A solar scam is a sale built on something the buyer was not given time or information to check: an invented affiliation, a price that expires, a contract signed on a screen the homeowner never read. The equipment is often real and the installation may even happen. What is wrong is the terms, and the terms are what the tactics exist to rush you past.
Solar is sold at the door in most of the country, and a knock is not by itself a warning sign. The signs are in what happens after the knock. Each one below comes with the thing to do instead, which in almost every case amounts to moving the decision off somebody else’s clock and onto yours.
Red flags, and what to do instead
The price only holds today
A discount tied to signing before the visitor leaves, or a claim that this street is being priced as a batch and the window closes tonight.
What to do instead. Say you will decide after a second quote. Real pricing survives a week. If the offer evaporates, it was the pressure that was for sale, not the discount.
Borrowed authority
The visitor implies they are from your utility, a government program, or a neighborhood energy initiative, without ever quite saying which company employs them.
What to do instead. Ask directly which company pays them and ask to see identification. Then call your utility on the number from your own bill rather than one you are handed.
Free solar
Panels described as costing nothing, sometimes framed as a program you have been selected for.
What to do instead. Ask who owns the equipment, what you pay each month, for how long, and what a buyer inherits when you sell. There is a product underneath the word free, and it has terms.
A number before a look at the roof
A price and a savings figure produced on a tablet in minutes, with no shading assessment and no request to see twelve months of usage.
What to do instead. Ask what usage data and what shading input produced that figure. A design that did not start from your own consumption was not designed for your house.
Signing on somebody else's screen
A tablet turned toward you, scrolled quickly, with fields still blank or terms you cannot read at that size.
What to do instead. Ask for the complete agreement by email, and read it at your own table. Never sign a document with empty fields; anything can be written into them afterward.
The credit application comes first
A request to run your credit before you have seen a design, described as a formality or a qualification check.
What to do instead. Decline until you have a written proposal you have read. Ask whether the check is soft or hard, and who the lender is, because a financing agreement is a separate contract from the install.
Vague equipment and vague warranties
Panels described as premium or high grade, and coverage described as full, with no manufacturer, no model and no named party honoring anything.
What to do instead. Require manufacturer and model numbers in the written proposal, and a warranty table naming each promise, its term and who honors it.
Money up front
A large deposit requested before permits are filed, sometimes by transfer or a payment app rather than a traceable method.
What to do instead. Tie payments to milestones written into the contract, and pay by a method that leaves a record. Ask what the deposit specifically buys and whether it is refundable.
References that never arrive
Enthusiasm about local installs, followed by nothing when you ask for addresses you could drive past or customers you could call.
What to do instead. Treat the non-answer as the answer. Ask for local permit records or recent installs in your county, and check the license number with the state board yourself.
Production and savings stated as guarantees
A promise that the system will eliminate your bill, or a savings figure presented as certain rather than modeled.
What to do instead. Ask for the assumptions behind it in writing, particularly the annual electricity price increase used. A guarantee that is real will appear in the contract with a remedy attached.
Checking a company between visits
All of this is easier away from the doorstep. Look the license number up with your state board rather than accepting a photo of a card. Confirm the legal entity name on the paperwork matches the one holding that license. Ask for a certificate of insurance and check the dates on it. Search your county permit records for the company name and see how much work it has actually done nearby.
The installer questions checklist is built for exactly this conversation, and the guide to reading a solar proposal covers the document that arrives once a company has passed.
If you have already signed
Read the cancellation clause first. Sales made at your home carry a cancellation window under federal and state consumer rules, and the contract has to tell you how long yours is and how to exercise it. Cancel in writing rather than by phone, keep proof of the date you sent it, and send it to the address the contract names rather than to the representative who visited.
If the window has closed, gather everything: the signed agreement, the proposal, any financing document, and the messages. Your state consumer protection office and attorney general take complaints about home solicitation sales, and a written record of what you were told is what makes a complaint useful.
Where a second opinion helps
The tactics on this page work on isolation. Talking to anybody at all before signing breaks most of them. Solar Mike AI will read through what you were told and show the reasoning behind its answer, and the USA.SOLAR community is where homeowners post what happened at their own door and hear from others who have met the same pitch. Neither one takes a commission on your decision, which is the part that matters when the alternative advice is coming from the person selling.
Questions about solar scams
Is door-to-door solar selling legitimate?
It can be. Plenty of established companies canvass neighborhoods, and a knock is not evidence of a scam. What matters is what happens next: a legitimate representative will leave literature, give you a company name and license number, and accept an appointment for another day.
What does a free solar offer actually mean?
Usually that a third party owns the equipment on your roof and you pay for the power it makes, or that the cost has been moved into a long-term agreement rather than removed. Ask who owns the system, what you pay monthly, for how long, and what happens when you sell.
Can I cancel a solar contract after signing?
Often yes. Sales made at your home carry a cancellation window under federal and state consumer rules, and the contract must tell you how long yours is and how to use it. Find that clause before you sign, and cancel in writing with proof of when you sent it.
How do I check whether a solar company is legitimate?
Look up the license number with your state board yourself, confirm the legal entity name matches the paperwork, ask for local installs you can drive past, and request a certificate of insurance. Do all of it between visits, never while somebody is waiting on your porch.