BEAN STATION, Tenn. (WATE) — A nurse practitioner in Grainger County received a bill from a financing company for solar panels earlier this month, but no panels were ever installed. The solar company told her in May that they would cancel her deal, but within several weeks she received her first monthly bill.
While solar panels can cut your overall power bill, and provide power if your electricity goes off, the panels themselves take up a lot of space, especially if they are put on a roof. Dana Moreland said she wanted to see the engineering plans before she agreed to panels being installed at her home.
Her large lakefront house in Bean Station would be ideal for solar panels, at least that’s what Moreland at first believed when she asked salesmen from Solar Titan USA out of Knoxville to visit her place last March.
“They came in, we all walked around the house, looked at the roof, talked about where it would be,” said Moreland.
A new sunroom was recently added to her home and Moreland was concerned about the rooftop solar panels, would they bump up against the sunroom?
“The biggest part about the sunroom was the metal roofing. Because this has a different peak than our roof, we didn’t want anyone standing on it,” said Moreland.
Plus, she didn’t want the solar panels butting up against skylights on the roof. However, to move forward with a proposal from Solar Titan USA, Moreland said she electronically signed this installation agreement on March 5.
“I told them clearly, I wanted the design of what was going to happen to the roof, we were going to look it over then give our decision whether we were going to go forward with this project,” said Moreland. “It made me nervous to sign this because I’m not agreeing to installation yet. I need the design, I need to do my homework.”
It was about ten days later when the engineering plan, or panel design, arrived. She didn’t approve it.
“The biggest thing is no engineer came to our home to do this,” said Moreland. “This was all done by Google maps. They just looked at our house, put some pictures on here of the solar panels where they were going to put them, that was it. Their argument to me is that they are ready to come and put the panels up and install everything. I just will not do it.”
When Moreland contacted Solar Titan USA to cancel, she was reminded that she had exceeded the 3-day cancellation period seen in tiny print on the back of her installation agreement. Moreland said she didn’t see any of the fine print because it was all done electronically on an iPad.
Therefore even though there are no rooftop panels on her home, she still owed Solar Titan a part of the $47,000 agreement.
“30% of it. If I canceled, they were going to charge me 30 percent of the total,” explained Moreland.
At that point, Moreland said the solar company tried to sweeten her deal by either adding more panels or throwing in an extra battery. But she still said, no. Then on May 25, a Loan Closing Certificate arrived from Mosiac, the finance company for the panels. She called Solar Titan USA.
“I said I have not received any product and I thought this was canceled. He said I thought it was canceled too. So, I’ll take care of it,” said Moreland.
But apparently, it wasn’t. Her first payment was due June 10. However, there are no panels on her home. Then, in small print, she discovered this statement in the installation agreement.
“It says if the financed homeowner agrees to confirm with the finance company of the installation being complete on the day panels are installed,” reads Moreland.
In response to WATE’s inquiry, the company said: “Solar Titan had initiated the cancellation on May 27, 2022. Mrs. Moreland does not owe any money relating to the solar panel system or the cancellation. The loan agreement with the third-party financing company is also in the process of being canceled. Any payments paid under the loan will be 100% refunded to her by the financing company.”
Moreland said Solar Titan never reached out until she saw the loan on her credit report earlier this month.
“I’m waiting until after July 1 to see whether it is actually canceled and closed,” said Moreland.
Moreland warns others to do their homework, especially if they are going to take out a loan to pay for the panels. There are a lot of decisions to make. So, she said, before you place your electronic signature on a document, make sure you understand and read what you are signing. Also, ask to see the hard copy first.