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  • SunPower breach of Lease contract?

    Hi,

    I live on a very busy street and my panels get covered in dust really fast. Rain doesn't wash away the dirt as the SunPower sales rep marketed when they sold their panels.

    Last year they came out and washed my panels for free and said they will come out once a year to clean my panels for free under the contract. I was told by the SunPower tech that I gained about 10-17% after the cleaning.

    When I asked them to come out this year for a clean, they said no.

    I have a lease contract with Sunpower. In my contract, it says that all maintenance will be covered by Sunpower if my panels are underperforming (when the dirt reduces power generation for an example). But they are now saying even though maintenance is included its homeowner's responsibility for cleaning. I told them to find a line in the contract where it mentions about homeowner's cleaning responsibility and they said it's not listed in my contract and it's their understanding that homeowner should clean.

    Isn't this breach of contract?








  • #2
    First off , if you have a lease, they did not sell you their panels.

    Under lease disclosures, para. # 3 "Who maintains and operates the system", the lease does indeed state that the lessor is responsible for system maintenance. But a complete read of that paragraph, and what I'd suggest is a reasonable interpretation of what it says would exclude cleaning.

    Other state's laws might mandate cleaning as one of the lessor's responsibilities, but if you're in CA and/or unless you have a different Sunpower lease than the one's read and have copies of, or, unless you have a separate written agreement with the vendor/installer, my guess would be you're responsible to keep the array clean.

    Also, a verbal statement that someone will come out 1X/yr. and clean the array on your property isn't worth the paper it's written on.

    Again, unless you have written agreements to the contrary, Sunpower is no more responsible for keeping your array clean than they have any responsibility to remove shading obstructions that appear after installation such as trees that grow.

    In article 5 of all the Sunpower leases I've seen, under sec. (a),i, : "You agree to... keep the panels clean, pursuant to the operating guide for the system or to be provided to you by the Dealer/installer."

    As for someone's statement that 10% - 17% of the system's performance was restored by cleaning, while that may be true, it's of little import. I'd take that with a large grain of salt if for no other reasons than three:
    1.) There was probably no instrumentation involved.
    2.) It probably took more than an hr. or so to clean the array. So, the P.O.A. irradiance on the array was different, start to finish making estimates, at best, SWAGS.
    3.) Verbal statements are useless.

    Maybe I'm wrong here, but I think you may be under some misinterpretation of the lessor's responsibilities with respect to the written terms of the lease.

    In short, I think some peddler B.S.'d you, with the first (free) cleaning done to grease your pole and make you happy.

    Comment


    • #3
      Here's the verbiage from the contact.

      No mention about lessee cleaning the panels in my contract.



      Lease Disclosures For California Residents Only


      3. Who maintains and operates the System? As the lessee of the System, you are primarily obligated to notify the Lessor if the System isn't working properly. Lessor, as owner of the System, will be responsible for any necessary maintenance and operation of the System. Lessor will ensure that the System is protected against damage, theft, destruction, confiscation, requisition, inoperability or incapacity unless you damage or destroy the System intentionally or through your gross negligence, in which case you will be responsible.


      4. LEASE OBLIGATIONS
      (a) System, Home and Property Maintenance You agree to:
      1. (iii) keep trees, bushes and hedges trimmed so that the System receives as much sunlight as it did when the Dealer/Installer installed it;
        (iv) not modify your Home or the Property in a way that shades the System;



      I forgot to mention. I have no trees around my house. Only problem i'm having is the dirt caked on solar panels.


      Last edited by Dearjohn03; 06-21-2019, 03:52 PM.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Dearjohn03 View Post
        Here's the verbiage from the contact.

        No mention about lessee cleaning the panels in my contract.



        Lease Disclosures For California Residents Only


        3. Who maintains and operates the System? As the lessee of the System, you are primarily obligated to notify the Lessor if the System isn't working properly. Lessor, as owner of the System, will be responsible for any necessary maintenance and operation of the System. Lessor will ensure that the System is protected against damage, theft, destruction, confiscation, requisition, inoperability or incapacity unless you damage or destroy the System intentionally or through your gross negligence, in which case you will be responsible.


        4. LEASE OBLIGATIONS
        (a) System, Home and Property Maintenance You agree to:
        1. (iii) keep trees, bushes and hedges trimmed so that the System receives as much sunlight as it did when the Dealer/Installer installed it;
          (iv) not modify your Home or the Property in a way that shades the System;



        I forgot to mention. I have no trees around my house. Only problem i'm having is the dirt caked on solar panels.

        Yes, that's the same information I have plus about 25-30 pages more of a mostly identical boiler plate from every S.P. lease in my HOA.

        On cleaning of an array, if you believe you have a case, take it to small claims court and give it a shot. But I'd suggest hiring an ambulance chaser and have case law checked before I did that.

        I'm sure not an attorney, but without some additional written agreements, I think your chances of success are small - about the same as leasing a vehicle and expecting washing and detailing to be included with the lease. There is some common sense involved in all this.

        Furthermore, and again unless you've got some additional written agreements that relate to array cleaning, if you won in court, every Sunpower lessee, in CA anyway, would be clamoring for regular panel cleaning. I suspect Sunpower and every lessor in CA would defend such a judgement, if they haven't already, as they would not want the responsibility or expense of regular cleaning, or the cost of subcontracting such service.

        Believe what you want, but unless you can produce better and more documentation than the lease, my opinion is the lessor's refusal to clean your panels is allowed under the terms of the leases I've seen, making the problem you have with dirt caked on the panels is yours, not the lessor, and not a breach of your contract with them.

        But, I'm not an attorney. I'd suggest consulting one.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Dearjohn03 View Post
          [SIZE=14px]Here's the verbiage from the contact.

          ... incapacity ...
          Take this to your lawyer. He'll know what to do.

          Comment

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