Laredo & Webb County, Texas
Laredo Solar Panel Fraud and Solar Loan Lawyer
The company that sold you solar is gone. The loan is not.
Your panels went up. Then the installer stopped answering, or closed for good.
The loan payment did not stop. It never does.
If you are still paying for a system that was never finished, never switched on, or never saved you what you were promised, the paperwork behind that sale is worth having a lawyer read.
We do that for free, in English or Spanish.
Se habla español · No cost, no pressure
$170,000 recovered for one homeowner in a Sunlight Financial matter — loan cancelled, UCC filing released, credit repaired. Prior result; every case is different and no outcome is guaranteed. See the full result.
Start here
Does any of this sound familiar?
Most people who call us from Laredo describe the same handful of things.
- Someone came to your door and said your neighborhood had been picked for a program.
- The whole thing was explained to you in Spanish. Every document was in English.
- You were told the electric bill would go to zero. It did not.
- You were promised a big tax refund that never came, or that was never yours to claim.
- You signed on someone else's tablet or phone, in a few minutes.
- The panels went up and then nothing happened for months.
- Some of the panels have never worked.
- The installer closed, changed names, or stopped answering the phone.
- The loan statements kept coming anyway.
- You heard the finance company went bankrupt, so you assumed the loan went away.
- You called the lender and they told you to call the installer. There is no installer left to call.
You are not alone
You are not the only one, and this is not your fault
Nearly every person who calls us has ticked most of the boxes on that list. There is a reason for that, and it is not the one you have probably been telling yourself.
People apologise to us on the phone. They say they should have known better. They say they feel embarrassed telling their family.
Here is the truth: you were sold to in one language and signed in another.
In Laredo, almost nine in ten households speak a language other than English at home.[8] The sales conversation happened in Spanish, at your kitchen table, with someone friendly who was in a hurry. The contract was in English, on a screen you did not control, and nobody read it to you.
That is not you being careless. That is a sales method.
Signing something is not the same as agreeing to it. Whether those two things came apart in your case is a legal question — not a question about you.
You do not need to understand any of the words on this page to call us. We will explain it in plain language, in Spanish or English, for free.
Straight answers
The questions people ask first
These five come up in the first two minutes of almost every call, so here are the answers before you have to ask.
No — and this is the single most common misunderstanding we hear in Laredo. Sunlight Financial went through a Chapter 11 restructuring in late 2023 and came out under new ownership. A restructuring reorganises the company; it does not erase the loans homeowners signed. What it can change is who owns and services your loan — and that is worth pinning down.
Usually yes, and that is often exactly the problem worth pursuing. The loan is a separate agreement with the lender, so it can survive the installer closing or vanishing. The fact that nobody is left to finish or fix your system does not cancel the financing by itself. That gap is frequently the heart of the case.
Because they are separate obligations. In Laredo, AEP Texas moves the power and handles the grid connection, while a separate retail provider sells you electricity and decides what it credits you for what your panels send back. If a salesperson said one bill would replace the other, that was not accurate.
That can often be checked. Signing on a screen leaves a trail — which device, which internet connection, which email address, and how many seconds passed between the document opening and being signed. Homeowners elsewhere have alleged documents were sent to email addresses they never used. Those are allegations, not findings, but the records behind your own signature can be pulled and read.
Probably not, but timing matters. Deadlines apply, and electronic signing records are easier to get sooner rather than later. If a lender has already reported you to the credit bureaus, that becomes part of the matter rather than a separate problem you deal with alone. The review is free, so there is no cost to finding out where you stand.
The bankruptcy question
Did Sunlight Financial’s bankruptcy cancel your solar loan?
One of those five deserves its own section, because it is the belief that keeps people from calling at all.
Short answer: no, not by itself.
On October 30, 2023, Sunlight Financial announced it had signed a restructuring agreement and would be bought through a prepackaged Chapter 11 process.[2] On December 7, 2023, the company announced the restructuring was complete and it had emerged under new ownership.[1][3]
Here is what that did and did not do.
What it did
- Reorganised the company and changed who owns it.
- Changed, in some cases, who holds and services individual loans.
What it did not do
- Cancel any homeowner's loan balance.
- Erase the payments you had already made.
- Fix a system that was never finished or never switched on.
- Make the installer come back.
A lender’s restructuring and an installer’s closure are two separate events. Either one can leave you holding a long-term loan on equipment nobody is answering for. Both together is the situation we see most often in Laredo.
If you stopped paying because you heard the company went bankrupt, please talk to someone. Missed payments can be reported to the credit bureaus even when the underlying sale is disputed.
How the billing works
Why you are paying two bills instead of one
None of what you just read was bad luck. It happened because of how these deals are built — who gets paid, who is responsible for what, and what happens to your loan after you sign. Once you can see the machinery, your own paperwork starts making sense.
In Laredo, more than one company touches your electricity every month.
- AEP Texas owns the poles, wires and meter. It delivers your power and handles the connection to the grid.[10]
- Your retail electric provider is who you bought your plan from. It sends the bill, sets your rate, and decides what it pays you for extra solar power — if anything.
- Your lender holds the loan on the equipment and takes the same payment whether the panels make power or not.
A solar loan does not cancel any of those.
Even a system working perfectly leaves you paying delivery charges, paying for power you pull from the grid at night, and paying any fixed monthly fees in your plan. What you get credited for extra power depends entirely on your retail plan — it is not set by AEP Texas and it is not guaranteed.
If your savings were worked out using a credit rate you were never signed up for, then the promise and the paperwork do not match. Write that down.
Who is responsible for what
Four companies, four different jobs
Three of them just turned up in your billing. The fourth is the one that sold you the system — and when a job goes wrong, each has a reason to point at the others.
When a Laredo solar job goes wrong, every company has a reason to point at another one. Knowing who is responsible for what is how you stop getting passed around.
Your lender — or whoever owns the loan now
The balance, the payments, the payoff amount, servicing, and what gets reported to the credit bureaus.
The installer or sales company
Design, equipment, the install, permits, inspections, repairs and the warranty. Often the company that is gone.
AEP Texas
Reviewing the connection application, the meter, and clearing the system to send power to the grid.
Your retail electric provider
Your electricity plan and bill, your rate, and any credit for extra solar power.
Notice who is not on that list: nobody on it was responsible for making sure what you were told at your kitchen table was true. That is the gap these cases live in.
Follow the paper
Who actually owns your loan now?
And the first company on that list may not even be the one you started with.
Solar loans are rarely held forever by the company that signed you up. They get sold, bundled with thousands of other solar loans, and passed to investors. The company that takes your payment may just be servicing it for somebody else.
Most homeowners have no idea this happened, because nothing about the monthly payment changes.
It matters for three practical reasons:
- The company you complain to may not be the company with the power to fix it.
- Whoever holds the loan may have taken it on with the original problems attached.
- Getting a payoff figure, a lien release, or a credit correction means finding the right party first.
Part of a review is simply establishing who is on the other side of your loan today. You cannot negotiate with a company that no longer holds your paper.
Not sure who holds your loan?
We find out for you. The review is free and you are not committed to anything.
Permits and authorization
Was your Laredo system ever cleared to turn on?
There is one more thing worth knowing about how these jobs are supposed to work — because in many Laredo cases, the job was never actually finished.
A solar system is not finished when the panels are bolted down. It is finished when the utility clears it to send power to the grid and your meter is set up for it.
The City of Laredo requires a permit for solar panel installation or electrical alteration before work begins, along with a site plan, specification sheets and installation manuals.[9]
Work through these. If you cannot answer yes to all of them, your job may never have been finished — while your payments kept going out.
- Was a City of Laredo permit pulled before the work started?
- Was an AEP Texas interconnection or distributed-generation application submitted?
- Did the installer get design approval before connecting the system?
- Did the work pass local electrical inspection?
- Was your meter set up for distributed generation?
- Did you receive written authorization to operate?
- Does your electricity account actually show exported power or credits?
- Does the equipment on your roof match the plans and the proposal?
Audit sequence drawn from City of Laredo permit requirements and AEP Texas interconnection materials.[9][10]
A missing authorization does not cancel a loan by itself. What it gives you is a dated record that the job was never finished — and in a dispute, that can matter a great deal.
The signing record
Did you really sign it? What the record shows
Which brings us back to the document that started all of it.
Almost every solar loan is signed on a screen, often on the salesperson’s own device, usually all in one sitting.
In a New Jersey case, an elderly homeowner alleged she was sold “free” rooftop solar and later discovered she owed nearly $100,000 to Sunlight Financial and Cross River Bank. Her loan documents were sent to a misspelled version of her own email address — the installer called it a clerical error — and she said she never saw them.[5] In a West Virginia case, a homeowner described a touchscreen signing process and said she could not get copies of her financing documents afterward.[6]
Those are allegations, not findings. In the New Jersey case the courts dismissed the claims against the lenders because the homeowner had not plausibly pleaded that the salesman was acting as the lenders’ agent, and the Third Circuit affirmed that dismissal in a precedential opinion — calling the case sympathetic even as it affirmed. In the West Virginia case the claims against the lender were also dismissed. Neither court found that the homeowners were wrong about what happened to them.
Signs your own record is worth pulling:
- The salesperson held the device and did the tapping.
- You were told it was for an estimate or a credit check, not a loan.
- Everything was signed in a few minutes.
- You never saw the whole loan — only summary screens.
- It went to an email address you do not use, or do not recognise.
- Your income, employer or phone number on the application is wrong.
- You talked in Spanish and every document was in English.
- Payments started before you understood who the lender was.
What the trail contains
The signing certificate, how identity was checked, the device and internet connection used, whether the email was delivered and opened, the exact times documents were opened and signed, any verification call, and the records showing when money moved and to whom.
Our review
What we look at
That is the machinery. Here is what we do with it.
A solar case is a paperwork case. The sales pitch was spoken out loud and is gone. What survives is documents — yours, the lender’s, the installer’s, and records held by people with no stake in your fight.
- Your loan agreement, including the part that decides whether a judge or a private arbitrator hears your case.
- Who actually owns and services your loan now — this may have changed more than once.
- The record behind your electronic signature: device, internet connection, email address, and timing.
- Any Spanish version of your documents. Often there is none, and that itself is a fact.
- The sales agreement and the savings estimate you were shown on the screen.
- Your AEP Texas interconnection file — the record showing whether your system was ever cleared to turn on.
- Your City of Laredo permit and inspection file.
- Any UCC-1 filing on your equipment.
- Your electric bills from before and after the panels went up.
What it can lead to
It depends on what your documents show and what your contract says.
A lawyer may be able to raise claims about how the sale was handled, how the loan was described to you, whether you ever really agreed to it, and whether the work was ever finished.
Here is what we can promise: we will tell you the truth about what your paperwork says. No lawyer can promise a solar loan will be cancelled, and we will not pretend otherwise.
The process
What happens when you call
Gathering all of that sounds like a lot. Almost none of it is your job.
No pressure and no commitment. Here is the whole thing.
- 1
You tell us what happened.
Ten or fifteen minutes, in Spanish or English. You do not need your paperwork in front of you.
- 2
We ask for whatever you have.
Anything you can find. We go get the rest — including records you have no way to request yourself.
- 3
We read it.
We compare what you were promised against what you signed, and against what AEP Texas and the City of Laredo have on file.
- 4
We tell you what we found.
In plain language, in your language. If we do not think you have a case, we say so.
- 5
You decide.
Nothing happens unless you say yes. If we take your case, the fee goes in writing first.
Your documents
What to bring, and what you can skip
And if you are worried you have thrown something away, read this before you decide not to call.
Do not wait because something is missing. Most people are missing half of this, and that is fine.
Bring what you have
- Your solar loan agreement or monthly statements
- The sales or installation contract
- The savings estimate you were shown
- Any signature confirmation emails
- Electric bills from before and after the install
- Texts, emails or voicemails with the salesperson or installer
- Anything you received about the company's bankruptcy
- Your permit paperwork, if you have it
We get these for you
- The full electronic signature file, with device, connection and timing detail
- The AEP Texas interconnection record for your address
- The City of Laredo permit and inspection file
- Any UCC-1 filing on your equipment
- The complete loan file, and who owns it now
If all you have is one statement and the name of the company that knocked on your door, that is enough to start.
Arbitration
Your contract may decide where your case is heard
It is usually one clause, buried, that nobody read aloud to you at the kitchen table.
Most solar loan agreements contain an arbitration clause. It can decide whether a judge hears your case or a private arbitrator does, whether you can join with other homeowners, and what the process costs.
These clauses vary and are not always enforceable as written. Some hand even the question of their own validity to the arbitrator. Some have opt-out windows nobody mentioned.
We run solar cases in arbitration regularly. Worth knowing: in our own Sunlight Financial matter, an arbitrator agreed that Sunlight held no confidentiality rights that would stop us discussing the outcome publicly.[12] That is why we can show you the next section at all.
So does any of this actually work? Here is one homeowner’s result, what other homeowners have told courts, and how common this is in Laredo.
One homeowner. One solar loan.
Sunlight Financial relied on this homeowner not knowing her rights. Here's what Bennett Legal recovered when she called us.
$113,000
Solar loan cancelled in full
Sunlight Financial
$58,000
Cash paid to our client
Plus full credit repair
$170,000
Total financial recovery
UCC filing released
What Sunlight Financial agreed to:
- Cancel our client's $113,000 solar loan entirely
- Release the UCC filing covering the solar equipment
- Repair her credit
- Pay her $58,000 in cash
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Each case is evaluated individually.
What courts have been told
What homeowners have told courts about Sunlight-financed systems
That is one case, and one result is not a pattern. The pattern is in what other homeowners have alleged.
There is no Laredo lawsuit we can point you to. What there is, is a pattern in cases filed elsewhere in Texas and around the country that will sound familiar.
A Texas case describing the same promises
In a case in the Eastern District of Texas, a homeowner alleged a sales representative promised a $0 monthly electric bill, backup power, a $30,000 tax refund and enrolment in a buyback program. The pleaded system price was $98,791. The homeowner alleged only half the panels worked at first, that fifteen later stopped working, and that high electric bills continued.[4]
The court dismissed those claims without prejudice because of how they were pleaded, and allowed the homeowner a chance to amend. The court did not find that Sunlight committed fraud.
A state enforcement action
Minnesota named Sunlight among several solar lenders it accused of deceptive loan-marketing conduct. The federal decision available on that matter dealt with which court should hear the case — not with whether the allegations were true.[7]
Everything above is an allegation unless a court has said otherwise, and in each of these cases no court has. A lawsuit existing does not mean anyone was found responsible. These cases are useful because they show the same promises turning up again and again — not because they prove anything about your loan.
Laredo by the numbers
How common this is in Laredo
Those cases were filed elsewhere. Here is what the record looks like at home.
If it feels like this only happened to you, it did not.
965[11]
Solar liens on file in one Laredo ZIP code
78045 — the highest concentration of Cross River / Sunlight-financed solar of any ZIP in Texas
86.8%[8]
Of Laredo residents speak a language other than English at home
The sale happened in Spanish. The contract was in English.
64.1%[8]
Of Laredo homes are owner occupied
Long-term solar loans attach to the house you are trying to keep
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Laredo, Rio Bravo, El Cenizo and Webb County
Lien counts are Bennett Legal’s own analysis of public UCC-1 financing statements. A lien filing is not a complaint and is not evidence that anything went wrong on any particular property. Demographic figures are U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
What the UCC-1 filing does
The filing generally covers the panels and equipment rather than the house itself. That distinction matters less than people are told: when a homeowner cannot keep up with the payments, the lender pursues the home equity anyway. That is why these cases are worth taking seriously rather than waiting out.
What we hear
What Laredo homeowners tell us went wrong
Not the legal framing — the actual words people use on the phone.
- The installer closed or disappeared, and the loan stayed.
- They are paying the solar loan and a high electric bill.
- The system was never finished, inspected, connected or cleared to operate.
- The system makes far less power than they were shown.
- The tax credit was presented as guaranteed cash.
- The payment went up after the tax-credit period ended.
- The sale was in Spanish and the loan was in English.
- The salesperson controlled the tablet, the email account and the signature.
- They never received complete loan or installation documents.
- The lender and installer each blame the other.
- The payoff amount is blocking a sale or a refinance.
- The panels, roof, battery or warranty service are defective or unavailable.
Your attorney
Charles A. Bennett
Here is who does this work.
Attorney · State Bar of Texas No. 24086454
Charles Bennett represents Texas homeowners in solar loan disputes against lenders and installers, in arbitration and in court. He founded Bennett Legal in Dallas and takes solar cases across Texas, including Laredo and Webb County.
Solar cases are paperwork cases. They turn on what the contract says, what the signing record shows, and whether the job was ever finished.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
A few things people still want settled before they pick up the phone.
That is one of the first things we establish. Sunlight completed a Chapter 11 restructuring in December 2023 and emerged under new ownership. Loans were not cancelled, but ownership and servicing can have changed — sometimes more than once. We find out who holds your loan today before anything else, because you cannot negotiate with a company that no longer has your paper.
More detailWe take solar cases across Texas, including Laredo, Rio Bravo, El Cenizo, Webb County and Zapata. Solar cases run on documents and records, so you will not need to drive to Dallas for us to represent you.
Sí. Consultations, document review and case updates are available in Spanish. Bring whatever paperwork you have in either language — if there is no Spanish version of your contract, that is itself worth knowing.
It can be. Texas does not guarantee what you get paid for the power your panels send back — it depends on your retail electricity plan. If the savings estimate you were shown assumed a credit rate you were never enrolled in, the difference between the promise and the plan can be documented.
Please talk to a lawyer before you change anything about how you are paying. Missed payments can be reported to the credit bureaus even when the underlying sale is genuinely disputed, and that makes everything harder. There are usually better options.
Often yes, but the loan and any UCC-1 filing on the equipment usually have to be dealt with at closing, which can slow or complicate a sale. Many people find out in the middle of selling. If you are thinking about it, get the documents looked at first.
We request them for you. The City of Laredo permit file should show the permit, the plans, the equipment specifications, the contractor, inspection results, correction notices and final approval. AEP Texas holds the interconnection and meter records. We read both against your contract and your installation dates.
Nothing, and you are not obligated to hire us afterwards. If we take your case, the fee goes in writing before you agree to anything.
Where we work
Serving Laredo, Webb County and South Texas
We represent homeowners in solar loan disputes across South Texas. Everything runs on documents, so you will not need to travel.
- Laredo
- Rio Bravo
- El Cenizo
- Webb County
- Zapata
- Mirando City
- Bruni
- Oilton
Consultas en español disponibles.
Find out what your paperwork actually says
It costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Bring what you have.
Revisión gratis de su contrato · Se habla español
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from
Every numbered marker above links here. Each entry states what it supports so you can check any claim yourself.
[1] Sunlight Financial — completion of Chapter 11 restructuring, December 2023 (SEC filing)
The restructuring completed and the company emerged under new ownership.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1821850/000110465923124299/tm2332394d1_ex99-1.htm[2] Sunlight Financial — restructuring support agreement announcement, October 30, 2023 (SEC filing)
The date and nature of the prepackaged Chapter 11 process.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1821850/000110465923112707/tm2329469d1_ex99-1.htm[3] Sunlight Financial — Form 8-K, December 2023
The confirmed plan and restructuring completion.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1821850/000110465923124299/tm2332394d1_8k.htm[4] Moyano v. Sunlight Financial, LLC, No. 4:25-cv-00421 (E.D. Tex. May 15, 2026) (Jordan, J.)
That the claims were dismissed without prejudice with leave to amend. The pleaded $0-bill, tax-refund and nonfunctional-panel allegations are drawn from the research memo and are not yet confirmed against the opinion body.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/texas/txedce/4:2025cv00421/237472/29/[5] Migliore v. Vision Solar LLC, No. 24-1679 (3d Cir. Oct. 22, 2025) (precedential) — defendants included Sunlight Financial LLC and Cross River Bank
The misspelled-email allegation and the “clerical error” characterisation; that the District Court (D.N.J. No. 1:23-cv-02623) dismissed the claims against the lenders for failure to plausibly plead that the salesman acted as their agent; and that the Third Circuit affirmed.
https://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/241679p.pdf[6] Grimmett v. Technology Credit Union (S.D. W. Va. 2023)
Alleged defective system, installer insolvency, touchscreen signing and document-access difficulty.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/west-virginia/wvsdce/2:2023cv00084/236029/55/[7] State of Minnesota v. GoodLeap LLC et al.
That Minnesota named Sunlight among lenders accused of deceptive loan marketing; the cited decision addressed remand, not the merits.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/minnesota/mndce/0:2024cv01181/214451/55/[8] U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts — Laredo city, Texas
95.1% Hispanic or Latino; 86.8% speak a language other than English at home; 64.1% owner-occupied housing.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/laredocitytexas/HSD410224[9] City of Laredo — Permit Applications and Requirements
A solar panel permit is required before work begins, with site plan, specification sheets and installation manuals.
https://www.cityoflaredo.com/departments/building-development-services/permit-applications-requirements[10] AEP Texas — Solar and distributed generation resources
AEP Texas's distribution and interconnection role, and that retail providers set plan and credit terms.
https://www.aeptexas.com/clean-energy/renewable/solar/[11] Bennett Legal — UCC-1 financing statement analysis, June 13, 2026
965 solar liens on file in ZIP 78045; 42 Cross River / Sunlight (4.4%), the highest CRB share of any Texas ZIP reviewed. Internal analysis of public filings.
Internal Bennett Legal analysis of public UCC-1 filings.
[12] Bennett Legal — Sunlight Financial settlement
The $170,000 recovery, and the arbitrator's ruling that Sunlight held no confidentiality rights over the outcome.
https://bennettlegal.com/sunlight-financial-settlement/