The tax credit assumption
The item most likely to change the economics of the whole deal. A net price built on a 30% credit for a system placed in service in 2026 is a price nobody can achieve. Compare gross prices across every quote.
HyreSolar tools
Solar Contract Red Flags
Ten things worth finding before you sign, not ten accusations.
This is a checklist, not a verdict. Every item is something that appears in real solar contracts and that costs money if you do not notice it. A ticked box is a question to ask, and an empty checklist is not a clean bill of health.
What this returns at the defaults
Ten items, each tied to something we have verified in primary sources. The most consequential are a tax credit you cannot claim (§25D is $0 for systems placed in service after 31 December 2025), a dealer fee inside the financed amount (the CFPB found hidden fees typically 10 to 30% of the cash price and sometimes above 50%), and a pressure close. Ticking none of them does not mean the contract is good. It means these ten things are not the problem.
Last updated . Data as of 23 August 2026.
Contract checklist
Tick what is present in the document you would sign.
— Items present
— What to do next
— Checklist length
A count, not a verdict. An empty checklist is not a clean bill of health.
HyreSolar does not draft, review, approve or sign solar contracts.
How to use a count that deliberately refuses to judge
The tool returns a count and a prompt, never a verdict. We are not going to tell you that a contract is a scam, because we have not read it, we are not your lawyer, and a count of checkboxes cannot support that conclusion. What the count does is tell you how many conversations you still need to have.
A single ticked item can matter more than five others. These are not weighted and they are not equivalent. A tax credit you cannot claim changes the economics of the whole deal; an arbitration clause changes what happens in a dispute that may never occur.
The absence of all ten is genuinely not a pass. Contracts contain terms we have not listed, and the most expensive problems are frequently in the parts nobody thinks to check. Read the document.
Nothing tickedThese ten are not your problem. Read the contract anyway, particularly the sections on production guarantees, end of term and what happens if you sell.
One to three tickedNormal for the market. Work through each one as a specific written question before signing, and keep the answers.
Four or moreNot proof of anything, and worth slowing down for. Ask for a week, get the answers in writing, and consider having someone independent read the agreement.
How to use this calculator
Every input below is a number you can find, not one you have to guess. This is where each one comes from.
- 01
Have the actual contract in front of you
Not the proposal, not the presentation, not the sales deck. The document you would be signing.
Where to find it Ask for it before you are asked to sign. Any seller who will not send the agreement in advance has answered a different question you were also asking.
- 02
Work down the ten items and tick what is present
Each is phrased so that ticking it means the thing is there, not that it is wrong.
Where to find it Use the contract’s search function. Terms like "escalator", "arbitration", "assignment", "lien" and "guarantee" find most of them quickly.
- 03
Turn every ticked item into a written question
Verbal answers from a salesperson are not terms. Terms are in the document.
Where to find it Email is fine and creates a record. If an answer contradicts the contract, the contract governs, so ask for the document to be amended rather than accepting reassurance.
- 04
Check the cooling-off period before you decide how much time you have
The federal rule applies to many in-home sales even when you invited the seller, and the count is in business days.
Where to find it Our door-to-door sales page covers the federal rule in detail, including the finding that it applies even when you invited them and that Saturday counts as a business day.
- 05
Check your own state as well
Several states impose disclosure requirements beyond the federal baseline, and a few are unusually specific.
Where to find it Our state-by-state page covers what we verified, including Maryland’s wildlife barrier requirement and the written-waiver escape hatch that is routinely omitted from summaries of it.
How this calculator works
Read the contract, not the proposal
They are different documents and only one of them binds you.
Tick what is present
Ten items, each phrased as a presence rather than a judgement.
Read the count as a workload
It tells you how many written questions remain, not whether the deal is bad.
Get the answers in the document
A reassurance that is not in the contract is not a term of the contract.
The formula, in full
count = number of the ten listed items present in the contract. The tool returns the count and a prompt to read the document. It does not weight items, score the contract, or produce a verdict.
A worked example, start to finish
A financed proposal presented in the home, where the homeowner worked through the checklist against the actual agreement rather than the sales document.
Inputs
- Tax credit assumed in pricing
- Present
- Dealer fee inside financing
- Present
- Escalator in the payment
- Present
- Production guarantee
- Absent
- Signature requested same day
- Present
- Other five items
- Absent
Result
4 of 10 items present
None of these makes the contract fraudulent and all four are common. What the count says is that there are four specific written questions outstanding: which placed-in-service date the credit assumes, what the cash price is, what the escalator totals over the term, and why the signature is needed today. The answers are what matter, not the count.
How the answer moves
What each item actually points at. Every one is drawn from something we have verified in a primary source.
| Item | Why it is on the list | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Tax credit in the pricing | §25D is $0 for systems placed in service after 31 December 2025 | Which placed-in-service date does this assume, and what is the gross price? |
| Dealer fee | CFPB found hidden fees typically 10–30% of cash price, sometimes above 50% | What is the cash price, in writing? |
| Escalator | At 2.9% over 25 years a payment nearly doubles and totals $64,772 against $45,000 flat | What is the total across the full term? |
| Production guarantee | A payment obligation continues whether or not output does | Is there one, what does it promise, and how do I claim? |
| Roof condition and responsibility | The flashing is the component no manufacturer backstops | Who is responsible for a leak, and for how long? |
| Warranty terms | Both major warranties exclude the labour they exist to cover | Who honours the workmanship warranty if you cease trading? |
| Lien or UCC-1 filing | Consumer-goods termination is automatic in one month; you can self-file and claim $500 | What is filed, against what, and when is it released? |
| Arbitration clause | Decides where and how a dispute is resolved before one exists | Does this waive a court or a class action? |
| Buyout or end-of-term terms | Renewal, buyout at fair market value and removal are very different costs | What exactly happens in year 25, and who pays? |
| Signature requested today | The federal cooling-off rule applies to many in-home sales even when you invited them | Why today? And what is my cancellation right? |
Note that none of these is illegal and most appear in perfectly ordinary contracts. They are on the list because each one has a cost attached that is easy to miss and expensive to discover later.
What moves this number most
Ranked. A proposal can change any of these without saying anything untrue, so these are the inputs to check first.
The dealer fee
Not disclosed as a line item in most cases. The only reliable way to find it is to ask for the cash price and compare. Our loan calculator shows what it costs once it is inside the principal.
The escalator
A small percentage that compounds into the largest single cost in a lease. Our escalator calculator shows the total across the term, which is the figure nobody quotes.
Time pressure
The item that makes every other item worse, because it removes the opportunity to check any of them. A genuine deadline survives being asked about in writing.
Who actually does the work
Not on the checklist but worth establishing. Our research found 96.3% of verified companies hold a licence in exactly one state, and two 10-Ks describing opposite operating structures.
What happens if they cease trading
A workmanship warranty is only as good as the company behind it, and the three warranties on a solar system come apart differently. See when your installer goes under.
Common mistakes with this calculation
Treating the count as a score
It is not weighted and the items are not equivalent. One ticked box can matter more than five others. Read what each one points at rather than the number.
Reading an empty checklist as approval
These ten are not exhaustive. Contracts contain terms we have not listed and the expensive problems are often in the parts nobody thinks to check.
Checking the proposal instead of the contract
The proposal is a sales document. The contract is what binds you, and they routinely differ on exactly the points that matter.
Accepting verbal answers
A salesperson’s reassurance is not a term. If an answer matters, ask for the document to say it, and keep the email either way.
Signing to hold a price
A price that expires tonight is a sales technique far more often than a supply constraint. The federal cooling-off rule exists precisely because in-home sales create this pressure, and it applies to many such sales even when you invited the seller.
Assuming a red flag means fraud
It does not, and framing it that way makes the checklist useless. These are contract-bearing items with costs attached. The question is always what the term says, not whether someone is a criminal.
Important: this is a planning estimate
- A checklist, not a legal review, and not a verdict on any contract.
- The ten items are not weighted, not ranked and not exhaustive.
- Absence of all ten says nothing about terms we have not listed.
- HyreSolar does not draft, review, approve or sign solar contracts.
- For a contract that matters to you, a lawyer reading the actual document beats any checklist.
Questions this calculator answers
Should I sign on the doorstep?
No. A discount that expires tonight is a sales tactic. Cooling-off rules in your state may still let you cancel (read them) but you should not need them.
Does a ticked item mean the company is dishonest?
No, and framing it that way makes the checklist useless. Every item here appears in perfectly ordinary contracts from reputable companies. A ticked box means there is a specific question to ask and an answer to get in writing, nothing more.
I ticked nothing. Is my contract fine?
It means these ten things are not the problem. It does not mean the contract is good. Read the sections on production guarantees, what happens at the end of the term and what happens if you sell the house, because those are where expensive surprises usually live and they are not all on this list.
How long do I have to cancel a solar contract?
For many in-home sales a federal cooling-off rule applies, and our research found it applies even when you invited the seller to your home. The count is in business days and Saturday counts as one. Your state may add to that. Get the specific cancellation clause from your own contract rather than relying on a general figure.
How do I find out if there is a dealer fee?
Ask for the cash price in writing and compare it with the financed price. The gap is the fee. It is usually not shown as a line item. The CFPB has found hidden fees in this market typically running 10 to 30% of the cash price and sometimes above 50%, so the question is worth asking directly.
Should I be worried about an arbitration clause?
It is worth understanding rather than fearing. It decides where and how a dispute would be resolved, and it may waive a court proceeding or participation in a class action. Whether that matters to you is a judgement, but it should be a judgement you make knowingly rather than discover afterwards.
What is a production guarantee and do I need one?
A commitment that the system will generate a stated amount, usually with a remedy if it does not. It matters most under a lease or PPA, where your payment obligation continues whether or not output does. Ask whether there is one, what it actually promises, and what you have to do to claim under it.
The salesperson says the price is only good today. Is that real?
Sometimes there is a genuine reason and frequently there is not. A real deadline survives being asked about in writing. The federal cooling-off rule exists precisely because in-home sales create this kind of pressure, and a company that will not give you a week is telling you something useful about itself.
Should I get a lawyer to read it?
For a twenty-five-year agreement on your house, an hour of a lawyer’s time is cheap insurance, particularly for a lease or PPA where the obligations run longest and the end-of-term terms are most consequential. This checklist is designed to help you ask better questions, not to replace that.
What is not on this checklist that I should still check?
What happens at the end of the term, whether the agreement can be assigned to another company without your consent, what the system does in a power cut, who is responsible if the roof leaks, and what happens if you sell the house. Each of those has its own page in our research library because each one has caught people out.
The research behind these numbers
Every assumption in this calculator is argued from primary sources somewhere in our research library. These are the pages that matter for this one.
- Door-to-door solar sales The federal cooling-off rule, which applies even when you invited them, and why Saturday counts as a business day.
- Solar sales regulation by state What each state actually requires, including Maryland’s wildlife barrier requirement and its written-waiver escape hatch.
- The UCC-1 lien What is filed against your equipment, how consumer-goods termination works automatically, and how to self-file and claim $500.
- The workmanship warranty No manufacturer backstops it, and both major warranties exclude the labour it exists to cover.
- When your installer goes under How the three warranties come apart, and why Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 are not the same news.
- Verifying an installer’s licence Only 4 of 27 states name solar in the licence, and two require none for residential work at all.
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Want a more accurate estimate for your home?
Actual results depend on roof, usage, utility rules and a real proposal. Matching is still being built. The form is an enquiry, not a dispatch line.
Written and audited by
HyreSolar Research
Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a sales floor. We read the statute, the tariff, the code section, the federal filing or the manufacturer data sheet ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it. Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. That rule has cost us whole sections, and it is the reason the rest can be trusted.
- 160
- primary sources read and cited
- 220
- figures with a retrieval date
- 115
- federal and state government sources
- 66
- researched pages published
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. Statutes from the legislature’s own publishing system, federal data from the agency that collects it, code text from the adopted edition, manufacturer claims from the data sheet. We do not cite an article that cites a source; we go and read the source.
- Every figure carries its provenance. A named document and the date we retrieved it, so you can check it and so you know how old it is. Retrieval dates are not decoration: an EIA rate from May is a different fact from an EIA rate from August.
- We publish what we could not verify. Every research page carries a section naming the things we tried to establish and could not, and why. A paywalled standard, a state website that refused the request, a manufacturer that publishes no figure at all.
- We separate measurement from modelling from our own reasoning, and label which is which on the page. A laboratory measurement, an assumption inside a modelling tool and our own inference are three different kinds of claim and they are never presented as one.
- We do not sell solar, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favourable mention. Nobody buys a position on this site.
Data as of 23 August 2026. Authorship on this site is organisational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
Data and sources
- Issue Spotlight: Solar lending practices (CFPB, retrieved 2026-08-23. Source for hidden fees typically 10–30% of cash price, sometimes above 50%.)
- Cooling-Off Rule, 16 CFR Part 429 (Federal Trade Commission, retrieved 2026-08-23. The federal in-home sales cancellation rule referenced above.)
- Residential Clean Energy Credit (§25D) (IRS, retrieved 2026-08-11. Basis for the tax credit item on the checklist.)