My wife and I were looking for homes to move our family to and after months of being beat out by other buyers on our offers a seller finally accepted. The only catch is it happened to have a solar lease with Solar City.
After inquiring about the lease with Solar City, sales rep Prescott Dunn, I was assured that the lease in no way prohibits the sale of the home. I thought: great, I can look into the lease and if I don't want it I can still get the house. They will just have to remove the system or something, I guess, since it doesn't prohibit the sale of the home.
2 days after my due diligence period my lender tells me that there is a straight up lien on the house by Solar City and if I don't sign the lease my family will be homeless. Turns out the lease isn't all that great, costing almost 1/3 more what it would have cost had I gone with a smaller company, or double if I were to pay in cash upfront.
I don't understand why it's legal for Solar City to lie to customers. They told me I had a choice, but I did not have a choice. And
this is a big deal because this is about whether or not my family will have a roof over their heads or not. Solar City took advantage of the situation and threatened to bring significant and material harm to my family by prohibiting the sale of the home.
Their sales team offered no solutions and spewed only boiler plate or aggressive responses "this is a good deal for both parties why wouldn't you want it?" (because it's a bad lease and your forcing me to sign it, lest my family becomes homeless) , "we have a right to protect our investment" (and apparently impoverish Americans in the process), and my favorite "you don't have to buy the house" (we are past the due diligence period, I'll loose my deposit and fees because you lied to me about the process, so yes I kind of do have to buy it).