Your solar installer went out of business. What happens to the warranty?

Solar has had a run of companies closing, in Australia and overseas. If yours is one of them, the first thing to know is that you probably have not lost everything.

You have lost one of your three warranties. The other two are held by companies that are still trading.

What dies and what survives

The reason is simple. A warranty is a promise from whoever made it. Your installer promised their own work, so that promise goes when they do. Fronius, Sungrow, Enphase and the rest promised their own gear, and none of them care who put it on your roof.

If you are not sure what those three warranties are, start with solar panel warranty explained.

You do not need the original installer to make a product claim

A common belief is that only the company that installed the system can claim on it. That is not how a product warranty works. The warranty follows the equipment, not the installer.

What a manufacturer will want from you is proof, not a relationship:

• The serial number of the failed part
• When it was installed
• Proof you own it, usually the original invoice or contract
• Evidence of the fault

Some brands will deal with a homeowner directly. Others will only deal with an accredited installer, which means you need to find one willing to act for you. Either way the warranty itself is intact.

The part is free. Getting it fitted is not.

This is the bit that stings.

The maker sends the replacement inverter at no charge. Then you pay somebody to diagnose the fault, take the old unit down, install the new one and commission it. Your workmanship warranty would sometimes have covered that. It is gone, so the labour is yours.

It is still far better than buying a new inverter outright. But budget for a service call, not for nothing.

Finding someone who will touch another company's system

This is usually harder than the warranty itself.

Plenty of installers will not take on a system they did not install. They inherit the liability for someone else's wiring and they cannot see what is behind the panels. That is a reasonable position, even when it is inconvenient for you.

What tends to work:

• Ring more than a few. Expect several no answers before a yes.
• Ask the manufacturer for accredited installers near you. Most keep a list, and a company on that list has a reason to help.
• Smaller local electricians and independent solar servicers are often more willing than large retailers.
• Be upfront that it is an orphaned system and that you expect to pay for labour. It makes you a much easier customer to say yes to.

In Australia, check your rights before you accept a no

Your consumer guarantees under Australian Consumer Law are not a warranty from the installer, so they do not disappear when the installer does. They are a legal right you have against the supplier of the goods.

Where this gets useful: if the company that sold you the system has closed, the guarantee may still apply to the manufacturer or importer of the goods, depending on the circumstances. Whether it does in your case is not something a web page can tell you.

Two free places to check before you give up:

• The ACCC pages linked below explain what the guarantees cover and what remedy you can ask for.
• Your state or territory fair trading office will talk to you about a specific dispute.

If your system was sold by a Clean Energy Council Approved Solar Retailer, it is also worth asking the CEC what applies, as that programme carries its own commitments.

A short checklist

If you have just found out your installer has closed:

1. Find your paperwork. Contract, invoice, panel and inverter serial numbers, install date, any registration confirmations.
2. Photograph the labels on the inverter and, if you can do it safely from the ground, note the panel model. Do not climb on the roof for this.
3. Work out who made each part and look up that brand's warranty process.
4. Ring the manufacturer, not the installer's old number.
5. Ask the manufacturer for accredited servicers near you before you start ringing around yourself.
6. Keep notes of every call: who, when, what they said.

Number one is the hard one for most people, and it is entirely fixable in advance. Here is what to keep and why.

If your system still works

Do this now rather than later.

Find the serial numbers, the install date and the invoice, and put them somewhere you will still have them in ten years. A photo of each label saved to the cloud is enough. The day you need them is the day the company that had them on file no longer exists.