If somebody knocks about solar panels, a Texas law that started this month gives you five business days and a two-page form

Senate Bill 1036, the Residential Solar Retailer Regulatory Act, created a new chapter of the Texas Occupations Code and handed the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation a program that did not exist before. The registration requirement and the enforcement provisions started September 1. If a stranger stands on a porch in 77354 this month and offers to put panels on the roof, the transaction is covered.

Who has to register

Two categories, separately. The retailer, meaning the company selling or leasing the system, and the salesperson, meaning the individual doing the selling. Both register with TDLR. A retailer also has to carry insurance and use licensed contractors for the work that requires a license.

A registration number is a thing a person can be asked for and a thing that can be looked up. TDLR's license search is at tdlr.texas.gov/residential-solar-retailers, and the department's public line is 800-803-9202.

The two-page form, and the 19 things it answers

TDLR publishes a Consumer Disclosure Statement, form SLR-X, dated August 2026. The salesperson fills it out, it goes to the buyer with the contract, and both sides sign it. It is two pages and it asks the questions a person under sales pressure tends not to think of:

• The retailer's and the salesperson's names and TDLR registration numbers.
• The total customer payment obligation, defined on the form as the sum of every payment over the full term of the loan.
• Which kind of deal it is: cash purchase, financed purchase, lease, power purchase agreement, prepaid PPA, or energy service agreement.
• Whether it is financed, by whom, and the finance company's name, address and phone.
• Whether a federal Truth in Lending disclosure was provided.
• "Can a lien be placed on my home for failure to pay?" Yes or no, in writing.
• Whether battery storage is included, with the form's own note that without it, the system's ability to provide power during an outage may be limited.
• An itemized cost breakdown: the system, the storage, the labor, the warranty, the financing points, dealer fees, other estimated costs, and whether those costs can vary.
• For a lease or PPA: the monthly payment, the number of months, whether every payment is identical, and whether the figure is actual or estimated.
• Who pays for monitoring, repairs, inverter replacement, battery replacement, roof removal and reinstallation, and taking the system down at the end of the term.
• Estimated peak generation in kilowatts and estimated average monthly generation in kilowatt-hours.
• Whether the system interconnects with a utility or co-op, and at what buyback rate.
• Who is responsible for getting homeowners-association approval.
• Whether the contract has an arbitration clause, and whether it can be opted out of.
• Whether the agreement transfers to a buyer if the house is sold.
• Who pays if the system has to come off and go back on for a roof repair.

The form carries its own line for a buyer 65 or older to confirm receiving a paper copy.

Five business days, in the statute

The cancellation right is not a company policy and not a rule TDLR wrote. It is in the law, and the disclosure form prints it: "Under Texas Occupations Code Section 1806.156, a consumer has the right to cancel a solar contract without further obligation by providing written notice within FIVE business days from the date the agreement is signed."

Business days exclude Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, so a Thursday signature runs to the following Thursday. The contract has to state the last calendar date of the window and the address, mailing or email, where the notice goes. Written notice means written; a phone call to a salesperson is not the mechanism the statute describes.

One thing that is paused, and one that is not

TDLR's own program page says the department is temporarily suspending enforcement of certain administrative rules, including the contract-disclosure rule and the educational-materials rule, until November 1, 2026. That is a hold on the department's enforcement of those rules, not a repeal of the statute behind them. The five-business-day cancellation right sits in the Occupations Code and is unaffected by it.

Things to check, with the paperwork in hand

• The registration number on the form, checked against TDLR's search, for both the company and the person.
• The total customer payment obligation, item 5, compared against the monthly figure the salesperson led with. A low monthly payment across 25 years is a different number from the one on the window sticker.
• The lien answer in item 8.
• The last calendar date of the cancellation window, which the contract is required to state.
• The arbitration answer in item 17, and whether it can be opted out of.
• Whether the agreement transfers on a sale, item 18, which is the question that surfaces years later at a closing.
• The HOA question in item 16, which matters in every deed-restricted subdivision in this county.

Two structures, side by side

Buying the system means the equipment is yours, the cost is a purchase price plus financing, the maintenance question is answered by whatever the contract says, and the panels go with the house when it sells. Leasing it, or signing a power purchase agreement, means a monthly payment instead of a purchase price, a term measured in years, a maintenance obligation that may sit with the provider, and a contract that a future buyer either assumes or does not. Which costs less over twenty years depends on the escalator in the payment, the electricity rate it is measured against, and how long the house is kept. The form is built to make both sets of numbers visible before signing; it takes no position on which is better, and neither does this paper.

If you do nothing

Nothing happens. There is no deadline in this law that runs against a homeowner who is not buying anything. The only clock that matters is the one that starts on the day a contract is signed, and it runs five business days.

Sources: Texas Senate Bill 1036, 89th Legislature, creating Chapter 1806 of the Occupations Code, and Section 1806.156 on cancellation; the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation's Residential Solar Retailers program page, for the registration categories, the license search and the temporary suspension of enforcement of certain rules until November 1, 2026; TDLR Consumer Disclosure Statement form SLR-X, August 2026, for the 19 disclosure items and the cancellation language quoted above; TDLR's published complaint line, 800-803-9202, and complaint address, P.O. Box 12157, Austin, Texas 78711. The comparison of purchase against lease describes the structures the form itself distinguishes and recommends neither. No company is named here because the paper names no products.