Your Vivint Solar Lawsuit Questions Answered
If Vivint Solar isn’t meeting expectations, you might want to get compensation. But how do you do that? Can you sue Vivint Solar? Should you work with an attorney?
These are just some of the many questions we get about Vivint Solar. Below are some answers that may help.
As of 2022, Mary Powell is the CEO of Sunrun, which took over Sunrun in 2020.
Vivint Solar was headquartered in Lehi, Utah. It is now part of Sunrun, based in San Francisco, California.
Yes, Vivint Solar is a legitimate company, though they were taken over by Sunrun. Still, even legitimate companies can make mistakes or have issues with their products and services. If you are having an issue with Vivint Solar, you can speak with an attorney about your legal options for getting compensation.
Sunrun, which acquired Vivint Solar, was not one of the top ten most reliable home solar companies according to Forbes.
Sunrun acquired Vivint Solar in October 2020.
Yes, it is. The acquisition was completed in 2020, but Sunrun did so to add to its renewable energy capabilities.
Not really. Vivint Solar was integrated into the Sunrun organization. Try going to vivintsolar.com and it will redirect you to the Sunrun site.
No. Vivint Solar and Vivint Smart Home are different companies. Vivint was founded in 1999 with its core business in home security. It expanded into other businesses, including home solar, and then spun off Vivint Solar as its own separate company in 2014. Both Vivint Solar and Vivint Smart Home have since been bought by bigger companies: Vivint Solar was bought by Sunrun in 2020 and Vivint Home Security was bought by NRG Energy in 2022.
If you have an existing Vivint Solar system, the best customer service number is 800.216.5232.
Several categories of laws apply to Vivint Solar, which is now part of Sunrun, including Consumer Financial Protection laws, safety standards, Federal Trade Commission regulations, and state consumer protection laws apply too. Each of these categories is intended to protect you against unsafe business practices, unsafe Services, unfair services, or unfair goods.
The Federal Trade Commission interprets and enforces laws that apply to customer protection. This can take many forms, like protecting customers against financial fraud and protecting customers against abuse or unsafe products. With solar companies, the FTC handles claims of unfair business practices, abusive or deceptive business practices, and marketing practices to prevent false advertising and deceptive pricing.
Safety standards apply to the safety of the products and services provided by Vivint Solar. These come from International and domestic laws like the International Residential Code, International Fire Code, National Electric Code, and Interconnection Standards.
Home solar installation agreements often involve loans for the cost of the purchase and installation. Laws like the Truth in Lending Act cover the requirements for what information must be provided to consumers and how and when you sign such an agreement.
Many laws apply to door-to-door sales for Vivint Solar and Sunrun, and are overseen by the FTC and state regulators. One of the most important is the “Cooling Off” rule. Federal law 16 CFR 429 states that if you make a sale for anything in your home, whether you rent or buy, you can cancel within three days from the time you make your agreement. In fact, if a door-to-door salesperson signs an agreement with you, you legally have to tell them you know that you have this right to a cooling-off period.
If you sign an agreement in your home, it has to include the following information:
If it is missing any of this information or you change your mind, there are ways to cancel the agreement. An attorney can review your situation and contract and let you know your options.
There are several ways to file a complaint against Vivint Solar, each of which comes with varying degrees of potential resolution:
An attorney can look over your situation and help you determine which complaint type is the best option.
People sue Vivint Solar, which was taken over by Sunrun, for many reasons. Some of the most common reasons for solar company lawsuits include environmental damage, misrepresentation, fraudulent practices, breach of contract, or negligence.
If you have an issue with Vivint Solar, a lawyer can help review what legal options you have and determine whether you can sue.
If you have an issue with Vivint Solar, you might be able to sue Vivint Solar (or their parent company Sunrun). Several options are available to you, depending on your contract and circumstances. Your best resource is an attorney who can go over your contract and the details of your case and provide legal advice.
Depending on the contract you signed, and how much you are asking for in compensation, you might have a few options available to you.
The first is to sue Vivint Solar via consumer arbitration. Many companies prefer consumer arbitration because it’s private, but it’s still a viable, legally binding process that can get you a resolution. With consumer arbitration, both parties present their sides of the story to a neutral third-party arbitrator who makes a final decision. You don’t go to court, and most of it can be handled from the comfort of your home.
You might have the option to sue Vivint Solar in small claims court. Small claims courts come with limits on how much you can ask for in the type of compensation you can get. If you’re suing over a small dollar amount, this might be a good option, but again, there are limits to how much you can ask for in each state.
You can sue Vivint Solar in your state or federal court. However, you have to figure out the legal issues relating to your case and what level they apply to, state or federal.
An attorney can review which option is legally best for your circumstances and your contract.
Yes, a lawyer can help you review your contract with Vivint Solar and figure out what legal paths are available to you if any. The lawyer will help you not only review the terms of your contract but what the state laws that are applicable to your case. If the company has broken the law or harmed you financially, then a lawyer can help you pursue a claim and maximize compensation.
It’s up to you to check your individual contract with Vivint Solar or hire an attorney to help you verify whether arbitration is required for your case. In some cases, arbitration might be your only option, but in other cases, your agreement with Vivint solar might stipulate that only certain cases require arbitration. If your contract has an arbitration clause, then you might have to use consumer arbitration rather than go to court.
For examples of Vivint lawsuits, the New Mexico Attorney General sued Vivint Solar over their unfair business practices. In 2022 another case was filed in California over a breach of contract and termination fees.
If you are eligible for a Vivint Solar class action lawsuit, the court will usually try to notify you via mail and provide written instructions on how to determine your eligibility.
It might be difficult to cancel your contract because cancellation policies can vary so widely from one contract to the next. Vivint Solar must honor the FTC’s three-day “cooling off” period, so you can cancel within the first three days of signing a Vivint Solar contract. A few other ways you might be able to cancel include the following:
An attorney can help you review your legal options to cancel Vivint Solar given your contract and your circumstances.
You can get out of or break a Vivint Solar contract, even if they haven’t broken their legal obligations to you.
You can speak with an attorney about what options you have based on your situation and your Vivint Solar contract.
Not paying Vivint Solar (now owned by Sunrun) can result in many types of legal actions being taken against you, depending on the type of loan you have.
A secured loan is one that you “secure” (or promise to pay) with collateral (something worth more than the loan, which can be taken by the lender if you can’t pay the loan amount). If you have any equity in your home see, you can usually take out a home equity line of credit which is a revolving line of credit you can borrow against multiple times as long as you pay it back, or a home equity loan which is a one-time loan that you repay in installments. If you default, the lender can repossess your solar panels and take additional action, like foreclosing on your house.
If you have an unsecured loan, you don’t have any collateral, but there can still be follow-up legal action like reporting you to the credit reporting agencies for non-payment, which will hurt your credit score, sending your loan to a debt collection agency, or suing you directly.
Yes, failing to pay your loan with Vivint Solar (now part of Sunrun) can impact your credit score.
Generally with solar loans every time you make a payment, it gets reported to the credit agencies, and if you make a payment on time, it can help your score, but if you make a late payment or miss a payment, it can hurt your score. If you miss multiple payments in a row, it can result in your loan being sent to a debt collector, which is very harmful to your credit score.
If your Vivint Solar loan is impacting your credit, you should know about your rights under laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
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