How you cancel a Sunnova contract depends almost entirely on when you signed it. If you are within a few business days of signing, you may be able to walk away at no cost under a cooling-off rule. After that window closes, the realistic exits are buying out the system, transferring the agreement to the buyer of your home, or documenting a breach by the company. Sunnova’s 25-year leases and power purchase agreements survived the company’s 2025 Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and day-to-day servicing now runs through SunStrong Management.1Sunnova. Sunnova Closure and Support Resources
Cancel Within the Cooling-Off Window
The cleanest exit is also the shortest. Federal law gives buyers three business days to cancel certain contracts, with business days excluding Sundays and federal holidays. The clock starts at midnight after the contract date, so a Monday signing runs until midnight Thursday.2eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations
The federal rule has a real limit. It only applies to door-to-door sales and similar off-site transactions, like a pitch at a fair or home show. Contracts signed online, over the phone, or at the company’s permanent office are not covered.3Federal Trade Commission. Buyer’s Remorse: The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule May Help Many solar deals start with an online inquiry or a virtual consultation, which can push them outside the rule.
Some states give you more. Texas law, effective September 2025, requires every residential solar contract to include a five-business-day cancellation right. California gives seniors five business days under its home solicitation sales law. Call your state attorney general’s office to confirm what applies where you live before assuming the federal three-day rule is your only option.
How to Send the Notice
Your contract packet should include a form titled “Notice of Cancellation,” usually tucked in as an exhibit at the end. Fill in your name, the contract date, and a clear statement that you are canceling. Everyone who signed the original agreement has to sign the cancellation.
Send it by certified mail with return receipt requested. That receipt is your proof you mailed the notice before the deadline. If the contract lists an email address for cancellations, send a digital copy as a backup, but keep the certified mail as your primary evidence. Confirm the current mailing address at sunnova.com or by calling SunStrong first; an old Sunnova address may no longer be the right destination.
Buy Out the System
Once the cancellation window closes, the main way out is purchasing the equipment. Most Sunnova agreements allow a buyout starting in year six. That five-year wait tracks the federal Investment Tax Credit recapture period, which starts at 100% in year one and drops by 20% a year until it reaches zero after year five. Companies structure buyouts to avoid triggering a clawback of the credit they claimed when the system was installed.
The price is typically the higher of two numbers: a declining schedule inside the contract, or the fair market value of the system when you want to buy. Fair market value tends to be far higher than what the used hardware would fetch on its own. Appraisers generally use an income approach, calculating the present value of the electricity the panels will produce over their remaining life. A system with five years of wear can appraise at $30,000 or more on that basis, even if the hardware alone might sell for $8,000.
Companies are structurally motivated to keep buyout numbers high. If the IRS treated a below-market sale as evidence the original deal was a sale rather than a lease, it could recapture the tax credit the company claimed. That risk prevents meaningful discounts. Plan for a range of roughly $15,000 to $40,000 depending on system size, local electricity rates, and years remaining. Request a formal buyout quote through SunStrong’s customer service portal and get the number in writing before you commit. Once paid, the company releases its UCC-1 financing statement on the equipment and you own the panels outright.
Transfer the Agreement When You Sell Your Home
You do not have to buy out the system to sell your house. You can transfer the agreement to the buyer. The buyer has to pass a credit check; industry-standard minimums for solar assumptions are generally a FICO score of 650 or above. Both parties sign a transfer agreement that moves future payments and warranty rights to the new owner.
The complication is the UCC-1 filing. Sunnova routinely recorded UCC-1 financing statements, sometimes as fixture filings in county real-property records, to protect its interest in the rooftop equipment. These show up on title searches and can rattle a buyer’s mortgage lender. Normally the solar company coordinates with the title company to clear the filing at closing. Since the bankruptcy, that process has been slower. Flag the filing with your title company as soon as you list, so they can start working through SunStrong well before the closing date.
If the buyer cannot pass the credit check, your choices narrow to buying out the system yourself or lowering the sale price to cover the buyer’s risk. Neither is cheap. Starting the transfer conversation with SunStrong early in the listing process avoids surprises at the closing table.
Underperformance and Breach
Most Sunnova agreements include a production guarantee: a minimum amount of electricity the panels are supposed to generate each year. If the system falls short, the company owes you the difference between what the panels produced and the guaranteed amount, valued at what you would have paid your utility for that missing power.
A few details catch people off guard. The true-up is annual, not monthly, so a weak winter does not trigger an immediate credit; good months are netted against bad ones first. And the shortfall usually comes as a credit toward future payments, not a check.
A chronically underperforming system does not automatically let you terminate. A system that has been down for months with no repairs is a different situation. If SunStrong is failing to maintain the equipment or honor warranty claims, you may have a breach-of-contract argument. Document everything: outage dates, service requests, the company’s responses, and utility bills showing what you paid for grid power during the outage. That paper trail is what matters in arbitration or small claims court.
Why You Can’t Just Stop Paying
Ignoring the contract is one of the most expensive mistakes available. The agreement does not disappear, and the consequences stack up fast.
The company can report missed payments to credit bureaus, which will hurt your score. It can remotely disable your inverter, leaving dead panels on your roof while the debt keeps growing. Physical repossession is rare because sending a crew costs more than used panels are worth, but the company will pursue the debt through collections or lawsuits. Early termination fees in the contract can reach tens of thousands of dollars on top of missed payments. A court judgment can lead to wage garnishment. And the UCC-1 filing means any future buyer’s title search will show the claim, blocking a home sale until the debt is resolved. The bankruptcy did not change any of that; the new owners enforce missed payments the same way Sunnova would have.
Who Services Your Contract Now
Sunnova Energy International filed Chapter 11 in June 2025, and the reorganization plan took effect on November 14, 2025.4Kroll Restructuring Administration. Sunnova Energy International Inc. Substantially all of the company’s assets were sold to a group of entities organized under the Solaris name.5U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Sunnova Energy International Inc. Form 8-K SunStrong Management now handles billing, system monitoring, collections, and customer service for most existing accounts.1Sunnova. Sunnova Closure and Support Resources
Your contract terms and payment amounts are not supposed to change, and SunStrong has said it will notify customers directly about any changes.1Sunnova. Sunnova Closure and Support Resources Keep paying on time. The slower, more bureaucratic parts of the relationship (buyout quotes, lien releases, warranty claims, maintenance requests) are where you should expect delays. Keep written records of every request you send and every response you receive.
Filing a Complaint
If SunStrong is unresponsive, refuses to honor warranty or production guarantees, or your original Sunnova contract involved deceptive sales practices, regulators will take complaints. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accepts solar financing complaints and has been actively looking at the industry.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Issue Spotlight: Solar Financing Your state attorney general’s consumer protection division handles deceptive business practice complaints, and in some states the public utilities commission has authority over solar providers. Filing with more than one agency is allowed, and sometimes gets faster results than a single filing.