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Can Tesla renege on the Solar Loan Agreement?

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I have a signed Solar Loan Agreement on my account page. The loan agreement indicates that it is a $0 down loan. In other words, my Loan Amount is equal to the Cash Amount if I had chosen the Cash option.

Tesla just sent me another System Design to accept, but this time, it indicates that I have to pay 10% down, due at installation.

Can Tesla do this? Before I got sent this new System Design to accept, I was just waiting for my installation, with all the required paperwork already submitted and signed. I had not requested any changes to my design.

Thank you for you advice.
 
I have a signed Solar Loan Agreement on my account page. The loan agreement indicates that it is a $0 down loan. In other words, my Loan Amount is equal to the Cash Amount if I had chosen the Cash option.

Tesla just sent me another System Design to accept, but this time, it indicates that I have to pay 10% down, due at installation.

Can Tesla do this? Before I got sent this new System Design to accept, I was just waiting for my installation, with all the required paperwork already submitted and signed. I had not requested any changes to my design.

Thank you for you advice.

I think its somewhat covered in this other thread, and a post you made in it, right?


Its likely zero down is one finance plan, and .99 is another. Are you trying to combine both of them like the person in the referenced thread above (that you quoted) was trying to do, and got shot down?
 
You're right. We never heard back from the guy after he said he got a call from Tesla to put 10% down. It would be good to get a follow up from him to see if he agreed to it.

I wasn't trying to request anything special. The terms were 0.99% APR, 10 year, $0 down, offered to me by the PA in the solar loan agreement, which I have signed. Since I already have a signed document, I was wondering if Tesla is able to just ask me to re-sign another document that says 10% down.

Attached is a screenshot of the terms right before I accepted (8.16 kW + 2 Powerwalls).
 

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I would then suggest you not click or accept anything until you get explanation / Agreement from tesla. If you click the new design that includes that new financing, they may not be able to reverse it to your current deal, so dont accept anything without getting it straightened out, if you can get it straightened out.
 
If you want to massively halt your installation... but make sure you 100% get the financing data per your agreement, you can alert Tesla that their lending practice does not currently comply with 12 CFR 1026.18. Since they have failed to provide you a clear schedule of payments (amount, timing, number, etc).

If you tell them that a failure to remedy this will result in you filing a CFPB complaint, there's a very strong chance that someone over there will hand-deliver you the information you need. But it could take months (Tesla isn't really staffed with enough humans), and your installation PTO could be taken off the rails until this is sorted out.


Basically you'll need to balance how much a strict adherence to USA lending practice benefits/harms you. You could spend quite a bit of time to get all this financing data in order. Regardless, I agree with jjrandorin that you shouldn't sign something if you have doubts/questions about any part of that agreement (especially things with dollar amounts).

PS. Don't consider this to be real financial or legal advice. The numbers could all be made up, and I have a picture of a guy holding a disconnect as my credentials.
 
PS. Don't consider this to be real financial or legal advice. The numbers could all be made up, and I have a picture of a guy holding a disconnect as my credentials.

Lol at the "picture of a guy holding a disconnect as my credentials :)

(speaking in very general terms now, not directed at anyone in particular)

The thing is, I have noticed that, whenever someone leads with, or includes "this is not legal advice" or "this is not financial advice", and then discusses those topics, even in generalities, those are people I try to REALLY pay attention to... because they generally know what they are talking about on the subject.
 
Interesting. Does $48.50 correspond to any specific % figure of the total cost?

Total cost was ~$35000 and I was originally set to pay $3500 down. But just after install they pushed new loan docs with only a $30,xxx loan amount. I originally ordered and was approved for 4kW and then changed to 8kW. Perhaps they only approved the loan up to a certain amount? And did not bother to go back and run the check for a larger amount?

So my guess is that they simply increased the DP to make up for the gap, and 4,820 would be on target. Likely not worth a fight at this point.

TLDR I think someone fat fingered the amount and/or forgot got add the .00, hence the $48.20 instead of 4,820.00
 
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Just posting a follow-up (spoiler alert: they can't honor their contract)

  • My PA told me to call their financial operations department (877-973-7652) to see if they could fix the contract. I have no idea why she is telling me to make the calls when it is their mistake to fix in the first place.
  • I call the number. The person on the line looks at the existing contract that I signed from a couple months ago and confirms that I would only be making monthly payments with no downpayment required. I dutifully report back my findings to my PA.
  • My PA tells me to call them again to ask that they fix the contract since she can only generate a 10% down contract, and she can't proceed with scheduling an installation until I do so. Again, I'm not sure why it is on me to try to fix their processes.
  • I call the number again. The person on the other end again says that there is nothing for them to fix, everything looks fine. I tell this person that my PA is unable to proceed unless I can get the contract fixed. He suggests that I call a brand new department they have called Tesla Finance LLC (844-837-5285).
  • I call that number. The person says that they are only responsible for cases after PTO. He suggests that I call their sales teams instead (877-571-7652).
  • I call that number. The person says that it is not their department either and directs me to call my PA back.
  • At this point, I don't know what to do. I go to online chat support and ask if I can speak to another PA there since my own PA is unable to help. The customer rep in the online chat asks me what the issue is. I describe it and she helpfully forwards my request back to my own PA =/
  • My own PA then emails me back saying:
"I contact Tesla Finance team and they are requiring a minimum 10% down for the loan.
The payment option showed on your tesla account in the beginning was incorrect because it did not include a 10% down, that is the reason why it was updated and re-uploaded to your account.

We are unable to change our loan term/policy."
  • At this point, I give up knowing that they will not be honoring their own loan terms. So I go to my account and I'm ready to accept whatever terms they want. Before I click on 'Accept', there is a fine print saying "By clicking accept, you agree to the Energy Products Purchase Agreement, Tesla E-Sign Consent and the above price details"
  • I review the Energy Products Purchase Agreement and lo and behold, the loan amount stated in the contract I'm about to sign is still the number without requiring a 10% downpayment. I'm ready for the next shitshow.
/rant over
 
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I am sorry for your pain on this and thanks for sharing. But from a distance, it is hard not to laugh at the level of incompetence (for lack of a better word). If this were a TV show, the laugh track would be running. I hope that you can eventually see some humor in it.

I hope that the revised contract slips through for you.

All the best,

BG
 
Imnal.... Frankly the purchase agreement can be Changed over and over .... It's the loan contract (retail installment contract) that once executed become legally binding

That's good to know. I haven't seen the loan contract yet. Does the loan contract come after the purchase agreement? I signed the first revision of the purchase contract back in early June and never received a loan contract afterwards.
 
That's good to know. I haven't seen the loan contract yet. Does the loan contract come after the purchase agreement? I signed the first revision of the purchase contract back in early June and never received a loan contract afterwards.

For me, the loan contract was finally received by me after permitting but before install scheduling. It definitely need to be signed before they will schedule the install, but I think it can come anytime after credit check approval. I had to follow up with Tesla, the advisor claimed it was sent to me already, but I checked echosign/Adobe sign which shows everything sent to my email address for signing and it wasn't there. Then I finally got the RIC a day or two after I followed up with the Advisor.
 
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For me, the loan contract was finally received by me after permitting but before install scheduling. It definitely need to be signed before they will schedule the install, but I think it can come anytime after credit check approval. I had to follow up with Tesla, the advisor claimed it was sent to me already, but I checked echosign/Adobe sign which shows everything sent to my email address for signing and it wasn't there. Then I finally got the RIC a day or two after I followed up with the Advisor.

Thanks. Can you tell me what does 'RIC' stand for? I would like to ask my advisor for it too. Thanks again.