Need help out of solar loan
Hello everyone. I am trying to help my parents out of a solar loan contract. For reasons stated below, I have most information that I believe is accurate but may not have the entire picture. If you make it through this whole post, I truly appreciate the time you took and any help/suggestions are greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I am not a big Reddit poster, so if I didn’t do this properly, let me know and I will provide any info I can.
My dad was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 62. However, despite the recent diagnosis, I have observed signs of his cognitive decline for the last 6 years. His neuropsychologist even confirmed that his disease may have even been affecting him 10 years ago. Because of this, my dad has a hard time remembering a lot of things in the last several years and my mom was not very involved (in denial and didn’t know about a lot of the very poor financial choices my dad was making) to know the whole story. We have been able to go through his emails to find some information. Along with the memory issues, the doctor has indicated that his ability to rationalize, his reasoning and judgment are all affected and may have been affected as early as 5 years ago, which we believe has led to some very poor financial decisions he has made.
My dad was early on the solar panel hype and I believe got solar panels in 2008. We got the tax credits and benefits and had a warm pool, yay. However, in 2022 he started shopping around for new solar panels. He eventually went with SunPower. They were able to convince him to also get a solar battery which made the loan about $50,000. SunPower only got my dads signature for the loan.
In May 2023, SunPower wasn’t able to get the install done by the agreed time so they sent my dad an agreement for him to sign asking if he wanted Technology Credit Union to finance the remainder of the loan, which my dad signed. So, TechCU holds the loan now.
In August 2024, SunPower declared bankruptcy and no longer does any servicing or maintenance for the solar panels.
SunPower and TechCU never got my moms signature on anything, it is only my dad.
My dad was an entrepreneur and had been trying to do his own company for years, unsuccessfully. He eventually got a job in 2019 but then was laid off during covid and then did some work for an attorney doing Employee Retention Tax Credits for small businesses and got some commissions payments. However, he was not making enough money for a company to look at his background to sell him a $50,000 solar package. We have also found out that he had been pulling from his retirement early and accrued nearly $200k in fines and paying taxes early. Among these things, he also got a $100k Figure loan which has a horrible interest rate, parents have time share loans with terrible interest rates, and some other debts that need to be resolved.
My parents are in a very bad financial situation based on a lot of decisions my dad has made in the last several years.
If you have made it this far, I am wondering if anyone has had any luck trying to cancel a solar loan agreement (recission) on their own without the help of a firm/attorney who does this? Or does anyone have any advice on whether arguing that my dad lacked capacity to sign loan agreements would be successful based on his recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s? Or has someone had a similar experience? I am trying to do this on my own without having to pay a firm, because the few firms I have spoken to have not sounded trustworthy and I also can’t wait a year or so to get this resolved because they are sinking.Are there any risks in sending a letter to them and asking to have the loan cancelled?
Literally any advice or suggestions are helpful.
TLDR: does anyone have experience sending a letter to a lender asking to have a solar loan cancelled/discharged/reduced due to financial hardship?