What Happens When Your Solar Panel Installer Goes Bust?

There are few things more frustrating than ringing your solar installer and finding the number dead and the website gone. If that is where you are, you are in a very large group. Across Bournemouth, Dorset and Hampshire, and equally across Cardiff, Newport and Swansea, a great many homeowners are living with systems whose original installer no longer exists.

It is not only installers, either. GivEnergy Ltd, one of the better-known British battery and inverter manufacturers, entered administration on 9 April 2026, ceased trading and made its staff redundant. When a manufacturer goes, the rules are different from when an installer goes, and we will come to that.

The reassuring part is that losing your installer does not mean losing your investment. Most of the protections you were sold survive the company that sold them, and one of them is an insurance policy a lot of homeowners do not know they hold.

In summary: Your solar system keeps working and remains your property. Manufacturer warranties on panels and inverter are honoured by the manufacturer, not the installer. Workmanship cover often survives through an insurance-backed guarantee. Your MCS certificate stays valid on the MCS register, and Feed-in Tariff or SEG payments are unaffected.

Will my solar panels still work?

Yes. An installer closing has no effect on the hardware. The panels, inverter, wiring and mountings are your property, they carry on generating, and nothing switches off. Nobody can remove them, unless the panels were leased to you under a rent-a-roof arrangement rather than owned outright.

What you lose is the relationship. No maintenance contact, nobody who knows the system's history, and no obvious route for a warranty claim. Those are real problems. They are administrative rather than physical, and each one has a way through.

One practical exception. If your installer gave you their own branded monitoring portal rather than the manufacturer's, that portal may stop working. The inverter itself usually still reports to the manufacturer's own app, so you can generally get your visibility back even when the installer's dashboard has gone dark.

What happens to my warranties?

Most of the confusion here comes from treating the warranty as one thing. It is three things, with three different guarantors. Only one of them dies with the installer, and even that one is usually insured.

Manufacturer product warranties

These are the strongest. Panels typically carry performance warranties of around 25 years, inverters 10 to 12, and batteries around 10. They are honoured by the manufacturer rather than the installer, so an installer closing does not affect them. Contact the manufacturer directly with your model and serial numbers and your installation date.

The installer's workmanship guarantee

This covers the quality of the installation itself. Mountings, terminations, cable routing, anything that leaks or works loose because of how it was fitted. On its own it ends when the company dissolves. But it is rarely on its own, which brings us to the section most people skip.

Your insurance-backed guarantee

This is the one worth knowing about. It is a separate insurance policy that pays out on your workmanship guarantee precisely when the company that issued it has stopped trading. The insolvency does not weaken it. The insolvency is what activates it.

What is an insurance-backed guarantee, and do I have one?

An insurance-backed guarantee, or IBG, is a policy that stands behind your workmanship guarantee if the installer ceases trading. You claim against the insurer directly rather than the company. The installer's disappearance is the trigger, not the obstacle, which is exactly what it was designed for.

There is a fair chance you have one and have never read it. MCS requires that a certified installer's workmanship guarantee is insured so it holds up if the company closes during the guarantee term, and RECC requires member companies to provide deposit and workmanship protection. If you hold an MCS certificate and receive Feed-in Tariff or SEG payments, your installer was certified, and an IBG may well exist in your name.

Terms vary. Cover usually runs from a minimum of around two years up to ten, so the older the installation the more likely it has lapsed. Providers you might see on the paperwork include QANW and similar specialist insurers. The policy is normally a separate certificate handed over at commissioning, not part of the installer's own documents.

So go and look in the folder. That envelope from installation day, filed once and never reopened, is where this lives. If the certificate is in there and still in term, you have a live claim route for workmanship defects such as leaks around mountings or poor terminations. If it is missing, RECC can help establish whether one was registered against your installation.

The key takeaway: the most valuable half hour you can spend after your installer folds is going properly through the installation paperwork. Not to find the installer's own guarantee, which is now worthless, but to find the insurance policy sitting behind it.

What if the manufacturer went bust, not the installer?

That is the harder case, and the one exception to everything above. Manufacturer warranties are only enforceable against the manufacturer. If the manufacturer has gone, the warranty generally goes with it, and your installer, even a healthy one, has no obligation to cover a product defect out of their own pocket.

GivEnergy is the live UK example. The company entered administration on 9 April 2026, with administrators appointed through the High Court in Leeds, and has ceased trading. The published position is that no further hardware warranties will be honoured, and that ongoing software and user support will not be honoured either. Owners have been advised to go back to their installer for support.

The practical news is better than the headline suggests. Installed GivEnergy batteries are expected to keep working normally, and the app and portal were still running at the time of writing. What has gone is the ability to claim a replacement if the hardware fails. That moves a GivEnergy battery from warrantied asset to asset worth watching, which changes the maintenance case rather than the ownership.

If you have GivEnergy equipment, get its condition documented now, while it is still working. An inspection record is the only thing that will tell you whether it is degrading before it stops.

Is my MCS certificate still valid?

Yes, and you can get another copy without going near the installer. The certificate records that your installation met the scheme's standards on the day it was commissioned. It is held on the MCS public register, and a company closing does not remove it.

You need it for more than the filing cabinet. It is required for Feed-in Tariff and Smart Export Guarantee payments, it supports most manufacturer warranty claims, it matters to buildings insurers after storm damage, and a buyer's solicitor will ask for it when you sell.

To retrieve it, search the MCS register by postcode, find your address and installation year, and download the PDF. One point worth being clear about, because it trips people up: this is not the same as the government's Find an Energy Certificate service, which holds EPCs. MCS certificates live on the MCS register only. If your installation does not appear where you expect it to, that is worth investigating rather than shrugging at.

Will my Feed-in Tariff or export payments stop?

No. Those payments come from your energy supplier under a scheme administered by Ofgem, and your installer plays no ongoing role beyond having registered the system originally. The company closing does not interrupt anything.

Two things are still worth checking. That the payments are actually arriving and at the rate you expect, because people find gaps years later and recovering them is harder than spotting them. And that your generation meter readings are being submitted, since most FiT arrangements require you to read and submit them yourself. If you suspect you are not on the best export rate, our guide to Smart Export Guarantee payments covers how to approach it.

If your system went in during the Feed-in Tariff boom between roughly 2011 and 2015, the scheme closed to new applicants on 1 April 2019, but existing accredited installations keep receiving payments for their full eligibility period. Typically twenty years, and up to twenty-five for the earliest. There is real value still running on those systems, which is a reason to keep them healthy rather than let them drift. Our guide to keeping a legacy solar investment running goes into more detail.

Who can service my system now?

Any suitably qualified solar engineer. You were never locked in to the original installer, and there is no technical or contractual barrier to another MCS-certified company taking over servicing, repairs and maintenance of an existing system.

What you want is not complicated. Someone MCS-certified and insured, who will start by documenting what they have inherited rather than quoting for work before they have looked. A first visit that produces a written condition report tells you where you stand, and on a system with no service history that report becomes the baseline you have been missing.

We do this regularly, and it is worth being straight about why we are reasonably good at it. We install as well as maintain, with our own MCS-certified engineers doing both. Knowing how a system should have been built is most of what tells you what has gone wrong with one that was not, and an orphaned system is almost always one nobody has looked at since the day it went up.

We cover the South Coast from our base near Christchurch, and South Wales across Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. What we find differs by region. Coastal Dorset and Hampshire systems tend to come to us with salt corrosion on frames and fixings and gull damage under the array. South Wales systems more often show moisture-driven faults and biological growth, because the rainfall is higher and roofs stay damp for longer.

Does losing your installer affect a future property sale?

It can, and it is worth getting ahead of. A buyer's solicitor will ask for your MCS certificate, your panel and inverter warranties, and evidence that the system performs correctly. Missing documentation or an unresolved fault can slow a sale or knock money off the price.

A recent inspection report from an independent specialist is increasingly used to answer those queries, particularly where the original installer has gone. It shows the system has been checked by a qualified third party and that anything found has been dealt with. It costs relatively little, and it removes an argument at exactly the point you do not want one.

What should I do first?

Six steps, in this order. None of them needs an engineer, and the first four are free.

Find the installation paperwork. MCS certificate, DNO notification (G98 or G99), electrical installation certificate, product warranties with serial numbers, and any insurance-backed guarantee certificate.

Download your MCS certificate from the MCS register if the original is missing. Search by postcode and installation year.

Identify your IBG provider and check whether the policy is still in term. If the paperwork has gone, RECC can help establish whether one was registered.

Note your equipment. Panel make and model, inverter make, model and serial, battery if fitted, and the commissioning date. That single list determines every warranty claim you might make.

Check your FiT or SEG payments are arriving at the expected rate, and that meter readings are being submitted.

Book a condition inspection with a new maintainer, to establish what you have inherited and create a dated baseline.

One more route if you paid by credit card and the installation was recent. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act can make the card provider jointly liable with the supplier on purchases over 100 pounds, subject to conditions on timing and how you paid. Citizens Advice sets out when it applies, and it is worth checking before ruling it out.

Get your system checked

If your installer has gone and nobody has looked at your system since it was fitted, start by finding out what condition it is actually in. Our 21-point Solar MOT covers panels, mounting, electrical safety, inverter diagnostics, generation against expected output and documentation, with a written traffic-light report the same day. On an orphaned system, that report becomes the service record it has never had.

South Coast (Dorset, Hampshire, Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, Southampton): 01202 023069. South Wales (Cardiff, Newport, Swansea): 029 2002 6002. Or book online. MCS-certified engineers, rated 10/10 on Checkatrade, with 500+ systems installed and inspected.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to my solar warranty if the installer goes out of business?

Manufacturer warranties on panels, inverter and battery are unaffected, because the manufacturer honours them rather than the installer. The installer's own workmanship guarantee ends with the company unless it was insured through an insurance-backed guarantee, in which case you claim directly against the insurer.

Do my solar panels stop working if the company goes bust?

No. The system is your property and continues generating exactly as before. Nothing switches off and nobody can remove it, unless the panels were leased under a rent-a-roof arrangement rather than owned outright.

How do I find out if I have an insurance-backed guarantee?

Check your installation paperwork for a separate certificate from an insurer such as QANW. MCS requires certified installers to insure their workmanship guarantee against ceasing to trade, and RECC requires member companies to provide workmanship protection, so contact RECC if the document is missing.

Can I get a copy of my MCS certificate if the installer has closed?

Yes. MCS holds a public register of certified installations. Search by postcode, locate your address and installation year, and download the certificate as a PDF. This is separate from the government's Find an Energy Certificate service, which holds EPCs rather than MCS certificates.

Will my Feed-in Tariff payments stop if my installer goes bust?

No. FiT payments come from your energy supplier under an Ofgem-administered scheme, and the installer plays no ongoing role. Keep submitting meter readings as normal, and check the payments are still arriving at the expected rate.

What happens if the manufacturer goes bust rather than the installer?

That is the harder case, since manufacturer warranties are only enforceable against the manufacturer. GivEnergy Ltd entered administration on 9 April 2026 and has ceased trading, and no further hardware warranties are being honoured. Installed equipment generally keeps working, but replacement cover is gone.

Can another company service solar panels they did not install?

Yes, and there is no barrier to it. Any suitably qualified, MCS-certified engineer can take over maintenance and repairs on an existing system. A good first visit produces a written condition report rather than a quote, since an orphaned system usually has no service history at all.

Can I claim on my credit card if my solar installer went bust?

Possibly. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act can make a card provider jointly liable with the supplier on purchases over 100 pounds, subject to conditions on timing and how the payment was made. Citizens Advice sets out when it applies, so it is worth checking before ruling it out.