KATY, Texas \u2013 What would you do if you tried to pay your bill, but couldn\u2019t get anyone to take your money?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the reality one Houston-area homeowner says she\u2019s been facing for months after her solar company, Elios Solar, seemingly disappeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never tried to pay somebody as bad as I have tried to pay these people,\u201d said homeowner Shandreika Surtain.<\/p>\n
Surtain says she had solar panels installed back in October. But by December, she noticed something unusual, she hadn\u2019t received a bill. That\u2019s when she says she started trying to contact the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds like you\u2019ve tried contacting three or four different people with this company. Yeah. And nothing,\u201d KPRC 2\u2019s Rilwan Balogun asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing. Finally, I looked online and I found that 888 number. I called that too,\u201d Surtain said.<\/p>\n
Since then, she says the silence has been constant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been no contact, no communication. I\u2019ve been trying to pay them absolutely nothing,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have literally fell off the face of the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Surtain says the issue goes beyond just making a payment. She\u2019s worried about what happens if something goes wrong with her system.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, if a storm does come through I have to find somebody who knows anything about solar panels to, one, come out and check it and see if it\u2019s working, if they can fix it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I find that after contacting so many different companies, a lot of solar panel companies do not want to come out, and service solar panels that they did not install.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have anybody to fix it because I have nobody to call. So, I\u2019m literally stuck,\u201d the mother of two said.<\/p>\n
KPRC 2 News attempted to contact Elios Solar multiple times by phone and email but was unable to reach anyone. Emails were returned as undeliverable, and calls went unanswered.<\/p>\n
Surtain also says she\u2019s concerned about the financial consequences of not being able to pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never tried to pay somebody as bad as I have tried to pay these people. Because I don\u2019t want you to put a lien on my property. I don\u2019t want, you know, down the line to say, oh, I defaulted and I didn\u2019t pay you because that\u2019s so far from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Balogun was at her home, Surtain made another attempt to get answers and for the first time in months, someone picked up.<\/p>\n
The call was with the contractor who installed her panels.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, Miguel finally answered. It has been forever. Elio Solar is out of money,\u201d Surtain said. \u201cThey told Miguel to stop all work because he is the installer who installed the solar panels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The response offered some clarity but also raised new concerns.<\/p>\n
A search for bankruptcy filings tied to the company did not immediately return results.<\/p>\n
What you can do if this happens to you<\/p>\n
Consumer experts say situations like this, while frustrating, are not unheard of.<\/p>\n
Leah Napoliello with the Better Business Bureau says homeowners should start by gathering all documentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s important for the customer to first of all, gather any information, any contracts, receipts, that sort of thing, Napoliello said. \u201cThey could potentially go to their bank or credit card company and dispute the charges that way if the business is not responding to them at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also recommends monitoring whether the company files for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then also check to see if the business winds up filing for bankruptcy. Then that could be an option too,\u201d she said. \u201cThey could file a claim if the company does go into bankruptcy. They could also potentially take the company to court if they\u2019re not able to get a response whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homeowners can also file a complaint with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation under residential solar retailers.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KATY, Texas \u2013 What would you do if you tried to pay your bill, but couldn\u2019t get anyone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[96381,96383,14429,96380,27,29,28,96382],"class_list":["post-255842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-elios-solar","tag-homeowner-consumer-protection","tag-solar-panel","tag-solar-panel-complaints","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-solar-complaints"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}