If your solar installer has gone out of business, the workmanship warranty on your installation is usually worthless, because it was a promise from that company and the company no longer exists. Your panel warranty and inverter warranty are different. Those sit with the manufacturers, they usually survive the installer’s collapse, and you can often still claim on them if you can find your paperwork and your serial numbers.
This post explains which warranty covers what, who you actually ring, what it is likely to cost you, and what the public record shows about how Australian solar companies really disappear. Some fold. Some get bought. Those are not the same thing, and the difference changes what you can claim.
Which warranty covers what, and who honours it if the installer folds
A solar system is not covered by one warranty. It is covered by several separate promises from different parties. When the installer goes, only some of them go with it.
| Warranty | Who promised it | Who honours it if the installer is gone | What it is likely to cost you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workmanship and installation (racking, wiring, roof penetrations, labour) | The installing company | Usually nobody. It generally dies with the company. | The full cost of any repair |
| Panel product warranty (a fault in the panel itself) | The panel manufacturer | The manufacturer, usually through its Australian office or distributor | Often parts only. Labour, access and freight can be yours |
| Panel performance warranty (output over 20 to 30 years) | The panel manufacturer | Same as above, and you normally need a test report | The test, plus the labour to swap panels |
| Inverter warranty | The inverter manufacturer | The manufacturer or its Australian distributor | Replacement unit often covered, install labour often not |
| Battery warranty | The battery manufacturer | The manufacturer or its Australian distributor | Same pattern. Removal and refit usually yours |
| Australian Consumer Law guarantees | The law, not the company | Only enforceable against a business that still exists | Free to raise, but there must be someone left to claim against |
The workmanship warranty is the one you lose
The workmanship warranty covers the things the installer did with their hands. Roof penetrations that leak. Rails that come loose. Isolators that fail. Most Australian installers offer between 5 and 25 years on this.
That promise is a contract with one company. When the company is wound up, the contract is a debt like any other, and unsecured creditors are near the back of the queue. If a new business has bought the old brand name, it is under no automatic obligation to honour the old company’s workmanship warranties, although some choose to as a goodwill decision.
So treat a long workmanship warranty as a guess about how long the company will last, not a guarantee.
The panel warranty usually survives
Panels carry two warranties. A product warranty covers manufacturing defects. A performance warranty promises the panel will still produce a stated percentage of its rated power after 25 or 30 years.
Both come from the panel manufacturer, not the installer, so the installer’s collapse does not cancel them. The catch is practical. Manufacturers want proof of purchase and the panel serial numbers, they usually require an accredited installer to inspect and remove the panels, and their terms often exclude labour, access equipment and freight. A free replacement panel is not much use if getting it on the roof costs several hundred dollars. Performance claims are harder, because you have to prove underperformance with a test you usually pay for.
The inverter warranty has the same shape
Inverter warranties sit with the manufacturer or its Australian importer. If the brand has a real Australian office, the process is usually straightforward. They ask for the serial number, the fault code and the install date, then send a replacement or repair unit. The labour to swap the unit over is commonly your problem once the installer is gone.
Australian Consumer Law does not survive a company’s death
Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law are automatic and cannot be signed away. Products must be of acceptable quality, and services must be carried out with due care and skill. The ACCC’s consumer guarantees page sets out the detail.
The limit is this. A right is only worth what you can enforce it against. If the installer’s company has been wound up with no assets, a consumer guarantee against it is a claim against nothing. Your rights against the panel and inverter manufacturers are separate and still live, because those are different businesses. That is why the manufacturer is your first phone call.
Your step by step claim checklist
Work through these in order. Everything else depends on step one.
- Find the paperwork. The tax invoice, the system design, the warranty document for each component, the electrical safety certificate and the STC assignment form. If you have lost them, your electricity retailer, your distributor and your accountant may hold copies.
- Get the serial numbers. Panel serials are on a label on the back of each panel and are usually listed on the compliance paperwork. The inverter serial is on the side of the unit and inside the monitoring app.
- Confirm the installer’s actual status. Search the company on ABN Lookup to see whether the ABN is active or cancelled and from what date, then search the name on ASIC’s published notices website for insolvency and external administration notices. A dead website is a hint, not proof.
- Contact the manufacturer’s Australian office in writing. Not the installer’s old email. Give the model, serial numbers, install date, invoice and a clear description of the fault.
- Get an accredited installer to assess it. Most manufacturers will not accept a claim without an inspection by an accredited installer. Ask the manufacturer which installers they accept before you book one.
- Ask who pays for labour before work starts. Get it in writing. The common bad surprise is a free replacement part plus a large bill for access and labour.
- If the company is in liquidation, register as a creditor. The liquidator’s name will be on the ASIC notice. Lodge the claim even if the odds are poor.
- Escalate if you get nowhere. Start with your state consumer protection agency: NSW Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs Victoria, Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading, Consumer and Business Services in SA, Consumer Protection WA, Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading in Tasmania, Access Canberra, or NT Consumer Affairs. The energy ombudsman in each state mainly handles disputes with electricity retailers and networks, so use them for connection, metering or feed in tariff problems, or where a retailer sold you the system.
What the Australian record actually shows
We checked four cases that come up repeatedly when people search for solar companies that have disappeared. Only one is a business that stopped trading. The other three get described as failures and are not.
The words are not interchangeable. Ceasing trading means the business stopped operating, which often shows up as a cancelled ABN and a dead website. Voluntary administration means an administrator takes control to see if the company can be saved, so it may still recover. Liquidation means a liquidator winds the company up and sells its assets, and it does not come back. Acquisition means someone bought the business, which is not a failure at all.
| Case | What actually happened | Date | How we verified it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hush Energy Pty Ltd (Cairns, QLD) | ABN cancelled, both websites now dead | ABN cancelled from 7 August 2024 | ABN Lookup record, plus DNS checks on both domains |
| Cola Solar (Bendigo, VIC) | Acquired by RACV Solar, later rebranded, business continued | Acquired April 2022, rebranded from 1 October 2022 | RACV’s own newsroom announcement |
| Horan & Bird Energy Pty Ltd (Townsville, QLD) | Placed in liquidation by its then owner, founder’s family bought the assets and brand | Liquidation 18 June 2024 | The company’s own published statement, plus a new ABN registered 20 June 2024 |
| Origin Energy | Exited residential solar and battery installation. Still trading as a large energy retailer | Announced 17 October 2024 | Origin’s purchase of SolarQuotes and the reporting around it |
Hush Energy: stopped trading
Hush Energy Pty Ltd, ACN 137 542 995, had its main business location recorded in postcode 4870, which is Cairns. Its ABN, 68 137 542 995, is recorded on ABN Lookup as cancelled from 7 August 2024. Neither hushenergy.com.au nor hushenergy.net.au resolved to a live website when checked on 2 August 2026. SolarQuotes’ listing carries a note that the company was reported to have gone out of business.
A cancelled ABN and dead domains show a business that has stopped operating. We did not confirm a liquidator appointment, so we do not call this a liquidation. Anyone with a Hush Energy system should treat the workmanship warranty as gone and go straight to the manufacturers.
Cola Solar: acquired, not failed
RACV Solar, a wholly owned subsidiary of RACV, announced the acquisition of Cola Solar on 4 April 2022, describing it as Central Victoria’s largest dedicated solar retailer and noting that almost 40 Cola Solar employees joined RACV Solar. The Bendigo branch trades today as RACV Solar Bendigo, and industry listings record the rebrand taking effect from 1 October 2022.
This is the good version of a company vanishing from your search results. The brand is gone, but the business, the staff and the site continued under a larger owner.
Horan & Bird: the most complicated case
According to the company’s own published account, dated 2 August 2024, Origin Energy bought Horan & Bird in 2015, then sold it to a Sydney business called Juice Energy. The company puts that sale in 2021, while Origin’s annual report records Horan & Bird Energy Pty Ltd as sold on 17 December 2020. The statement then says Juice Energy went into administration and put Horan & Bird Energy Pty Ltd into liquidation on 18 June 2024, and that founder John Horan and his family bought the assets and intellectual property to keep the name going.
The public register lines up. Horan & Bird Energy Pty Ltd holds ABN 18 608 235 721, ACN 608 235 721, registered from September 2015. A separate company, Horan & Bird Solar Pty Ltd, ACN 678 381 336, has an ABN active from 20 June 2024, two days after the stated liquidation date.
For a customer, that detail is the whole story. The entity that gave you a workmanship warranty before June 2024 is not the entity trading under the name now. Whether the new company helps you is a commercial decision, not an obligation it inherited. Ask, rather than assume.
Origin Energy: a product exit, not a collapse
On 17 October 2024, Origin Energy bought the SolarQuotes comparison business and, at the same time, confirmed it was ending its own residential solar and battery installations. SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock wrote about the deal that day, and RenewEconomy reported it the same day.
Origin is one of Australia’s largest energy retailers and continues to trade. Nothing here suggests otherwise. The customer effect is still worth understanding. When a large company closes the division that installed your system, there may be no team left who knows the job, even though the company still answers the phone.
How to lower your risk before you buy
You cannot pick a company that is guaranteed to last 25 years. What you can do is stop paying a premium for promises that depend on survival.
Check how long the entity has actually traded. Search the company on ABN Lookup. The “Active from” date tells you when that legal entity started, which is often much later than the “servicing Australians since 2009” line on the website. If the brand is old and the entity is new, ask why.
Look up the company, not just the brand. Take the ACN from the quote and search it on ASIC’s company register. Check the trading name belongs to the company you are contracting with. A deposit paid to a name that does not match the entity on the invoice is a real risk.
Discount long workmanship warranties from young companies. A 25 year workmanship warranty from a company incorporated two years ago is a promise about 2051 from a business with no track record. Across our directory of 1,611 Australian solar companies, only 16 listings mention a 25 year warranty in their public description, so where it appears, ask exactly what it covers.
Ask who the Australian warranty agent is for each component. Get the name and phone number of the Australian office or distributor for the panels, inverter and battery, and write them on the quote. Brands with a real local office are far easier to claim from.
Ask what happens to labour. “If a panel fails in year 12 and you are not around, who pays to get it off the roof?” A good salesperson will answer honestly.
Keep your own records. Scan the invoice, the compliance certificate and the serial numbers, and email them to yourself. Most failed claims start with missing paperwork.
Our guides on how to choose a solar installer and how to compare solar quotes cover the questions to ask before you sign, solar panel maintenance and lifespan covers what actually fails, and you can browse companies by area in our directory. For accreditation, check the current installer and retailer registers yourself rather than relying on any badge on a website, including ours.
Methodology
This is desk research carried out on 2 August 2026. We did not contact any company named here. We started from four cases surfaced in earlier Solar Cobber research and re-verified each before publishing. For Hush Energy: the ABN Lookup record for ABN 68 137 542 995, DNS checks on both domains, and the note on the SolarQuotes listing. For Cola Solar: RACV’s own newsroom announcement of 4 April 2022 and RACV’s current Bendigo service page. For Horan & Bird: the company’s own published statement of 2 August 2024, the ABN Lookup records for ABN 18 608 235 721 and ABN 97 678 381 336, and Origin’s annual report reference to the sale. For Origin: the SolarQuotes founder’s post of 17 October 2024 and RenewEconomy’s report of the same date. Directory figures come from the Solar Cobber directory, n=1,611, queried on 2 August 2026.
Two honest limitations. First, this is four cases, not a register of the market, and four cases cannot tell you the failure rate of the industry. Second, a cancelled ABN and a dead website are strong signs a business has stopped operating, but they are not the same as a court ordered winding up, and we have not searched insolvency notices for every company in our directory. Nothing here should be read as a comment on the financial position of any company that is currently trading.
Frequently asked questions
My installer is gone. Is my workmanship warranty completely worthless?
Against the old company, almost always yes, unless there are assets left in the liquidation. Against a buyer who acquired the business as a going concern, sometimes not, because some buyers honour old warranties to protect the brand. It is worth one polite phone call to whoever holds the name now.
How do I find out if my solar company actually went bust or just changed its name?
Search the name and ABN on ABN Lookup and check whether the ABN is active or cancelled. Then search the name on ASIC’s published notices site. Rebrands and acquisitions usually leave a public announcement, an active ABN and a redirected website. A genuine failure usually leaves a cancelled ABN, a dead domain and an insolvency notice.
Can I claim on my panel warranty without the original installer?
Usually yes. The warranty is with the manufacturer. You will need proof of purchase, the install date and the panel serial numbers, and most manufacturers require an accredited installer to inspect and carry out any replacement. Expect to pay the labour yourself, because many product warranties cover the part only. Contact the brand’s Australian office first and ask what they need before you pay anyone to go on the roof.
Does the Australian Consumer Law help me if the company is wound up?
Only against businesses that still exist. Your rights against the panel, inverter and battery manufacturers survive and are worth using. Your rights against the collapsed installer become an unsecured debt in the liquidation, which normally means little or nothing.
Related reading
- The Australian Solar Installer Report 2026
- why solar installer ratings tell you almost nothing
- do bigger installers give worse service
- how long solar panels really last
About this research
This is independent desk research by Solar Cobber. We did not visit sites, request quotes or accept payment for inclusion. Figures are dated and sourced, and pricing and policy details change, so confirm current terms directly before you sign anything.