The Solar Panels on a Peoria Resale Come With an Expiration Date Nobody Lists

In April 2025, ABC15 reported on a Surprise homeowner who sold his house, transferred his SunPower lease to the buyer, and kept getting solar bills for the old address for four to five months afterward. SunStrong, the company now servicing the system, told the station that service transition and backlog problems after SunPower's August 2024 bankruptcy played a part. It also urged sellers to contact the servicer early. The account was resolved after ABC15 stepped in.

That story sums up how solar works in a West Valley sale. The panels on the roof come bundled with contracts, each with its own date, its own counterparty, and its own way of going wrong.

The deal can hinge on a company that isn't part of the deal

Arizona REALTORS® handles solar through its Solar Addendum, last updated in November 2025. The form sorts every transaction into one of two paths. One covers systems the seller owns outright or that the utility owns. The other covers a lease or an unpaid loan that the buyer will take over. On the lease and loan path, the timeline runs like this, per the Solar Addendum:

1. Within three days of contract acceptance, the seller delivers the current lease or loan, any other solar documents they have, and the lessor's name and phone number. The seller also notifies the lessor of the sale, the buyer's name, and the escrow company, and says whether payments are current.
2. By the end of the inspection period or five days after receiving those documents, whichever is later, the buyer can disapprove solar-related items. Once that window closes, the buyer applies to assume the lease or loan in whatever way the lessor requires.
3. No later than three days before close of escrow, the buyer needs the lessor's approval to assume the agreement on the seller's existing terms.
4. If approval doesn't come, a buyer who made a diligent, good-faith effort and gives signed notice by that same deadline can cancel and get the earnest money back. A buyer who misses the notice deadline can be sent a cure notice, and the earnest money can end up with the seller.

That third step is where the friction sits. A home can pass inspection, appraise, and clear underwriting and still depend on a third-party lessor's approval queue in the final days before closing. The addendum also allows for a lessor that charges a credit score fee when the buyer falls below its required score. The buyer can cancel within the inspection period or five days after hearing about the fee, whichever is later. A buyer who goes ahead pays the fee, and it's non-refundable. On financed systems, the form makes the seller responsible for any loan balance reduction tied to solar tax credits that the buyer needs in order to assume the loan. Transfer and document fees are split by a checkbox the two sides negotiate.

The servicer on the lease may not be the company that signed it

The lessor the buyer has to win over is often a different company from the one named on the original paperwork. SunPower filed for Chapter 11 in August 2024, and ABC15 reported that it temporarily couldn't service systems while customers faced uncertainty over warranties. Sunnova followed a similar path. Its customer support page now says it ceased independent operations after a court-supervised sale, and SunStrong took over servicing for most in-service systems. Solar Power World reported that the Sunnova acquisition closed on September 4, 2025.

So in a Peoria sale with a SunPower or Sunnova system, the three-day document deadline in step one often means contacting a servicer the seller has never dealt with. SunStrong's site has a dedicated "Selling Your Home" link to start a transfer. In the ABC15 story, the station suggested sellers give buyers the lease payment, the estimated savings, and the escalator details. Those same figures are what a buyer will be weighing during the disapproval window.

Shutting off the power can change the deal

One clause in the addendum applies whether the system is owned or leased, and it matters most for vacant listings. If electricity is on when the contract is accepted, the seller has to keep it on through close of escrow. If the seller shuts off service or changes the rate plan during escrow, and the buyer ends up with higher rates or a less favorable plan, including the loss of net metering status, the contract treats it as a change in the premises under Section 4f.

The buyer has a matching obligation. The form says to have electric service transferred into the buyer's name on the day escrow closes, and it warns that any rate plan change the buyer makes can lead to a less favorable plan. The reason both sides are told to protect the existing rate plan is in the next section.

The export credit depends on the year the system was connected

For homes on APS, exported power is credited under the Resource Comparison Proxy, or RCP. APS sets a new RCP rate for each year's group of new solar customers, effective September 1 unless the Commission sets another date, and the rate can't drop more than 10% in a year. Each customer's starting rate holds for 10 years from interconnection. After that, the credit switches to whatever rate is in effect at the time and can change every year.

Here is every tranche listed in the current APS RCP tariff, which took effect September 1, 2026. The last column adds 10 years to the start of each window. Because the lock runs from interconnection, an actual system's lock ends a bit later.

A Peoria home whose system went live in early 2018 gets more than twice the export credit of a system connected this fall. Its 10-year lock runs out around early 2028, though, and after that it moves to whatever the current rate is. Of two homes listed side by side with "owned solar," one may have a little over a year left on its locked rate and the other nearly a decade. The difference shows up only in the interconnection date.

Homes that went solar before 2017 are on a different clock. APS says Legacy EPR-6 customers can stay on that rider for up to 20 years from the date the system was connected to the grid. The tariff also says that a customer who leaves a grandfathered legacy rate for the RCP can't switch back.

Whether the seller's rate comes with the house is less clear. The tariff's transfer clause says a customer who moves to a site already on RCP may continue under the same tranche. It also says a customer who moves their solar system to a new site loses the 10-year lock. That language points toward the tranche staying with the address, but it doesn't spell out what happens to a buyer taking over a seller's account. Our research didn't turn up a published APS statement settling the legacy net metering version of the question either. That's why the addendum's due diligence list includes "grandfathered utility plan assumption" next to roof integrity, warranties, and output guarantees. Getting written confirmation from APS for the specific account during the inspection period is how that item gets resolved.

Some Peoria addresses are on SRP instead

All of the APS math above assumes the house is on APS. SRP lists Peoria among the cities it serves "all or in part." So the utility has to be checked for each address. On SRP's export-based solar plans, excess energy is credited at 3.45¢ per kWh. SRP's solar plans also carry a monthly service charge, with likely tiers of $20 for apartments, condos, and townhomes, $30 for an average single-family home, and $40 for a larger high-usage home. If two Peoria homes have identical systems on different utilities, their bill math will differ.

The APS solar fee is in front of regulators right now

The last variable is the monthly charge APS adds for solar customers. In June 2026, KJZZ reported that the Arizona Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the $2 to $3 monthly fee approved in APS's 2024 rate decision. The court ordered the Arizona Corporation Commission to either hold a new hearing on the fee or remove it. Commission Chair Nick Myers told KJZZ he believed the fee would be upheld after a new hearing, and said, "We will wait for guidance from counsel before taking further action."

Separately, APS's pending rate case asks for more. KJZZ reported in March 2026 that the utility wanted to double that charge. According to the Corporation Commission's July 10, 2026 update, the administrative law judge's recommendation is expected by late November 2026. The Commission has to vote by December 31, 2026, and any approved rates would take effect in early 2027. As of mid-October, the docket shows no vote. Anyone closing on a solar home before the end of the year may be signing before that decision is final.

Quick answers

Does the seller fill out anything about solar besides the addendum? Yes. The Seller's Property Disclosure Statement asks whether the home has a solar system, whether there are known problems, whether it's leased, and how to reach the leasing company. Arizona REALTORS® says the seller should complete it personally, not the agent.

Does adding panels after buying affect the locked rate? It can. Under the APS tariff, a material capacity increase, meaning 10% or 1 kW-ac, whichever is greater, moves the system to the current RCP rate. The new lock runs for 10 years minus the time already spent on the earlier rate.

Can a real estate agent say what the system is worth? The addendum says brokers aren't qualified to advise on a solar system's cost, insurability, operation, value, or transferability. It directs both parties to independent legal counsel and other licensed professionals. What an agent can do is keep the deadlines on track and make sure the right documents land in front of those professionals on time.

If you're listing or buying a Peoria home with solar, the interconnection date, the servicer's name, and the lessor's approval deadline should all be on the calendar before the inspection period starts. Robert Tolnai and the team track those dates on every solar transaction so the lease paperwork doesn't hold up your closing. Call Robert today for a free home market consultation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.