In September, a lawyer for SolarCity, Mohammed Ahmed Gangat, filed a document in New York state court arguing
that the company needed to file another document late because it had in recent months been “inundated with hundreds of lawsuits in New York, and thousands across the country, all of which have named SolarCity as a defendant in a residential foreclosure action.”
But when asked about that filing, SolarCity said that it was currently involved in far fewer cases — 139 — and that the lawyer had been mistaken.
“The litigation is not adversarial — being named in the foreclosure proceeding provides us with advance notice
that we need to reassign a contract, and many are immediately resolved with the relevant bank.”
The company is also involved in foreclosure proceedings outside the courts but said it could not say how many.
But several foreclosure lawyers who have not been involved with these cases said SolarCity might face an
uphill battle, especially if it does not act in court to protect its ownership interest in the panels
SolarCity, the nation’s leading installer of rooftop solar panels
and a renewable energy darling, has pitched its value to investors on a simple premise: Once customers sign up to lease a system, they will make payments to the company month after month for at least 20 years.
When a customer loses a home to a bank in foreclosure, the company also risks losing income from its energy
system unless it can reach a deal to take the system back or contract with the new homeowners.
“They’re still paying their electric bill, so they still pay us.”
When a customer loses a home to a bank, the ownership of the solar panels can become unclear.
