Homeowners showing interest in solar end up with liens and loans | Call Kurtis Investigates
SACRAMENTO -- If you look up at the roof of Andrea Bokreta's Sacramento home, you won't find solar panels. She says she decided against them after meeting with a representative for Solar company Freedom Forever in February 2023.
More than a year later, Bokreta received an invoice from finance company Mosaic which also goes by Solar Mosaic. The bill said Bokreta owed $11,640 with a loan maturity date of 2048.
"I thought that's a mistake because I knew I didn't sign anything," Bokreta said.
But, to take out a loan in Bokreta's name, someone needed her Social Security number. Bokreta said she gave it to them because she was told it was needed for the estimate.
Besides the loan, our investigation discovered Solar Mosaic filed a lien against Bokreta's home in February 2023.
"Couldn't believe it," Bokreta told CBS13. "You were the first one who told me that, so I couldn't even figure it out."
In Arizona, two different homeowners told Phoenix television station KTVK, they were billed for solar panels they did not get nor wanted. In this video posted to YouTube, Mosaic encourages its partner contractors to get homeowners to sign deals digitally with no paperwork.
Protesters from as far away as Los Angeles showed up to Mosaic's Oakland headquarters in April, demanding that Solar Mosaic cancel loans, claiming the company conspired with contractors to defraud homeowners with $3 million in fraudulent home improvement loans.
In Bokreta's case, Freedom Forever told CBS13 in a statement, "After review of Andrea's account, there are some significant factual errors in her claim to you."
Freedom Forever Director of Customer Service Ty Trippany claims Bokreta DocuSigned a contract in February 2023. CBS13 asked Freedom Forever to send the contract to Bokreta, who insists she did not sign it. The signature is electronic.
"That was automatically signed," she said. "So that was, an automatic sign." She told CBS13 the signature on the document is not hers.
Freedom Forever provided CBS13 with the digital audit of the signature, which raises even more questions.
The audit reveals Bokreta viewed the 24 page contract and signed or initialed in seven different spots within 29 seconds. She insists she never read nor signed anything.
The finance company Mosaic also sent us the DocuSigned audit trail for the loan documents signed the same morning. It's even more surprising.
The audit reveals she viewed the 29 pages of loan documents and signed in six different spots within 27 seconds.
Bokreta insists she didn't sign this document either.
Mosaic also claims it confirmed the loan terms on a recorded phone line, but the company refused to furnish that recorded phone call to CBS13, despite having Bokreta's permission.
Despite standing by its contract, Freedom Forever now states that the company worked with Bokreta's lender to ensure the loan was canceled. Mosaic sent her a confirmation that the loan was canceled. Our investigation found a lien termination filing with Sacramento County.
Bokreta said the stress from the loan left her with dangerously high blood pressure. She would like to see both companies held accountable.
"Somebody needs to stop them," Bokreta said.
As part of our investigation, CBS13 learned that the California Contractors State License Board has fined Freedom Forever 13 times since 2017 for breaking various regulations. The state is going after the company's license.
Two Attorneys General are suing Mosaic for various concerns over those lending practices.
CBS13 News asked Mosaic about claims that they are conspiring with contractors to defraud homeowners. But the company did not directly respond to our question. Mosaic did say they are not a contractor and take homeowner safeguards seriously while working with homeowners to resolve concern.
Here are the full statements from both companies.
FREEDOM FOREVER
Thank you for contacting us regarding Andrea Bokreta. After review of Andrea's account, there are some significant factual errors in her claim to you. As a company policy, we don't send contractual information without the consent of the contract signee. If Andrea consents, I can share the documentation to support the factual narrative. Below is a timeline for further details but want to mention Andrea won't be held liable for any invoices or payments made (if any were made).
2/10/23 – Andrea Bokreta signed a S&I (Supply & Installation) contract with Freedom Forever
• Emailed to: (redacted by CBS13)
• Date & time: 2/10/23 @ 10:41am pst
• Method: DocuSign via digital audit trail
2/11/23 – Site Survey (Survey technician arrived on property to take photos & dimensions of the roof which enables our engineering team to design blueprints) took place. Customer greeted our technician and allowed us property access.
• Address: (redacted by CBS13)
• Date & time: 2/11/23 at approximately 2:30-3:45pm
4/15/24 – Andrea contacts Freedom Forever citing she never signed up for a solar system (factually incorrect)
• Important: We could not find any record of Andrea cancelling as outlined in section 6.1 Right to Cancel in her signed contract. Despite this, we worked with her lender to ensure the loan was cancelled. If you are able to supply anything to contradict this, we'd be happy to review it.
4/20/24 – Lender processed loan cancellation
• On or about Saturday 4/20/24, the lender verified cancellation of the loan and sent email confirmation of this to Andrea
MOSAIC STATEMENT
Mosaic is a financial institution and we take consumer privacy seriously. As such, we cannot provide recordings of welcome calls, which contain sensitive consumer PII. We cannot speak to the site survey timing and the estimate provided by Freedom Forever. The loan agreement is based on the amount in the home improvement agreement/contract; it can change in amount based on the details of the job. We work with homeowners to adjust the amount if the projected price changes. We then adjust the amount of the loan accordingly and this loan adjustment is signed by borrower.
We cannot speak to the circumstances around her signing an agreement with the home improvement contractor.
