When working with Sunlight or Loanpal, these financiers may occasionally place a stipulation (stip) on an account.
Solar financiers require paperwork to be in good order at the point of credit check and contract signing. In effect, a stipulation is a method by which the financier postures themselves to say "Customer has good credit, but there are other concerns found in our underwriting". In such scenarios, the financiers typically require additional paperwork in order to clear the stip and provide approval to move forward with installation.
Most stipulations are automatically triggered at the point of sale, however, some may pop up during financier underwriting (typically within 48-72 hours). Stipulations must be cleared in order to move forward with the solar installation, and are a key part of the clean job submissions needed to achieve Milestone 1.
| Stip | Details | Fix |
A | The customer's Legal Name was not used | Details: all financiers require a customer to sign in their legal name.
| Fix - Ensure you have the customer's full legal name prior to starting any credit paperwork. If the financier discovers an incorrect name was used, they will request new documents be resigned under the legal name. |
B | Borrower not on the title of the installation address | Details: In order to go solar, your homeowner must be on the title of the home.
| Fix - Customer would have to provide a recorded title or deed with their name on it to the financier to remove stip. Note: A mortgage statement may suffice, depending on the financier, to clear this stip. However, |
C | C) Property Type Verification | Details: Financiers will generally only lend to single-family residences on a permanent foundation (IE mobile homes do not qualify). | Fix- If the home is a brand new development, some extra photos around the home, proving it's on a permanent foundation, can generally clear this stip. It is also helpful to include a photo showing the house number if possible. |
D | Retirement Stip | Details: On the credit application, your customer listed their employment as "Retired". This stipulation is most common with Sunlight. | Fix- Ensure your homeowner provides the name, position, and years of employment at their most recent employer. The financier wants to ensure that the homeowner has current or previous income in order to safely pay their loan. |
E | Sunlight Courtesy Call | Details: Required for all homeowners above the age of 80, as a validation call to confirm their understanding of the loan. This is in place to combat elder fraud risk. | Fix - Customer needs to call Sunlight to complete the call and confirm their understanding of the loan terms. |
F | ACH information | Details: The customer did not fill out the ACH/auto pay correctly, or skipped it. This information is required by all financiers to avoid an APR penalty, so homeowners will need to provide their bank account and routing info at the point of sale (Note: non-ACH payment is an option, but ACH payment is encouraged). | Fix - Providing a photo of a voided check from the customer is the most common solution. This can generally be emailed to the financier, or, uploaded via secure email (Sunlight). |