Going solar again after a bad experience? Your scepticism is an asset — bring it.

It can be — and your scepticism is precisely what makes it safer this time. The difference between round one and round two usually isn't luck; it's verification. Before paying a second deposit, check that the individual installer holds current accreditation with Solar Accreditation Australia on the SAA register, check that the selling company is a NETCC Approved Seller, look the company's ABN up on ABN Lookup and compare its registration date against any 'years in business' claim, and keep any deposit within your state's cap — often around 10 per cent, though it varies by state. Most first-time buyers never knew to run these checks, and skipping them is how most bad experiences start. A company that welcomes the checks is a good sign; one that bristles at them has just told you something useful. Run the same checklist on every company that quotes you — including us.

Often you can keep more than a new salesperson will suggest. Start with an independent inspection by a licensed electrician or SAA-accredited installer who is not quoting to replace the system — you want an engineering opinion, not a sales outcome. Panels from an established manufacturer typically carry product and performance warranties measured in decades, and those warranties sit with the manufacturer, so they generally survive even if your installer has vanished. A working inverter still inside its warranty period is also usually worth keeping. What commonly does get replaced: a failed inverter outside its warranty, no-name panels whose manufacturer has no Australian presence to honour a claim, and anything the inspection flags as unsafe. Be wary of a blanket 'rip it all out' verdict from anyone who profits from the rip-out — get the condition report first, then decide component by component.

Some important ones do. Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law — that goods are of acceptable quality and fit for purpose — are automatic, cannot be excluded by any contract, and do not expire with the installer's marketing warranty. The practical catch is enforcement: a guarantee against a liquidated company is hard to use. But the same law also makes the manufacturer of a faulty product potentially liable, and that avenue survives the installer's collapse — for a failed panel, inverter or battery it is often the more useful front door. Manufacturer product warranties also stand independently of the installer that sold them. So before you spend round-two money, work out which round-one rights are still live: a faulty component may be a warranty claim, not a reason to buy a new system. Check your rights at accc.gov.au, and use your state fair-trading office if a solvent party is stonewalling you.

Check the person and the company separately, because they are different things. The individual who installs and signs off the system should hold current accreditation with Solar Accreditation Australia — verify the number on the SAA register yourself, because accreditation is also what makes the system eligible for STCs and the federal rebate. The company selling the system should be a NETCC Approved Seller under the New Energy Tech Consumer Code, the consumer-protection scheme that replaced the old CEC Approved Solar Retailer program in February 2023. Then look up the ABN on ABN Lookup and compare its registration date with the age the company claims, and run an ASIC published-notices search on the company and its directors for an insolvency trail. Finally, insist the quote lists the exact make and model of every component with no 'or similar' clause. The whole exercise takes about fifteen minutes and costs nothing.

As little as the contract reasonably allows, and never the full price up front. Many Australian states cap the deposit a tradesperson can take on home-improvement work — often around 10 per cent, but the limit varies by state, so check your state's fair-trading or consumer-affairs office for the exact figure. Structure the rest as staged payments tied to milestones — deposit, equipment delivered to site, commissioning — and pay by a method that gives you some recourse, such as a credit card, rather than bank transfer or cash where possible. A demand for a deposit well above the cap, or pressure to pay most of the price before any hardware arrives, shifts the insolvency risk onto you — which is exactly the risk a second-time buyer is trying not to repeat.

Answer this before you take a single replacement quote. A solar system is a set of components, and components fail individually: a dead inverter is a repair or a warranty claim, not a reason to scrap working panels, and an underperforming string can be a wiring, shading or isolator fault that an inspection finds in an hour. If the first system works but the bills disappointed you, adding a battery or fixing the tariff can change the economics without touching the roof. A full rip-out is honestly justified when panels are failing or unsafe, the manufacturer is gone, and the system is small and old enough that repair money is better put toward current hardware. Get an independent condition report, then compare repair, retrofit and replacement as three priced options — the cheapest path to the outcome you want is often not a new system.