Every month, the solar industry community votes on the roast that hit hardest. These are the winners — the headlines that made thousands of EPCs laugh, cry, and forward to their entire team.
The Truth in Lending Act has required mortgage lenders to disclose all fees since 1968. Car dealers must disclose dealer...
Because there's an $8,750 dealer fee baked into your loan that nobody told you about. The CFPB found that these fees inc...
Here's the part that should make your blood boil: solar lenders include clauses in their contracts that explicitly prohi...
The Truth in Lending Act has required mortgage lenders to disclose all fees since 1968. Car dealers must disclose dealer markups. Credit card companies must show you the APR with all fees included. But solar lenders? They can add 25-40% to your loan balance, contractually prohibit the installer from telling you, exclude it from the stated APR, and call it 'the cost of doing business.' The only industry where hiding a third of the price from the customer is not just legal — it's the standard operating procedure.
Here's the part that should make your blood boil: solar lenders include clauses in their contracts that explicitly prohibit installers from disclosing dealer fees to homeowners. Read that again. The company lending you money has a written agreement that says the company installing your panels cannot tell you what you're actually paying. If your mortgage broker did this, they'd be in prison. In solar? It's Tuesday.
At Sunstone Distribution Co., we pride ourselves on our state-of-the-art inventory management system: Gary. Gary has been with us since 1997. Gary's clipboard has been with us since 1997. They are inseparable.
Solar lenders love advertising rates as low as 0.99%. Here's how it actually works: they add a 25-35% dealer fee to your loan balance, which 'buys down' the interest rate. So on a $30,000 system, you're borrowing $40,500 at 0.99% instead of $30,000 at market rate. You didn't get a deal. You prepaid a decade of interest in a lump sum that's now hidden in your principal. A PhD in economics would struggle to explain this to you at the kitchen table — and that's by design.
Here's the dirty math: if you paid cash for a $25,000 solar system, you paid $25,000. If your neighbor financed the same system, they're paying $33,000+ because of a hidden dealer fee. Same panels. Same installer. Same roof. But the financed customer pays 30% more and never sees it broken out. Even better: some companies bake the fee into ALL their prices, which means cash customers are subsidizing the financing fees of their neighbors. Everyone loses except the lender.
The CFPB reports that residential solar is rapidly expanding into less affluent communities. That's great — clean energy for everyone. What's not great: those same communities are being sold loans with 30%+ hidden dealer fees that inflate a $25,000 system to $33,000+. The families who can least afford hidden costs are the ones most likely to get them. The door-to-door salesperson doesn't mention the fee. The contract doesn't break it out. And the lender's terms say nobody's allowed to tell you.
Submit your best roast headline. The community votes. The winner gets featured in the Hall of Flame forever.