Fifth Third Bank faces a proposed class action alleging that its solar panel financing business violated the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) by failing to disclose that it keeps a significant portion of the cost of certain solar panel system purchases while telling consumers it was lending to them at a low interest rate.
In a complaint filed Friday in Richmond, Virginia, federal court, plaintiff Heather Kenny sued Fifth Third, as successor in interest to Dividend Solar Finance LLC, which Fifth Third acquired in 2022. Kenny claims that the lender secretly kept over $26,000 of the nearly $71,000 principal sum she took out to buy a solar panel system for her home.
Kenny alleges that Fifth Third violated a provision of TILA requiring creditors to disclose any finance charges consumers would face for buying on credit that they wouldn’t face if making a cash purchase.
In June 2023, Kenny signed a financing agreement to buy a residential solar power system. According to Kenny, her financing agreement stated that she’d pay a finance charge of over $42,000 for her loan, a sum based on an annual percentage rate of about 4%.
