Your Solar Installer Went Out of Business. Now What?

Freedom Forever, one of the largest residential solar installers in the country, is being liquidated. Thousands of Bay Area homeowners now own systems with no one to call. Here is what still protects you, what does not, and how to get a licensed local contractor back on your side.

Last updated: September 2026 · Sources: Solar Power World (Apr 2026), Solar Power World (Jun 2026), Yahoo Finance (Aug 2026)

Written by Adam Aksoy, Licensed C-10 Electrical Contractor #1143455

Often paired with: Solar troubleshooting & repair · Solar removal & reinstall · Battery storage · Pricing

Further reading: Solar not producing? Service-entry troubleshooting · Removing and reinstalling solar for a new roof · Powerwall 3 vs FranklinWH vs Enphase

The short version

• Your system keeps working. Panels, inverters and batteries do not need the installer to operate.
• Manufacturer warranties survive. Panel (25-year), inverter (Enphase IQ8 25-year), and battery (Tesla 10-year, FranklinWH 12–15-year, Enphase 15-year) coverage belongs to the manufacturer, not the installer.
• Installer warranties probably do not. Workmanship, roof-penetration and production guarantees issued by a company in Chapter 7 liquidation are likely to be unenforceable.
• Your financing continues. Loans, leases and PPAs are owned by lenders and funds, not the installer.
• You need a new contractor of record before something breaks — a licensed C-10 who can diagnose, repair, file manufacturer claims, and warrant the work they do.

What happened with Freedom Forever

Freedom Forever filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2026, listing between $500 million and $1 billion in debt and tens of thousands of creditors. On July 31, 2026 the company told the Delaware bankruptcy court it would convert the case to Chapter 7 liquidation after creditors rejected a proposed sale to its own chief executive. More than 150,000 homeowners nationally had systems installed by the company, a meaningful share of them in California. Under Chapter 7 the company stops operating; there is no reorganized business to honor service calls or warranties.

Freedom Forever is the largest, but not the only, residential installer to fail since 2024. The pattern is the same each time: a national sales-driven company with subcontracted crews closes, and the homeowner is left holding a system the manufacturer will support but no one will service.

What is still covered, and what is not

What to do this week

1. Confirm the system is producing. Open your monitoring app and note today’s output. If production is zero or far below normal, see our troubleshooting guide or call us.
2. Collect your paperwork. Contract, permit and final inspection, plan set (single-line diagram), equipment list with serial numbers, and any warranty certificates. If you cannot find the plan set, the city that issued the permit usually has it on file.
3. Register equipment with the manufacturers directly. Enphase, Tesla, SolarEdge and FranklinWH all allow the homeowner to be the registered owner. This keeps warranty claims from being routed to a company that no longer exists.
4. Find out who owns your financing. If you have a lease or PPA, the fund that owns the system is responsible for keeping it running — write to them and ask for their designated service provider. If you own the system (cash or loan), you can hire whoever you like.
5. Line up a licensed contractor before something breaks. A one-time system health check documents the roof, wiring, inverter and battery condition, transfers monitoring to the manufacturer app, and gives you a contractor of record. It also answers the questions a home buyer’s inspector will ask later.

What Pacific Edge does for orphaned systems

We are a licensed C-10 electrical and solar contractor (CA #1143455) with our own in-house crew, serving the Bay Area since 2014. We are a Tesla Certified Installer and Enphase, SPAN and FranklinWH certified, which means we can file manufacturer warranty claims on your behalf and replace covered parts.

• System health check — roof attachments and flashing, conduit and wiring, inverter or microinverter status, battery health, service-entry and interconnection, with a written report.
• Diagnosis and repair — from a tripped rapid-shutdown or a failed microinverter to a battery gateway that will not commission. Repair and troubleshooting pricing is published.
• Manufacturer warranty claims — processed as an authorized installer, so covered parts are replaced under the manufacturer’s warranty.
• Monitoring transfer — moving you off a defunct installer portal to the Enphase or Tesla app under your own account.
• Removal and reinstall for reroofing — the most common large job for orphaned systems; see solar removal & reinstallation.
• Our own workmanship warranty on everything we touch, from a contractor whose license, address and reviews you can check.

How to avoid this next time

The installers that fail share a profile: national sales operations, subcontracted installation crews, and warranties issued by the sales company rather than the people who did the work. When you choose a contractor for a repair, a battery add-on, or a new system, ask who actually performs the installation, whether the workmanship warranty is backed by the licensed crew, and whether the license number on the contract belongs to the company you are paying. Our NEM 3.0 buyer’s guide includes the ten questions to ask any installer.

FAQs — Solar Installer Out of Business