Industry · 3 November 2026 · 6 min read
What happens to your warranty if your solar installer closes
Your panel, inverter and battery warranties usually outlive the company that installed them. Here is who to contact, what to keep and what is lost.
Solar businesses come and go, and some of the companies that put panels on Victorian roofs in the past fifteen years are no longer trading. If yours is one of them, the good news is that most of your protection did not close with it. The part that usually does go is the installer's own promise about their workmanship. Here is how the pieces fit together, and what to do if something stops working.
Two kinds of warranty, two different companies
A solar or battery system carries warranties from two places.
The manufacturer's warranty covers the products themselves: the panels, the inverter and the battery. It is a promise from the company that made them, usually through its Australian office or importer. That company has not gone anywhere just because your installer has. Panel makers typically give a product warranty and a separate power warranty, and inverter and battery makers give their own terms (our Jinko Tiger Neo guide walks through one example).
The installer's warranty covers the job: the wiring, the mounting, the roof penetrations and how it was all put together. For systems installed under Victoria's Solar Homes Program, Solar Victoria requires authorised retailers to give a minimum five-year whole-of-system warranty that includes the quality of the work. When the installing company is wound up, that promise generally has no one left to stand behind it.
So a faulty inverter or a panel that has failed is still very much a warranty matter. A leaking roof penetration or a loose connection made on install day is the harder case.
What Australian Consumer Law adds
Consumer Affairs Victoria explains that consumer guarantees apply automatically to products and services bought from Australian businesses, on top of any written warranty. The service guarantees include that work is done with due care and skill. For products, the guarantees include that manufacturers will make spare parts and repair facilities available for a reasonable time, and that manufacturers and suppliers honour any extra promises they make, such as a written warranty.
That does not magically revive a closed company. It does mean the manufacturer's written warranty is a real obligation, and that a sensible person at your state consumer agency can help if a manufacturer is slow to respond.
The industry code points you to the supplier
Most solar retailers today sign up to the New Energy Tech Consumer Code, which Solar Victoria has required of its authorised retailers since 2023 in place of the older Clean Energy Council Solar Retailer Code. The code is administered by the Clean Energy Council, and an updated version is due to take effect on 1 December 2026.
One clause in the current code is especially useful here. A signatory promises to give you the name and contact details of its product or system supplier, so you can pursue your consumer guarantee rights against that supplier, including if for any reason you cannot contact the retailer. If you still have your original paperwork, look for those details.
Labour is the catch to watch
A replacement part is only half of a repair. Someone has to take the old one off the wall and fit the new one. Manufacturers have traditionally treated that differently. The version of Sungrow's 10-year inverter warranty terms we read (V4.2, 2024), for example, says travel and on-site installation costs are not covered by the standard warranty, while also mentioning a service rebate towards an electrician's visit on approved claims.
Victoria has moved on this. From 1 September 2025, Solar Victoria's rules require manufacturers to give a minimum five-year product warranty that includes labour for eligible products under the Solar Homes Program. Older systems, or ones installed outside the program, depend on the terms in your own warranty document, so read it rather than guess.
What to keep, and where to find it
Warranty claims run on paperwork. Sungrow's terms, for instance, ask for a copy of an invoice, receipt, commissioning report or other proof of purchase, and say the warranty can pass to a new owner as long as the original proof of purchase comes too. Pull these together now, before you need them:
- your invoice or contract, showing the panel, inverter and battery models
- the serial numbers from the inverter and battery labels (a photo is fine)
- the manufacturer warranty documents, or the model numbers so you can download them
- your Certificate of Electrical Safety, which every Victorian solar installation gets
If you cannot find the certificate, Energy Safe Victoria can search for it. Its consumer page says you can apply for a certificate search when you cannot reach the electrician, and that the search is provided at no fee.
Who to contact when something goes wrong
- Check whether the company really has gone. Our guide to what to do when your solar installer has closed explains what each record means and lists Victorian installers we have written about. CHOICE suggests searching the company's ABN or business name on ASIC's register and checking ASIC's insolvency notices. A business that is still trading but not answering is a complaint for Consumer Affairs Victoria, not a lost cause.
- Go to the manufacturer. If the fault is in a panel, inverter or battery, contact the maker's Australian warranty team with your serial numbers and proof of purchase.
- Get the system looked at. The Clean Energy Regulator requires grid-connected systems under the federal scheme to be designed and installed by people accredited with Solar Accreditation Australia, who must also hold an unrestricted electrical licence. An accredited installer can test a system someone else installed and tell you whether the fault is in a product or in the workmanship. Expect to pay for that visit if the fault turns out not to be a warranty one.
- Raise safety worries straight away. Energy Safe Victoria handles safety and quality concerns with electrical installations. If you smell burning or see scorch marks, switch the system off using its shutdown procedure and call a licensed electrician.
How we handle it
Every system we install comes with remote monitoring and fault alerts, and if a covered part fails, we handle the warranty claim with the manufacturer for you and do the warranty repair on site at no cost. Repairs outside warranty are quoted first, so there are no surprises. It is one company from your design to switch on, and after it.
If you are weighing up who to trust with a new system, our guide on how to check a solar company before you sign covers the questions worth asking. And when you are ready, have a squiz at what fits on your own roof.
