How to avoid getting ripped off buying solar

The biggest blocker to UK solar is not cost, information or roof suitability. It is that people are afraid of being ripped off, and after fifteen years of doorstep selling in this industry, that fear is well earned rather than irrational.

This page is the one we would rather you read than any other, including the ones that make us money. If it puts you off buying solar this year, that is a reasonable outcome.

The five warning signs, in order of reliability

1. They contacted you

Cold calls, door knocks, unsolicited texts, “we’re working in your area”. Legitimate installers in a market where demand exceeds supply do not need to knock on doors, and they are not the ones who do.

Live marketing calls to a number registered with the Telephone Preference Service are unlawful, and under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 the penalties for breaching those rules run to £17.5m or 4% of global turnover. A company that ignores the TPS is telling you something about how it operates.

2. The price expires today

“This price is only available if you sign now.” “The scheme closes this week.” “I can only authorise this discount while I’m here.”

Real deadlines in this market exist and they are published: ECO4 closes on 31 December 2026, the 0% VAT rate reverts in March 2027. None of them requires you to sign this evening, and all of them are on a government website you can check while the salesperson is sitting there.

3. “Free”, “government scheme”, “you’ve been selected”

No government scheme selects households and contacts them cold. ECO4 and Warm Homes: Local Grant are applied for or referred by a local authority: they are not awarded by a caller.

Funded solar is available to a limited group and follows an eligibility assessment. What “free solar panels” means.

4. Deposit pressure

A modest deposit against ordered equipment is normal practice. These are not:

• a large deposit before any survey has taken place,
• a bank transfer to a personal account rather than a company one,
• any deposit at all on work described as free or grant-funded,
• a discount conditional on paying the deposit today.

Pay by credit card where you can. Section 75 protection gives you a route that a bank transfer does not.

5. A quote with no working

A generation estimate is a calculation, and a calculation has inputs. A quote that states “3,800 kWh per year” with no mention of orientation, pitch or shading is a sales figure wearing a technical costume.

Ask what the assumptions were. A good installer will tell you happily, because they did the work.

Three checks before signing

What a legitimate quote itemises

• Panel make, model and total kWp.
• Inverter make and model, with its own warranty term stated separately from the panels.
• Generation estimate with its assumptions.
• Scaffolding: included or excluded, explicitly.
• Consumer unit work: included or excluded.
• Bird proofing: included or excluded.
• Who handles the DNO notification or G99 application.
• What happens if the survey finds the roof needs work, and what that does to the price.
• Payment schedule, deposit amount, and the cancellation terms.

Anything missing from that list is not a detail to sort out later. It is a number that has not been included in the price you are comparing.

If you have already signed

You are probably not stuck.

A contract agreed at your home, or otherwise away from the trader’s premises, generally carries a 14-day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations, and the trader must tell you about it in writing. If they did not, that period is extended considerably.

• Put the cancellation in writing: email is fine, and keep a dated copy.
• Do not accept a verbal assurance that it is "too late". Check the dates yourself.
• If you paid a deposit by credit card, contact your card provider about Section 75.
• If the company is RECC, HIES or TrustMark registered, use the scheme’s complaints process.
• Contact Citizens Advice if it is resisted.

Why we publish this

We are paid by installers when we introduce someone who asks for a quote, which is stated on how we make money. A page telling you to slow down, get three quotes and check the registers is not obviously in that interest.

It is, though. We are paid per introduction rather than per sale, and an introduction that ends in a complaint costs the installer money and costs us the relationship that sets our price.

And if you take one thing from this page, take the boring one: three quotes, and never sign on the day. It defeats nearly everything above.