Notice of an Independent Solar Energy Producer Contract

[Gabriel D. Zapata]

Good afternoon, everybody and Happy New Year,

For those you that utilize services like PropertyRadar, PropStream, etc. I notice that "Notice of an Independent Solar Energy Producer Contract" comes up a lot when filtering through Liens. Granite, I know CA tends to see a lot of this; more than likely due to a lot of people owning Solar.

My question is the owner that has a lien status associated to this Lien description (Notice of an Independent Solar Energy Producer Contract), is this a standard practice of just owning Solar (thus wasting time prospecting these individuals) or does this simply mean they (the solar company) took out a lien against the owner because the solar company is trying to collect their money.

[Bill B.]

My GUESS is these homeowners have been tricked/screwed in to signing a long term power purchase agreement, often with no buy out provision. There are some really scummy solar sales people out there that tell homeowners they can get solar “for free”. Then they lock them in to a SLIGHTLY lower initial cost per kWh. But they have an escalation clause every year to eventually put them above market. Many even include a set monthly amount. So if the homeowner saves energy or goes on a long vacation, they still get charged 100%. (They could have a base amount of 1,000kwh for $120/mo. But if they only use 50kwh, they still owe $12-  They’re basically setting up an annuity for the solar company.