On December 27th, 2024, official notice was given that Perth-based solar installation company Sungain Solar had entered liquidation. That’s a fancy way of saying they’d gone bust. A number of their customers have been left in the lurch because they paid deposits for solar systems and now don’t know if they’ll get any of their money back.
Below, I’ll tell you how you can protect yourself — in general — from companies disappearing down the drain with your deposit. I’ll also specifically mention the best way to protect yourself when it comes to getting rooftop solar, home batteries, and EV chargers.
Even Good Businesses Can Go Bust
While we may have reacted faster if their official liquidation notice hadn’t been made over the Christmas period, on the 30th of December we placed the following notice at the top of their SolarQuotes review page:
If you go to the Sungain Solar site, you will now see this image:
The section at the bottom that’s hard to read says, “Sungain Solar has recently closed. If you are an existing customer, please contact [email protected] for further information.”
That’s a nice picture of a family in front of a solar home. Now I could just be slow on the uptake here, but I’m pretty sure that photo was taken in Slovakia — an interesting choice for a company based in Western Australia. That said, I’m also pretty sure Sungain didn’t go down the drain due to their taste in stock photos.
I don’t know why Sungain Solar went out of business and I don’t really want to know the details. It’s like how Tolstoy starts the novel Anna Karenina…
“Happy families are all alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”1
Every business that goes bust goes bust in its own way.
It’s an unfortunate fact that even good businesses can end up going bankrupt — and Sungain Solar was a good business. They performed quality installations, and if a customer had a problem, they addressed the issue quickly and appropriately. We have indicators that can reveal if a business is in distress, and these caused us to become concerned about Sungain Solar, but we did not know they would enter liquidation.
Is This A Growing Problem?
If you’re wondering whether solar installers going out of business is a growing problem, then please allow me to immediately reassure you — probably not.
The rooftop solar industry isn’t currently booming, but it also isn’t doing the opposite, which I guess would be moobing. The “solar rebate” was reduced at the start of this year, but that was a normal and expected part of its gradual phaseout. Meanwhile, over the past year, installers have benefited from reductions in the cost of solar panels.
There’s always a background level of businesses going bust, whether times are good or bad. But bad times do bring more business bankruptcies. Fortunately, the solar business is at least a little countercyclical in that, when times are hard, people look for ways to save money — such as installing rooftop solar.
That said, economic slowdowns are not good and I hope we’re not heading for one. The health of our economy heavily depends on what’s going on overseas and — while I haven’t checked the international news lately — no doubt all major world leaders are working hard to ensure future global peace and prosperity.
Never Pay An Excessive Deposit
Of the people who paid Sungain Solar deposits and never received a system, I know there’s at least one who paid nearly 100% deposit. When a company asks for an excessively large deposit — especially 100% — that’s a big red flag. We will not recommend using any company that asks for over-the-top deposits, and we will not work with them if they do.
Normally, you only need to pay a 10% deposit. This is the general rule of thumb for rooftop solar. That’s 10% of the total cost you have to pay after the solar rebate is applied. Some states also have legal maximum deposit limits.
If an installer asks for more than the usual 10%, it doesn’t necessarily mean something dodgy is going on — so long as state law allows it. There can be situations where it’s reasonable for an installer to ask for a larger deposit. For example, if you live in a remote area or it’s a difficult job that requires hiring additional equipment such as a cherry picker.
But even in special cases I generally expect the requested deposit to be no more than 20%. Anything over that would make me suspicious, while a 50% deposit is right out, and agreeing to pay 100% is a really bad idea. While the installer could be 100% honest, above board, and — importantly — completely financially solvent, there’s no way you can be 100% certain of that and you’re leaving yourself terribly exposed if they aren’t.
Pay Deposits By Credit Card
One way to protect yourself is to pay deposits by credit card. If something goes wrong you can request a chargeback. But using a credit card is not a reason to pay an excessively high deposit. Firstly, you may not be able to get a chargeback. Secondly, depending on the dispute, you may have to give up your deposit anyway and hand it over even if you get a chargeback. But note, I’m not a lawyer and so may not know what I’m talking about here.
What To Do If A Company Disappears With Your Deposit
If you pay a deposit to a company which then goes into liquidation, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission outlines what you can do on this page. If you are unable to get your money returned through a chargeback you can register as an unsecured creditor. It’s possible you could eventually receive all your money back, but that often doesn’t happen. You may receive a partial payment or nothing.
You may want to seek the advice of Consumer Affairs or Fair Trading in your state or territory. Their numbers at the bottom of our page on what to do if your installer disappears.
Those Referred By SolarQuotes Will Get All Their Money Back
Some who paid deposits to Sungain Solar only have the option of registering as unsecured creditors and hoping they’ll get at least some of their money back. But others can be certain that, in time, they’ll have all their deposit returned. These are people who were referred to Sungain Solar by SolarQuotes.
Our goal is to make purchasing solar easy and to reduce the risk by helping people avoid dodgy installers. So if you use our service and we refer an installer to you, we back them up with our Good Installer Guarantee. There are some conditions, and you can read about them here, but the idea is we will make sure you get what you were promised. This includes SolarQuotes reimbursing lost deposits at our expense.
We ask people to attempt to recover their deposit by registering as an unsecured creditor first, but if you don’t receive any of your deposit back, we will give you the full amount. If you only receive a partial payment, we will make up the difference. This applies not just to solar systems but also to home batteries and EV chargers from installers we refer.
There are around a dozen people SolarQuotes will help with Sungain Solar deposits. Unless they can receive money as unsecured creditors, it will add up to a considerable expense, but it gives us skin in the game and helps ensure we do our jobs properly and only refer installers who do quality work and who are solvent.
3 Steps To Protect Your Deposit
Going through SolarQuotes is in my opinion the best way to protect your deposit via our Good Installer Guarantee — but of course I’d say that. If you do buy a solar system elsewhere, at a minimum make sure to follow the other three steps I’ve outlined to keep your deposit safe:
- only pay more than a 10% deposit if there’s a good reason;
- never pay an excessive amount;
- always pay by credit card.
It’s regrettable Sungain Solar went under, and the company’s employees have our sympathy. They’re often the ones most hard done by when a business goes bust. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to see these things coming and no doubt the sun will set on other good companies in the future, so make sure you aren’t scrambling in the dark for your deposit if it happens to your installer.
Footnotes
- Please don’t leave a comment saying this is a bad translation. I’m fully aware that my Russian is terrible. But I’m afraid to send him back in case he gets conscripted. ↩
About Ronald Brakels
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It is interesting that they still have all the colourful marketing material on the home page of their website, instead of simply having a black on white screen with only the text advising they they have ceased trading, that they try to conceal in the white on orange text at the bottom of the web page.
It is also interesting to note that, at
https://abr.business.gov.au/ABN/View?id=20632201551 and
https://abr.business.gov.au/AbnHistory/View?id=20632201551
there is nothing to suggest that they have ceased trading.
They may not update that page with information on who is trading or not. This makes it necessary to check pages such as ASIC published notices:
https://publishednotices.asic.gov.au/
We had our solar panels installed by Sun Gain back in 2023. They did a reasonable job (few week delay in getting the installers around to put up the panels and the scale used to see where the panels would go on our roof was wrong so basically had to negotiate over the phone from work what would go where). Once in the roof, no issues and the installers were professional and tidy.
Anyway they would send promos and strangely the last promo I received by email was 24-12-24. That would have been three days before they declared being insolvent and there would have been zero business days between the email and becoming insolvent. Not sure if they should have been trying to get people to put down deposits that late. Hopefully no one did.
They were taking deposits on Christmas Eve! I know someone who worked for them.
The owner of Sungain Solar had left the country early 2024 to start a solar company in Texas USA called Koala Solar.
I’m sure they’ll fire up another company in Australia with the same staff – just under a new name.
What do you do for support if the company that installed your system goes out of business? In my case, I think it was a good company, G-Store. The panels were LG (which has stopped making panels), and the inverters Enphase. Enphase has helped when I had a problem with the control unit. So far, no problems with the panels, but I don’t know where I go if I do have a problem.
Hi Tim,
Enphase will provide warranty support for their microinverters for as long as their warranty lasts. LG is no longer producing solar panels but are still in businesses and providing warranty support. They have a warehouse with a lot of spare panels just in case they’re required. But they’re pretty good, so I doubt you’ll ever need to make a warranty claim.
There were around a dozen negative reviews (2 star or less) for Sungain added to your SolarQuotes review site during 2024.
To some extent they were buried under “fair incentive” – $30 payment by Sungain for 5 star reviews. In my opinion SolarQuotes swept these negative reviews under the carpet and continued to “sell” referrals to Sungain.
My review mid 2024 highlighted all the red flags discussed in your blog but SolarQuotes continued to work with them and refer them to clients until the end.
Sungain were 100 percent reliant on subcontractors and suppliers that were eventually left out of pocket.
I was fortunate enough to have most of my 30 percent deposit refunded (they only snipped me $22 for “stripe charges”).
My project was set back several months due to this debarkle.
Eventually I had my system installed by a genuine outfit (Perth Solarforce) that have a substantial business here in Perth (unlike the other bods operating from virtual office addresses).
Oh dear, the lawlessness of the wild west of solar companies going bust is as real today as it was 12 years ago. I had a system installed by Mojarra Solar in 2012, it quietly went belly up with no fanfare. I now have to get another system installed as ALL the Hyundai 220 Watt panel’s have hot spots, and the no load voltage has dropped by over 140 volts. Strange how the director/GM is still in the industry. It should be made law that all companies put up a substantial bond before being allowed in the industry to cover those poor customer’s like I was from being screwed over.
There are still too many dodgy operator’s peddling cheap crap systems. Time to man up State and federal government’s.
“Strange how the director/GM is still in the industry. ”
No – what is strange, is that the governments encourage crooks, in any type of business, by allowing “phoenixing” – the business gets caught out, doing the wrong thing, or goes broke, so, before any accountability occurs, the owners of the business, cancel the business registration, and, recommence the same business, under a new business name.
And, here, in WA, the ALP state government eliminated consumer protection, burying the department, in the mines.
Mate – further to yesterday’s comments
(You don’t have to publish this one but it’s just feedback for you guys).
Please review Sungain on your review site and change the filter to show low values first.
Read each review carefully including mine and in particular the review by Chris.
Sungain were a smoke and mirrors outfit with no real office, warehouses, or assets (just sales and admin).
You may not have been close enough to this one personally but the SolarQuotes outfit should have had mechanisms in place to realise Sungain was all of the things SolarQuotes is supposed to weed out for trusting customers.
Also read my review of SolarQuotes where the response was that Sungain were temporarily suspended until they were able to convince you guys the issues would not be repeated.
Even if SolarQuotes are offering to cover the losses by your customers it could take years before it all gets finalized. Meanwhile people will be out of pocket.
Yes business can go out of business when creditors default on payment etc (and this one could have a similar cascading impact on the Sungain’s unsuspecting creditors) but SolarQuotes have helped enable this one by not conducting appropriate due diligence and ignoring red flags.
Is SolarQuotes going to proactively chase up everyone they referred to cover the costs?
Regards
Ross
Perhaps now is the time to name and shame companies that have gone bust on Friday and re-surface on Monday with a new name! Not everyone is capable of trawling through numerous web sites to get information, so an expose by Solar Quotes would be very beneficial to clean up the industry and make prospective clients of a roof top system better informed. I get more than 3-4 companies calling me every week to purchase a solar system. Most of them I have never heard of, if you could understand what they say. CEC et al Should be the leaders in cleaning up the shonk’s, instead of protecting themselves in a cartel like manner. If the Victorian government is so entrenched in the “solarification” of my roof, after all, these people justify the call by mentioning the government is behind it, then the ” Do NOT Call” register is a joke. Anyone know how to block these pest’s on a landline?
Brian Andrews
So, went through SolarQuotes to get a few quotes, one of which was Solargain just before Christmas 2024. Decided to go with them and lost my deposit like a few others and have registered with the liquidator in WA as an unsecured creditor. Does that mean I will likely have to wait 4 or 5 years to find out I get nothing back as an unsecured creditor and then potentially get some money back from SolarQuotes?
Hi Warren
Send your details through to [email protected]
We have had some inquiries about the good installer guarantee when deposits have been taken before but I won’t pre-empt any outcome here.
Perhaps the funniest story in relation to this was a customer who was refunded a deposit. After some months his install did finally go ahead and having spent the money on a big telly, the punter involved needed a payment play to pay his deposit back again…
SolarQuotes should step up to the mark and cover the losses immediately because they were negligent in referring Sungain to unsuspecting clients.
Come on SolarQuotes – put your money where your mouth is.
People trust your brand and it’s currently damaged by this slipup.
Covering the losses now could help rebuild trust.
Hi Ross – did you read the section of the article titled “Those Referred By SolarQuotes Will Get All Their Money Back” ?
There always were a few red flags.
– Office Address was a pay-by-the-month Virtual / Serviced Office Address.
– Website full of stock images.
– Naming the business similar to Solargain; an existing reputable WA company.
The owner has now moved to Texas and started another solar company called Koala Solar. Again, copying the name of an existing WA solar company (even the logo is copied)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-goold-00a3b5a6/
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Koala+Solar%22+Texas
Hi Johnathon
Yes I did see that but it’s anybody’s guess as to how long that will take.
Maybe you could set up agreements to cover the lost deposits up front and claw back later in the unlikely event unsecured creditors are paid.
I’m only owed $22 for my short changed deposit refund back in March 2024. Maybe you guys can cover that?
At that point I reported all the red flags to Ned – see my reviews.
Unfortunately SolarQuotes failed to investigate fully and 9 months later Sungain folded. No surprise to me.
Hi again,
So far, we’ve had 10 SolarQuotes leads who we referred to Sungain reach out about lost deposits. We’ve reimbursed over $13,000 so far, with a turnaround time of about two weeks from them reaching out to our money hitting their bank accounts. We do this because we stand by our Good Installer Guarantee.
RE your $22 – absolutely you are eligible to have that refunded – please contact [email protected] and he’ll process that for you ASAP.
Ultimately – it’s on us that we referred a company that left customers in the lurch, which we’ve learned from and will do better next time around (which there hopefully isn’t!)
Thanks SolarQuotes
I’ve received the $22 that you guys covered under the Good Installer Guarantee after I was short changed by Sungain Solar.
It’s the principle that matters – not the $22.
Chapter closed for me.
I trust SolarQuotes will show the same commitment to others that were robbed by those guys.
Well done