The CBS News Texas I-Team trying into complaints in regards to the photo voltaic panel trade in the previous few months. Read our newest story right here.
GARLAND — Kim Kromdyk has no photo voltaic panels. Not one.
Just a few years in the past, he thought-about them. He even made an appointment with a shopkeeper.
“My precise phrases had been, ‘Well, it will not damage to listen to what they must say,'” he recalled. “We sat down on the kitchen desk and he had somewhat iPad. There was only a clean one there. No written textual content or something … He mentioned ‘Just signal right here so we will examine your credit score,’ and I did as he mentioned. phrase that is what I do.”
The subsequent morning, he made up his thoughts.
“I known as him and advised him I simply considered it, and I made a decision … I do not need to undergo with it,” Kromdyk mentioned. “And he mentioned ‘good.'”
That was the tip of the story. Or so he thought.
Earlier this yr, when Kromdyk tried to refinance his house, his mortgage lender observed an issue: all three credit score bureaus confirmed he was borrowing for photo voltaic panels and there was a lien on his property.
Records present an organization known as Solar Mosaic has filed liens towards Kromdyk’s house in Dallas County and the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, claiming he owes them greater than $97,000.
Kromdyk contacted Mosaic and its set up associate, Freedom Forever, to clear up any confusion.
“Freedom Forever saved telling me, ‘We canceled that over a yr in the past,'” he mentioned. “And, I mentioned, ‘Well, are you able to please inform Mosaic as a result of they are saying you are gone?’ And, I repeat, repeat, repeat.”
In response to a query from Kromdyk’s legal professional, Freedom Forever despatched a letter saying it has “cancelled Ms. Kromdyk’s Supply and Installation Agreement … for the sale and set up of photo voltaic vitality system” and knowledgeable Mosaic.
Instead of eradicating any debt from its data, nonetheless, he mentioned Mosaic all of the sudden started attempting to gather it.
“They name me two and 3 times a day saying I owe cash … telling me I’m late,” he mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘Late for what?’ I haven’t got something.
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Mosaic offered Kromdyk’s legal professional with a replica of a contract for the photo voltaic panels that he allegedly signed. Kromdyk insists he didn’t signal it.
And when he noticed it?
“Well, I need to cry.”
Kromdyk’s expertise isn’t distinctive.
Complaints throughout the nation
In Facebook teams and on the Better Business Bureau’s web site, owners from throughout the nation share almost similar accounts.
In Northern California, Andrea Bokreta mentioned she began receiving funds for a mortgage from Mosaic after a gathering with a salesman from Freedom Forever, regardless of not going by way of with the acquisition.
“I haven’t got photo voltaic. I did not order something. I did not signal something,” mentioned Bokreta.
When contacted by CBS News Sacramento, Freedom Forever responded with an e-mail saying that Bokreta signed a contract with DocuSign, however they’ve since canceled it.
In the Chicago space, Ray Covarrubias says he hasn’t reached out to anybody at Mosaic to deal with a mortgage taken out in his title that he says he did not comply with with panels he did not have.
“It’s virtually stunning how they handle the corporate since you do not discuss to anyone who has the authority to do something,” Covarrubias mentioned.
In Arizona, CBS affiliate KTVK interviewed Robert Tintinger, who additionally mentioned he did not undergo with shopping for photo voltaic panels from Freedom Forever after getting a quote from the corporate.
A yr in the past, he mentioned he began charging for a mortgage in his title at Mosaic.
In a press release to KTVK, Freedom Forever mentioned it had been in touch with Tintinger and that the contract had been fully cancelled.
Months later, KTVK interviewed one other home-owner, Melissa Hamilton, who had a Freedom Forever Mosaic mortgage in her title, even with out the photo voltaic panels.
Again, when contacted by the TV station, Freedom Forever mentioned they might look into the problem and later cancel the contract.
State attorneys in Kentucky and Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit towards Mosaic and its state associate, Solar Titan, saying the businesses “repeatedly ignored requests by cancellation made inside three days, the time period for the correct of shopper regulation to withdraw” and that. “permitting Mosaic to reap huge earnings whereas going through no penalties.”
In courtroom filings, Mosaic argued that it fulfilled its authorized obligations as a shopper lender and that it shouldn’t be answerable for Solar Titan’s conduct just because Mosaic offered investments to Solar Titan’s prospects.
“The regulation doesn’t require corporations like Mosaic to be house enchancment contractors, and definitely doesn’t impose legal responsibility beneath the circumstances introduced on this motion,” reads a courtroom doc.
Last week in Oakland, California, 100 folks gathered to protest exterior the headquarters of Solar Mosaic, accusing it of issuing funds to installers for work that was “left partially accomplished or have not even began,” in response to The Oaklandside report.
Hoping for a decision
Here in Texas, Kromdyk was left weighing his choices.
“I do not know the place I’m going to return apart from the case,” he mentioned. “Of course, that prices some huge cash.”
A retired highschool softball coach, she has a hard and fast earnings and is pondering of ultimately shifting to Michigan to be nearer to her aged mother and father.
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For months, he mentioned he felt unable to promote and even refinance his house, resulting from photo voltaic panels he had by no means seen, by no means purchased and to one of the best of his information, by no means owned. .
Mosaic didn’t comply with an interview or reply to questions from CBS News Texas in regards to the bigger sample of issues we discovered. But the corporate emailed us a press release that learn, partially:
“Mosaic takes its relationship with debtors very significantly. We try to create a constructive buyer expertise for each home-owner who chooses Mosaic to finance their long-term house enhancements.”
The assertion continued, “We can’t touch upon the state of affairs of Raymond Covarrubias as a result of it’s in lively litigation and can’t touch upon particular debtors’ conditions resulting from privateness.”
Freedom Forever emailed a remark to CBS News Texas saying they’ve a whole bunch of 1000’s of glad prospects throughout the nation. “Referred claims of consumers who can’t keep in mind agreeing to a contract may be refuted.”
The assertion continued to say “In these uncommon examples of consumers experiencing purchaser’s regret and failing to cancel as contractually stipulated within the Supply & Installation settlement, Freedom Forever continues to go above and past going ahead and canceling their contract with none monetary impression on the shopper.”
When we requested about Kromdyk particularly, each corporations later confirmed that his mortgage had been canceled.
The I-Team could have a follow-up report on Kromdyk’s situation on CBS News Texas at 10 pm on May 8.
Andrea Lucia
