save money on her electric bill.
The Carver resident said a salesman knocked on her door and talked up the program, telling her she could lease the panels with no upfront costs and save money over time.
But instead of more cash in her pocket, Wildman says her family went from paying $300 a month for their electricity in 2020 to double that once the solar panels were installed, and grew higher as the months went by.
When she complained, Wildman says she was shocked by what she learned: She had signed a 20-year contract to pay for all of the energy her solar panels produced — even if it was more than what she used. And costs would automatically increase every year.
So, Wildman stopped paying. Sunrun took her to court last year, suing for nearly $100,000 for breaking the agreement.
“I said I would have never agreed to that. That doesn’t make sense to me,” Wildman told GBH News during an interview at her home. “We got scammed.”
Wildman and a growing number of Massachusetts residents have faced legal battles with a California-based company named Sunrun Inc., an investigation by the GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
The company — with billions of dollars in assets — touts itself as the country’s leading provider of solar panels for homeowners wanting to finance clean energy without actually owning the panels. But some customers like Wildman say they didn’t get what they were promised after signing complicated contracts, in many cases leaving them with higher costs or a system that didn’t work at all.
Homes that use solar panels usually save money. But many consumer advocates say it’s safer to purchase panels outright, or finance through a bank, rather than sign up for a decades-long contract to lease panels or pay for power with rates that goes up over time. Residents also generally don’t qualify for tax credits if they don’t own the panels outright.
Jenifer Bosco, a senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, says such complaints with solar companies are increasing across the country.
“For many customers, it works out fine,” she said. “But there’s also been increasing reports of people getting signed up for bad contracts, predatory sales practices, people having problems with the solar panels themselves.”
Since 2023, Sunrun has filed more than 420 lawsuits against their customers in Massachusetts courts, according to data obtained by GBH News with the help of Boston University student researchers. During the same time period, at least two dozen more homeowners filed their own lawsuits against Sunrun, including claims they were victims of consumer fraud or suffered other damages.
Sunrun is the nation’s largest residential solar installer and controls about 12% of the market, according to a recent analysis from research firm Wood Mackenzie. Sunrun says it has more than a million customers around the country, including tens of thousands in Massachusetts.
The company on its website says its advisors will work with homeowners to “determine how much monthly energy savings you may expect.” They tout “solar financing with predictable, affordable payments and locked in-rates.”
“They’re so quick and they want to just get this thing on somebody’s roof and get them going, that it doesn’t sit right with me.”George Depina, Brockton’s chief of inspectional services
GBH News reporters spoke to about two dozen homeowners named in lawsuits and reviewed dozens of legal complaints for this story. Customers say workers representing Sunrun, and a company it acquired in 2020 called Vivint Solar, misled them about how much they would save, promised tax credits they never received, damaged their roofs, installed systems that never functioned or illegally signed them up for the program altogether.
Sunrun officials defended their business practices in a series of emails, saying their “subscription service is built around consumer protection and peace of mind.” They said “serious claims” are rare among their many Massachusetts customers and they “act swiftly” to resolve any serious matters.
“It is standard for businesses to collect on unpaid accounts. At Sunrun, we use this approach sparingly,” spokesman Wyatt Semanek wrote in a statement. “Our process always puts the customer first and is reasonable, forgiving, and unhurried. We provide our customers with repeated opportunities to get their accounts back in good standing.”
Semanek also specifically disputed Wildman’s claim that her bills had more than doubled when solar panels were installed on her house five years ago.
But a day after GBH News asked about her case, a company official reached out to Wildman to dismiss the lawsuit and waive about $1,660 in past-due fees. The company also pledged to provide free solar power for an undetermined time and eliminate annual increases in energy costs.
“I’m so relieved,” Wildman told GBH News.
Trevor Nkuubi of Tyngsboro also says a Sunrun official called him last week after GBH News flagged his case. They told him the company would dismiss a lawsuit filed against him for about $90,000 and also forgive past debts.
Nkuubi said when the solar panels were activated, his energy costs went up and he couldn’t afford the payments. He said he tried to talk to Sunrun, even purchase the system outright, but was told there was nothing he could do.
Nkuubi said he was relieved, but skeptical, about Sunrun’s offer to resolve his case — including a new offer to purchase the system. “I don’t trust them,” he said.
Semanek said in both cases, the solar systems worked “as expected, with monthly bills fluctuating throughout the year due to higher production in the summer and lower production in the winter.” He said when they stopped paying, their systems were deactivated.
Nkuubi and Wildman both had begun with Vivint, which offered a different contract than those provided by Sunrun. Semanek says the company “stands firmly behind our earlier contracts.”
Are you happy with your solar panels? Have a complaint? We’d like to hear from you. Send us an email at investigations@wgbh.org.
Consumer protection?
Advocates say the legal battles reflect a lack of consumer protections for homeowners in the nation’s burgeoning solar industry. Many tout solar panels as a way to cut energy costs and protect the planet. But state and federal officials warn that the business — dependent in many cases on door-to-door salespeople — has been rife with risks to consumers.
The Connecticut Office of the Attorney General last year filed a lawsuit against Sunrun and several other companies for alleged “deceptive, unlawful solar panel sales tactics.”
“The complaints we have seen — including forged signatures, impersonations of consumers, non-permitted work, and non-functioning systems — are beyond shocking,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong wrote.
Sunrun has been the focus of about 170 consumer complaints filed since 2023 with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Consumer Advocacy & Response Division. That’s more than any other solar company in the state during that period, state records show.
The attorney general’s office declined to comment about the Sunrun complaints. But state officials pointed to online guidance warning local residents to do their homework before signing a long-term contract with a solar company. They remind homeowners that owners of the panels “retain rights to... tax credits.”
“Be on the lookout for aggressive door-to-door or other sales tactics,” state guidance says. “Do not allow a salesperson to pressure you into signing up for a solar product.”
Semanek, the Sunrun spokesman, said only a small fraction of customers in Massachusetts have filed complaints. “In the rare event that a serious claim arises, we act swiftly to resolve the matter, ensuring our customers can continue to enjoy the many benefits of clean energy,” he said.
Complaints about the solar industry are increasingly being heard by lawmakers at the Massachusetts State House. To address problems, lawmakers have proposed new legislation to protect residents from “exploitative or unreasonable contracts for solar energy products.”
Carrie Katan, a policy advocate for the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, says she’s concerned about contracts that require residents to pay for energy they don’t use, as well as decades-long contracts with automatic annual cost increases.
“We’re really hoping to get some kind of system in place where bad actors are punished and good actors can go about their business, without solar being associated with the more predatory practices,” she said.
Among residents who spoke to GBH News, Moussa Traore of Swansea says he stopped paying his solar bills when his system stopped working and he was still getting charged by his local electric company.
Sunrun sued, claiming that Traore broke his 25-year contract.
Traore says he didn’t know until he spoke with GBH News that Sunrun had sued him for $91,000. The case is pending. As of Thursday, Traore says he hasn’t been contacted by Sunrun for relief.
“I have not gotten the service that they promised I was going to get — and now they want to turn around and do that?” he said. “This is just out of control.”
Ikenna Akukwe of Hyde Park also says he stopped paying his solar bills after he was “tricked” into signing a contract that he didn’t understand, including monthly direct bank withdrawals.
Akukwe was sued by Sunrun last year for damages nearing $100,000 before he reached out to the nonprofit Greater Boston Legal Services for help. He filed a counter claim accusing solar companies like Sunrun of “preying on vulnerable populations” in “high-pressure, door-to-door sales.”
In December, Akukwe settled with the company. The solar panels were transferred into his name and the past-due charges were dropped, one of his attorneys said. Sunrun officials declined to comment on why they agreed to settle.
“If you’re in a scam, you still feel guilty,” he said. “You feel like, ‘How come I didn’t see this coming?’”
‘It just reeks of improprieties’
Solar panels are a common site in roofs in Brockton, a lower-income city where people of color make up about three-quarters of the population.
George Depina, Brockton’s chief of inspectional services, told GBH News that he’s well aware of the growing solar industry in the city — and worries about potential abuse, especially among vulnerable communities. Solar companies have filed more than 230 solar permits just this year, city officials say.
“They’re targeting communities like Brockton because of the lower income,” Depina said. “They’re so quick and they want to just get this thing on somebody’s roof and get them going, that it doesn’t sit right with me. ... It just reeks of improprieties.”
Sunrun has filed at least 57 legal cases in Brockton District Court since 2023, more than in any other Massachusetts courthouse, according to data obtained by GBH News. Additional cases have been filed against Brockton residents in Plymouth County Superior Court.
Among those sued is Karima Wiggins, a single mother who lives on a quiet street in Brockton where several houses are topped with rectangular black panels. Wiggins says that she was excited at first about going solar in 2021 in hopes of saving money.
Instead, she said, the panels never worked, her utility costs never dropped and she was still expected to pay Sunrun a monthly $159 fee to pay for solar. When Wiggins refused to pay, Sunrun sued her for almost $40,000. A few months later, the company dismissed the case — a fact Wiggins learned through GBH News reporters.
“There is no person in their right mind that would sign up for solar power to get another bill when you’re already kind of struggling to pay the original bill,’’ she said.
‘We thought we’d save money’
For years, Colette Wildman wished she’d never talked to the salesman that knocked on her door.
She and her husband Scott live in a three-bedroom ranch house. She’s a private tutor who works out of her house. He’s a supervisor at a bus company.
Wildman says, in 2019, Vivint salesman Bryce Nelson told her about how she could save money with solar.
“It sounded wonderful,” she said. “He said that we would always pay less than what our current electric bill was.”
She says Nelson also dissuaded her from a close read of the lease.
“He said, ‘It’s a long agreement, let me just tell you what’s in it,’” she said. “I should have read it.”
A few months later, in the summer of 2020, Sunrun acquired Vivint Solar.
When Wildman saw her first electric bill, twice what she usually paid, she says she immediately called and asked to speak to her salesman — but was told he no longer worked there.
Then she read the contract she signed, which committed her to “pay for all the power the system produces for 20 years.”
Bryce Nelson does work at Sunrun. GBH News reached out by email for comment and Nelson declined. His email signature describes him as “senior market leader” at the company. In a 2023 Instagram post, Nelson touts his job as a great way to make money.
“The solar industry right now is turning, like, everything upside down,’’ he says in the video. “People can go into the solar industry with zero experience, working five hours a day and pull 200 grand a year, like, right out of the gate.”
Sunrun officials did not respond to questions about Nelson.
In investor statements, Sunrun admits that it has struggled at times with personnel issues as it has grown its business.
“Given the sheer volume of interactions our direct sales force and our solar partners have with customers and potential customers, it is also unavoidable that some interactions will be perceived by customers and potential customers as less than satisfactory and result in complaints,” the company said in its latest annual report.
Terrified of losing their house in a legal battle — and unable to afford an attorney — Wildman and her husband earlier this month agreed to pay Sunrun about $1,600 over three months to bring their account up to date.
Wildman said she just wanted the lawsuit to go away. She also worried that they would again have difficulty paying their energy bills when the solar panels were reactivated.
And then everything changed. Last week, after being notified about her issues by GBH News, a company official called her and offered her a deal.
Wildman says she is considering new legal documents — but she’s still frustrated by the long legal battle.
“I’m happy for myself, but I am still not a fan of this company,” she said. “I feel terrible for all the other people who are still suffering from them.”
Data collection for this story was provided by Civera. Data analysis was provided by students from Boston University’s Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences’ SPARK! Program. Caslow Chien was the lead student researcher. GBH Investigative Editor Jenifer McKim can be reached at jenifer_mckim@wgbh.org.
