Lights out? Vision Solar files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

CAMDEN – A Gloucester Township solar-power firm under fire from its customers and regulators has filed to liquidate its assets in bankruptcy.

The move by Vision Solar LLC will likely leave its creditors unhappy, too.

Vision Solar LLC, which uses telemarketers to sell solar panels and installations to a residential market. listed assets of $8 million.

But it has liabilities of $119 million, including $96 million in unsecured claims.

The company said it does not expect to have enough money to satisfy unsecured creditors.

Vision Solar can’t pay its debts or “feasibly address litigation” against it in courts across the country, the company said in a Dec. 28 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court here.

A court filing listed more than 50 legal actions against Vision Solar, with many involving claims of consumer fraud. Suits also allege telemarketing violations, unfair termination of employees and lease disputes.

Among other cases, Vision Solar and a South Jersey telemarketing firm agreed to pay $135,000 in July to resolve allegations of misconduct by the U.S. Justice Department and Arizona’s Attorney General.

Among other claims, a suit filed by the agencies said telemarketers repeatedly violated the Do Not Call registry while trying to sell Solar Vision’s products.

The complaint also said the sales force misrepresented potential costs and savings for customers, and falsely claimed their company was affiliated with an electric utility or government entity.

The company also was sued in March by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who alleged Vision Solar’s “predatory practices are far and away the worst we have seen.”

In a statement announcing the suit, Tong’s office noted complaints about “high-pressure sales tactics, misrepresentations about financing and tax credits, and unpermitted work that left homeowners saddled with nonfunctioning systems and unaffordable loans.”

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Vision Solar filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which allows a debtor to liquidate assets in an effort to satisfy creditors.

The filing listed an unsecured debt of about $587,000 to Solar XChange LLC of Cherry Hill, Vision Solar’s co-defendant in the Arizona complaint.

A representative of the company and its attorney could not be reached for immediate comment.

The company’s website was not functioning on Friday.

Vision Solar, founded in 2018, has described itself as the nation’s sixth largest solar provider.

The business, based on the Black Horse Pike in the Blackwood section, in March announced an “initial investment of $20 million” from a financing platform “backed by one of the nation’s leading sustainability private equity firms.”

It said the cash would allow it to invest in “proprietary technology and infrastructure.”

It predicted a second phase of funding would “completely disrupt the industry,” but offered no details about that project or the financing firm.

The firm in March said it had more than $150 million in annual revenue, and had installed more than 15,000 solar projects.

The company said it was active in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Texas and Arizona.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Vision Solar faces lawsuits from customers in residential market