Can you cancel a solar panel contract before installation in California?

Yes — and the window is set by statute, not by the contract

Civil Code section 1689.6(a)(1) provides that, “[i]n addition to any other right to revoke an offer, the buyer has the right to cancel a home solicitation contract or offer until midnight of the third business day, or until midnight of the fifth business day if the buyer is a senior citizen, after the day on which the buyer signs an agreement or offer to purchase which complies with Section 1689.7.” (Civ. Code §1689.6(a)(1), leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, verified 2026-09-17.)

The CPUC states the same right in plain terms in its California Solar Consumer Protection Guide material: “You have at least three business days to cancel your contract for any reason. If you are 65 years old or older, you have five business days. You may cancel the contract by emailing, mailing, faxing, or delivering a notice to your solar provider by midnight of the third business day after you received a signed, dated copy of the contract. Note that different rules may apply for contracts negotiated at a company’s place of business.” (CPUC, verified 2026-09-17.)

“For any reason” is accurate. The statute does not require a reason, a defect or a dispute.

When the clock starts — this is where people lose the right

The counting rule depends on which statute your contract was written under, and the difference is real.

• A home improvement contract — which is what most residential solar installation contracts are, under Business and Professions Code section 7151.2 — is covered by Civil Code section 1689.6(a)(2): the buyer may cancel “until midnight of the third business day, or until midnight of the fifth business day if the buyer is a senior citizen, after the buyer receives a signed and dated copy of the contract or offer to purchase that complies with Section 1689.7.” (Civ. Code §1689.6(a)(2), verified 2026-09-17.)
• Business and Professions Code section 7159(d)(3)(A) makes the same point from the contractor’s side: “Before any work is started, the contractor shall give the buyer a copy of the contract that is signed and dated by both the contractor and the buyer. The buyer’s receipt of the copy of the contract initiates the buyer’s rights to cancel the contract pursuant to Sections 1689.5 to 1689.14, inclusive, of the Civil Code.” (Bus. & Prof. Code §7159(d)(3)(A), verified 2026-09-17.)
• Other home solicitation contracts run from the day the buyer signs, under section 1689.6(a)(1).

“Business day” is defined, and it is not the same as a weekday. Civil Code section 1689.5(e): “‘Business day’ means any calendar day except Sunday, or the following business holidays: New Year’s Day, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.” (Verified 2026-09-17.) Saturday counts. Sunday does not.

“Senior citizen” is also defined: Civil Code section 1689.5(f), “an individual who is 65 years of age or older.” Section 1689.6(a)(4) records that the five-day right applies to contracts entered into, or offers conveyed, on or after 1 January 2021. (Verified 2026-09-17.)

The window depends on where the contract was negotiated

The right is a home solicitation right. Civil Code section 1689.5(a) defines a “home solicitation contract or offer” as a contract or offer for the sale, lease or rental of goods or services “made at other than appropriate trade premises” in an amount of $25 or more, and section 1689.5(b) defines “appropriate trade premises” as “premises where either the owner or seller normally carries on a business, or where goods are normally offered or exposed for sale in the course of a business carried on at those premises.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)

Business and Professions Code section 7159(d)(6)(A) states the exception from the contractor’s side: the “Three-Day Right to Cancel” notice — or “Five-Day Right to Cancel” for a senior citizen — must be given “unless the contract is: (i) Negotiated at the contractor’s place of business,” or subject to the seven-day disaster-repair right, or subject to Alarm Company Act licensure. (Verified 2026-09-17.)

So a contract signed at a kitchen table, on a doorstep or on a tablet in a driveway is the case the statute was written for. A contract negotiated in the company’s own showroom may not be. The CPUC says the same: “different rules may apply for contracts negotiated at a company’s place of business.” If that is your situation, read your own contract’s cancellation clause and, if the stakes justify it, get a California attorney to read it. The setting the statute was written for is covered in the door-to-door solar sales guide.

The contract has to tell you this, in a specified size and place

This is a checkable thing, and if it is missing, that is itself a fact.

Business and Professions Code section 7169(b) requires that the “solar energy system disclosure document” — developed by the Contractors State License Board with the CPUC — “shall be printed on the front page or cover page of every solar energy contract,” “shall be printed in boldface 16-point type,” and shall include “(1) The total cost and payments for the system, including financing costs. (2) Information on how and to whom customers may provide complaints. (3) The consumer’s right to the applicable cancellation period pursuant to Section 7159 of the Business and Professions Code.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)

CSLB publishes that disclosure in both a three-day and a five-day version, in English and Spanish, and reproduces the statutory text on its Solar Requirement page. (CSLB, verified 2026-09-17.) The CPUC states: “By law, a solar provider must provide you with a completed Solar Energy System Disclosure Document created by the Contractors State License Board (CSLB).” (Verified 2026-09-17.)

Business and Professions Code section 7169(d) requires the contract and the disclosure to be “written in the same language as was principally used in the oral sales presentation made to the consumer or the print or digital marketing material given to the consumer.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)

And section 7159(a)(6): “If the applicable ‘Notice of Cancellation’ is not included in or attached to the contract as required by this section, the buyer may file a complaint with the Contractors State License Board.” (Verified 2026-09-17.) What these documents are meant to stop is set out in the solar contract red flags guide.

How to cancel, exactly

The statute is specific, and specificity protects you.

• In writing. Civil Code section 1689.6(d): “Cancellation occurs when the buyer gives written notice of cancellation to the seller at the address or email address specified in the agreement or offer.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)
• Use the address or email in the contract. Section 1689.7(b) requires the agreement to carry on the first page the name, address and email address of the seller to which the notice is to be sent, the date the buyer signed, and a telephone number to help the buyer locate and fill out the Notice of Cancellation. Business and Professions Code section 7159(d)(3)(B) imposes the equivalent requirement on a home improvement contract. (Verified 2026-09-17.)
• Mailing is effective on deposit. Section 1689.6(e): “Notice of cancellation, if given by mail, is effective when deposited in the mail properly addressed with postage prepaid.” (Verified 2026-09-17.) You are not at the mercy of when it is opened.
• The wording does not have to match the form. Section 1689.6(f): notice “need not take the particular form as provided with the contract or offer to purchase and, however expressed, is effective if it indicates the intention of the buyer not to be bound by the home solicitation contract or offer.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)
• The statutory notice text names the channels. The “Three-Day Right to Cancel” notice prescribed by Business and Professions Code section 7159(d)(6)(B)(i) states: “You may cancel by emailing, mailing, faxing, or delivering a written notice to the contractor at the contractor’s place of business by midnight of the third business day after you received a signed and dated copy of the contract that includes this notice. Include your name, your address, and the date you received the signed copy of the contract and this notice.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)

Keep proof of what you sent and when. Send it by more than one of the permitted channels if the deadline is close.

What the provider owes you back, and on what clock

• Ten days for money and notes. Civil Code section 1689.10(a): “within 10 days after a home solicitation contract or offer has been canceled, the seller must tender to the buyer any payments made by the buyer and any note or other evidence of indebtedness.” (Verified 2026-09-17.) The section 7159 notice states the same: “If you cancel, the contractor must return to you anything you paid within 10 days of receiving the notice of cancellation.”
• No charge for work already done. Civil Code section 1689.11(c): “If the seller has performed any services pursuant to a home solicitation contract or offer prior to its cancellation, the seller is entitled to no compensation. If the seller’s services result in the alteration of property of the buyer, the seller shall restore the property to substantially as good condition as it was at the time the services were rendered.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)
• You have duties too. Civil Code section 1689.11(a): within 20 days after cancellation the buyer, on demand, must tender any goods delivered, but is not obliged to tender anywhere other than the buyer’s own address; “[i]f the seller fails to demand possession of goods within 20 days after cancellation, the goods become the property of the buyer without obligation to pay for them.” Section 1689.11(b) puts a duty of reasonable care on the buyer and otherwise places the risk on the seller during that 20-day period. (Verified 2026-09-17.)
• The statutory Notice of Cancellation form itself says “without any penalty or obligation.” The form text prescribed by Business and Professions Code section 7159(d)(6)(B)(vi)(I) and by Civil Code section 1689.7(c)(1) reads: “You may cancel this transaction, without any penalty or obligation, within three business days from the above date.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)

If money was taken and the work stopped, see what to do when a solar company took the deposit.

A cancellation right and a cancellation fee are two different things

This is the distinction the query is really asking about, so state it cleanly and do not overstate it.

Inside the statutory window, the statutory notice form says the transaction may be cancelled “without any penalty or obligation,” and Civil Code section 1689.11(c) provides that a seller who performed services before cancellation “is entitled to no compensation.”

Outside the statutory window, the statute is no longer the instrument. What governs is the contract you signed — its termination clause, any liquidated-damages or restocking provision, any engineering, permitting, design or site-visit charge, and any separate financing agreement. Those terms vary by contract and this page cannot tell you what yours says.

Three practical consequences:

1. A fee named in a contract is not the same as a fee that is lawful or enforceable. Nothing on this page determines whether a particular charge is valid. That is a question for a California attorney, and, where it concerns a licensed contractor’s conduct, a matter you can raise with CSLB. How fees sit inside a price is covered in the dealer fee explainer.
2. The deposit and progress-payment rules are separate and checkable. Business and Professions Code section 7159.5(a)(3): “If a downpayment will be charged, the downpayment shall not exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000) or 10 percent of the contract amount, whichever amount is less.” Section 7159.5(a)(5): “Except for a downpayment, the contractor shall neither request nor accept payment that exceeds the value of the work performed or material delivered.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)
3. Cancelling the installation contract is not automatically cancelling the financing. Civil Code section 1689.10(a) requires the seller to tender back “any note or other evidence of indebtedness,” but a separate agreement with a separate lender has its own terms. Civil Code section 1689.5(a) also carves out of “home solicitation contract” “any contract under which the buyer has the right to rescind pursuant to Title 1, Chapter 2, Section 125 of the Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act” — a different rescission right with its own rules. Ask the lender, in writing, what cancelling the installation does to the loan. Business and Professions Code section 7169(e) confirms only that the PACE Financing Estimate and Disclosure form satisfies section 7169 for the financing contract, not for the underlying installation contract. (Verified 2026-09-17.)

If the provider refuses

The CPUC states the route: “If your solar provider refuses to cancel the contract, report them to the CSLB at 800-321-CSLB (2752) or cslb.ca.gov/consumers.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)

Business and Professions Code section 7159(a)(6) gives the same route where the required Notice of Cancellation was not included or attached. Keep your copy of the contract, the disclosure document, the Notice of Cancellation form and proof of what you sent and when.

Before you sign anything else

The CPUC’s guidance for checking a provider is specific: get the CSLB licence number, get the individual home improvement salesperson registration number if you were contacted by telephone or door-to-door, and check both. The CPUC states the licence “must be active and in classification C-46 (Solar Contractor), C-10 (Electrical Contractor), or B (General Building Contractor) in order to be valid.” (Verified 2026-09-17.)

The CPUC also states, on savings estimates, that “[s]olar providers are allowed to use a maximum electricity rate escalation of 10% in any calculation, as of 2025,” and tells homeowners to ask how a bill-savings figure was calculated. (Verified 2026-09-17.)

Comparing offers instead of signing one starts with putting California solar quotes on the same basis, and the pressure that produces a same-day signature is described in what each sales tactic obscures.

A referral request is optional and separate

California Rate Relief is a private referral service. It does not review contracts, does not give legal or tax advice, does not cancel anything on your behalf, and cannot preserve or extend a statutory deadline. A referral request does not approve financing, establish program eligibility or promise a price or savings figure. If a cancellation deadline is running, act on the deadline first.

Frequently asked questions