The solar proposal looks perfect. It shows a powerful system with enough panels to achieve the “100% offset” you wanted, and the financing numbers look great. It’s exactly what you asked for. You sign on the dotted line, excited to finally be moving forward.
Weeks, or even months, go by. You’ve filled out financing paperwork, maybe even told your neighbors about your decision. Then, you get the call. “Hi, we have an update from our engineering department,” the project manager says. “It looks like we can’t fit that many panels on your roof due to fire code setbacks. We’ll have to downsize the system.”
This is no small thing, and it is rarely an honest mistake. You may have just become a victim of one of the most common and manipulative solar proposal scams in the industry: the “Paper Promise,” a deliberate bait-and-switch designed to lock you into a deal under false pretenses.
The Reality of Your Roof: Why Every Inch Doesn’t Count
To understand this scam, you first have to understand the physical limitations of a roof. A professional, honest solar designer knows they cannot simply cover your roof in panels. They must account for several critical factors:
- Fire Code Setbacks: Local building and fire codes mandate clear pathways on your roof for firefighter access in case of an emergency. This typically requires a 3-foot setback from the ridge of your roof and other edges, which immediately reduces the total usable space.
- Obstructions: Every roof has vents, pipes, chimneys, or satellite dishes that cannot be covered. Each of these creates a “keep-out” zone where panels cannot be placed.
- Shading and Orientation: Even available space isn’t always good space. A section of roof that is shaded by a large tree or a neighboring building for much of the day is not a viable place for a solar panel.
An honest proposal is based on the actual, usable square footage of your roof after all these factors are considered.
Anatomy of the “Paper Promise” Scam
So, what happens when an honest design only provides an 85% offset, but they know you really want 100%? This is where a dishonest company sees its opportunity.
- The Goal: Beat the Competition & Secure the Signature. The salesperson knows you might walk away from an 85% offset proposal. Their primary goal is not to give you an accurate plan, but to get you to sign a contract today and stop you from talking to their competitors.
- The Deceptive Design: To do this, they create a proposal based on a fantasy. In their design software, they simply ignore the fire code setbacks and plaster panels over every square inch of your roof, often right up to the edges and over minor obstructions. This allows them to generate a “paper promise”—a proposal that shows the magical 100% offset number they know you want to see.
- The “Momentum Trap”: They pressure you to sign the contract based on this impossible design. They know it will be rejected by their own engineering department weeks later. But by then, they’ve achieved their real goal. You are now psychologically and contractually in their pipeline. You’ve stopped talking to other solar companies, you’ve started the financing process, and you’re invested in the project.
The “Change Order”: When the Bait-and-Switch Happens
Weeks later, the project manager calls with the “bad news” from the engineers. They present you with a “change order” for the new, smaller system. They are counting on the fact that you are so far into the process that you won’t want to start your search all over again. Many homeowners, exhausted and feeling they have no other choice, reluctantly sign the change order for the smaller system they never would have agreed to in the first place.
Your Rights When a Proposal is Changed
If this has happened to you, it is critical to know that you are not powerless. A significant, non-trivial change to the system size and promised production is a material change to the contract. This often gives you the legal right to cancel the contract entirely and demand a full refund of any deposit. You are not obligated to accept a smaller, less valuable system than the one you were originally sold.
This is a classic bait-and-switch tactic. If you feel you were misled by an initial proposal that was never possible to build, our expert team can help. We analyze your original proposal against the final, downsized design to document the misrepresentation and build the powerful case file you need to dispute the agreement.