Since July 1, 2026, a solar retailer can't operate in Utah without registering with the Division of Consumer Protection. Most of the attention has gone to the bond. The rule that changes more about how a D2D solar company runs is one sentence long: "A sales representative shall be an employee of the solar retailer."
This is the law as written in HB 57, the Residential Solar Energy Consumer Protection Act, and what each part means for the systems behind your doors. We're operators, not lawyers. Read it with your counsel before you change anything.
Registration and the bond
From July 1, 2026, every sale by an unregistered solar retailer is its own violation (§ 13-52-302). Registration lasts a year. The bond, or a certificate of deposit, comes in three sizes:
| Bond | When it applies |
|---|---|
| $100,000 | No violation in the last three years, fewer than 10 employees, and under 500 kW sold a year |
| $200,000 | No violation in the last three years, and 10 or more employees or over 500 kW a year |
| $300,000 | The retailer or an affiliated person had a violation in the last three years |
The retailer and the people the law calls participants submit fingerprints for a background check, and can't have a theft, fraud or dishonesty conviction in the last ten years. The Division's retailer page has the current application.
The systems point: your bond tier moves with headcount and kilowatts sold. If you can't pull "employees this month" and "kW sold in the last twelve months" from your systems in a minute, you'll find out you crossed a threshold at renewal.
The W-2 rule, and why setters count
Section 13-52-401 says a sales representative has to be an employee of the retailer, and the law defines employee as someone paid on a W-2. Bona fide independent contractors are excluded.
The definition of sales representative is wide. It covers anyone selling through direct customer contact and paid at least partly on commission, and anyone who "sets appointments or discusses the benefits of solar energy" with a potential customer for the retailer. Setters are in.
The enrolled bill gives this section no later start date, so the general effective date of May 7, 2025 appears to apply. Confirm that with counsel, because it decides how exposed past 1099 sales are.
For a D2D company built on 1099 dealers, this is the biggest operational change in the law:
- Payroll and comp move into the same system. Commissions, back end pay and overrides now run through payroll, with withholding, on a schedule. A spreadsheet of who's owed what won't survive that.
- Onboarding becomes hiring. I-9s, W-4s, state withholding and workers' comp have to be done before a rep knocks a Utah door.
- Every rep record needs a status. Hired, active, separated, with dates. That's what you'll be asked for.
What the contract has to carry
Section 13-52-202 lists what the contract and disclosure must include. The items that change your e-sign templates:
- A capitalized statement that estimates of energy production may vary.
- A notice that legislative or regulatory action may affect credits for excess power.
- A statement that installation can't begin until at least four business days after the contract is signed.
- Warranty transfer language, a no-unauthorized-promises statement and a non-affiliation statement.
- The installer's name and contact information.
- A conspicuous list of finance fees and required maintenance.
- The applicable cancellation notice. Door-to-door sales also fall under the FTC's three-day cooling-off rule.
The contract also can't be sold to another solar company without the customer's express approval.
Payment caps become your invoice schedule
Section 13-52-501 caps what you can collect before the system works:
| Stage | Most you can have collected |
|---|---|
| Design | The greater of $1,500 or 3% of the total |
| Equipment | 25% of the total |
| Installation | 80% of the total, including the payments above |
| Remainder | Only once the system produces usable energy |
The systems point: these are pipeline gates. A job shouldn't be able to invoice a stage it hasn't reached, and the final invoice should wait on the stage that means "producing."
The 80% production promise
For 18 months after a system starts producing, a customer can tell you it's making less than 80% of your good-faith production estimate (§ 13-52-206). You then have six months to get it to 90% or more of the original estimate. Ten or more substantiated complaints about missed estimates can cost you your registration.
That means the estimate you showed at the kitchen table has to be stored on the job, not just in a PDF in someone's inbox. When a customer calls in month fourteen, you need the estimate, the install date and the production data side by side.
What didn't pass
A second bill in 2026, HB 428, would have added NABCEP certification and a $25,000 bond for each rep. It failed when its enacting clause was struck in March 2026. If you read the headlines and planned for rep certification, you can stand that down. Watch for it to come back.
Turning the law into system rules
Every requirement above can be enforced by your systems instead of by memory:
- 01Rep records with W-2 status, hire date and separation date, synced to payroll.
- 02Contract templates with every required disclosure, so a rep can't send an old version.
- 03A four-business-day hold on the install stage, counted from the signature timestamp.
- 04Invoice stages that match the payment caps.
- 05The production estimate saved on the job record for at least 18 months after it starts producing.
- 06A monthly check of headcount and kW sold against your bond tier.
The companies that treat this law as a set of system rules will spend an afternoon on it each month. The ones that treat it as paperwork will spend a summer on it.