When an installer closes, your warranties do not all vanish. You actually carry two different warranties: one from the equipment manufacturer and one from the company that installed the system. They are independent contracts with independent fates. The equipment side survives in full. The installation side does not. The rest of this article explains what each one covers and how to file an equipment claim yourself.
Why solar has two warranties at all
The company on your roof did not build the panels, the inverter, or the battery. Those were manufactured by Canadian Solar, Jinko, Trina, Panasonic, Maxeon (SunPower), REC, Qcells, Enphase, SolarEdge, SMA, Fronius, Tesla, Generac, and others. Each one wrote a warranty directly between themselves and the system owner. Your installer was the channel that delivered the equipment, not a party to those warranties.
Your installer did issue its own separate warranty — typically called workmanship — that promised the installation itself was done correctly. That covers roof penetrations, flashing, mounting torque, wire runs, and the design of the system as a whole. When the company is gone, that workmanship promise has no one behind it. The equipment warranties stay exactly as written.
What you still have on the equipment side
Solar panel warranties are the longest in the industry. Tier-1 manufacturers typically offer 25 years of product coverage paired with 25 years of performance coverage, the latter guaranteeing 80 to 87 percent of original kWh output at year 25. Canadian Solar and Trina sit at that mark. Jinko and Qcells run 12 years on product with 25 on performance. Panasonic, REC, and Maxeon (SunPower) sit at the high end — Panasonic offers 25 and 25, REC offers 20 and 25, Maxeon publishes a combined 40-year warranty on its Performance and Maxeon panels.
Inverter warranties are where you should pay closest attention, because inverters are the part most likely to fail across a 25-year system life. Enphase IQ microinverters carry a 25-year warranty out of the box. SolarEdge offers 12 years on the inverter (extendable to 20 or 25) and 25 years on the optimizers. SMA and Fronius string inverters are 10 years standard with extensions available. Tesla Powerwall and Generac PWRcell batteries run 10 years with a capacity-retention guarantee — typically 70 percent of original kWh storage at year 10.
If you cannot find your serial numbers in the paperwork your installer left, they are physically on the equipment. Panels carry a label on the back or the frame edge. Inverters have a sticker on the side or bottom. Photograph the labels now; you will need those serials for any claim, and you may not be able to retrieve them remotely once the installer's portal goes dark.
How to file an equipment claim yourself
The biggest misconception about solar warranties is that the installer has to file the claim. They do not. The path from homeowner to manufacturer existed all along — the installer just used to do it as a convenience. Here is the same path you use directly.
Start with documentation. Pull the serial number off the failing unit. Photograph or screenshot the symptom: error code on the inverter display, flat or partial production curve in your monitoring portal, the date production dropped. Pull together one ownership document — your installation contract, the final electrical inspection certificate, the utility interconnection agreement, or even the building-permit record from your city or county (those are public records and can be requested if your copies are lost).
Then go directly to the manufacturer's homeowner support, not a third-party warranty service. Enphase, SolarEdge, SMA, Fronius, Tesla, and Generac all run dedicated claim portals or phone lines. Submit the serials, the ownership proof, and the documented symptom. The manufacturer either ships a replacement to you or dispatches an authorized service technician. In most cases, though, you will need a licensed service contractor on-site to perform the actual swap — manufacturers rarely send their own people for residential equipment changes.
What to do about workmanship problems with no warranty backing them
The genuine loss when your installer closes is the workmanship coverage. If roof penetrations were not flashed correctly, if wiring is loose at the combiner, if the system was designed below its rated kWh — there is no longer a company on the hook. You still have options, but each costs time or money.
The first is your state contractor recovery fund. If your original installer was licensed at install time, most states maintain a consumer-protection fund that pays out on documented workmanship defects when the licensee is gone. The process means filing a complaint with your state contractor licensing board, attaching photos and a written repair estimate from a current licensed service contractor, and showing the defect traces to the original install. California's CSLB fund pays up to $15,000 per homeowner; other states vary. Expect months to resolve, but for serious defects it is real money.
The second is homeowner's insurance. Some policies will pay for damage caused by faulty contractor work, particularly when there is downstream damage like interior water staining or attic mold. Document the original damage before any repairs — adjusters need to see what they are paying for. The third option, and often the most practical, is simply to hire a qualified service contractor to assess and fix the defect at your expense. Ask for a written inspection report describing what was wrong and what was corrected; you will want it for resale or insurance later.
Do not wait on suspected workmanship defects. Unsealed roof penetrations leak slowly and quietly until they take out a ceiling. Loose wiring under the combiner cover is a low-probability fire risk that you do not want compounding. If you have any reason to believe the install was sloppy, get a qualified contractor on the roof now rather than after damage shows up downstairs.