Solar panel install damages roof, leave thousands in damages

By Jeff Morgan

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    TIMONIUM, Maryland (WMAR) — Solar panels have grown in popularity.

People are putting them up in hopes of lowering their energy bill or decreasing their carbon footprint.

The contract’s fine print is causing Cecilia Volkman issues.

Volkman’s issues with solar panels started nearly a decade ago when a salesman showed up at her door.

“I Just lost my husband and he was really interested in solar panels so when they came to the door, I took it as a sign that I should listen,” said Volkman.

The company, Solar City, offered to lower her energy bill without any worry for her.

“They do a roof inspection make sure everything is good because for the 20 year contract while everything is up, they take care of your roof,” said Volkman.

Then a few years later, she started to notice issues with her ceiling.

“I started noticing a little bit of staining in the living room and in the hallway,” said Volkman.

Eventually, turning into bigger issues.

Prompting Volkman to contact Tesla, who bought the company who put the panels on Cecilia’s roof, Solar City, in 2016.

“They told me I had only one year to report any leaks and that I was out of luck,” she said.

On the first page of the contract it says that there’s a warranty against leaks and they’ll repair the roof once they’re done.

Digging deeper you can see the fine print that says these leaks have to be reported within a year from installation.

While battling back and forth with Tesla, she had someone seal the holes in the roof that they could reach.

“It either didn’t work or they couldn’t get to everything and it continued getting worse over time,” said Volkman.

Then she decided to have the solar panels removed.

Tesla sealing up the holes in her roof and the panels sitting in her garage.

“At this point now I have damage in four rooms and I have to get my roof fixed one way or another so I have to have the panels pulled off,” said Volkman.

She says Tesla was giving her issues, so she reached out to us.

“Since you’ve reached out to them, [this] is the first time they’ve ever reached out to me and said ‘wait, you misunderstood or someone misinformed you and we’re going to look into it,'” said Volkman.

Now Volkman is in a waiting period with Tesla as sealant protects her damaged roof from leaks.

Kicking herself for not reading the contract fully.

“If I had sat and read on his little tablet the however many, 40 page contract, I wouldn’t have signed it,” said Volkman.

She isn’t alone.

According to Jeff Sovern with the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, people usually don’t read or understand the consumer contract’s they’re reading.

“If they don’t understand something they should ask the provider and seller what it means and see what they say. Although if it comes to a dispute over what the provider says and what the contract says, the court will usually go with what the contract says,” said Sovern.

The best practice is to read the fine print and to understand it isn’t likely you can get out of the deal once the paper is signed.

“If you discover a problem down the road, if there’s fraud, if there’s a problem with the quality, the only way to get out of it is often going to be litigation and that’s expensive, time consuming and it’s scary,” said Sovern.

Volkman’s problem may be resolved by Tesla, the company is still working on her claim.

But it’s a cautionary tale for anyone to read the fine print and know what you’re getting into.

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