Convinced by the pitch, Mr Thompson took out a £7,000 loan from his bank that meant repayments of over £10,000 over 10 years.
The firm, which went bust in 2017, installed solar panels on Mr Thompson’s end-of-terraced house as promised.
But the reality was that the loan repayments far outstripped the money he was making from the panels. Mr Thompson commissioned an independent survey which showed that it would take more than 20 years to pay off the loan by selling electricity back to his supplier, National Grid.
“It was a pack of lies,” he says. “I was mis-sold. When I realised, I was gutted.”
Mr Thompson’s bank eventually wrote off the loan, but only after he had spent £2,400 on solicitors’ fees. He had to use equity release on his home to cover the cost. “It affected my pension plans,” he says.
Mr Thompson’s solar panels make him between £260 and £300 a year. But the saga has made him regret his purchase.
“I wouldn’t recommend solar panels to anybody,” he says.
Tony Walch had a similar experience after having solar panels installed by MyPlanet, which went bust in 2017.
He was told that installing the system would generate £35,000 of income over 20 years, and took out a £15,000 loan to pay for the installation.
“It sounded legit,” he says. “They told me I’d be getting £1,500 to £2,000 a year back.”
After six months, it became clear he had been conned. “I was absolutely fuming when I realised. We were getting nearer £700 to £1,000. The output was half what they said. And we had to pay £130 a month in repayments. They oversold it.”
To make matters worse, shoddy installation caused Mr Walch’s panels to overheat after the inverter broke down.
He was told by the salesman that the panels were covered by an insurance-backed guarantee approved by the Government, but when he phoned the insurance company, he found it had gone into liquidation.
He took the company to court to get back the money he had borrowed. As the firm had gone bust, the court ordered his bank to write off the loan. But the repair work and lost FIT payments ended up costing him £2,526.