LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The 8 News Now Investigators secured a guarantee from a local solar company after a contractor installed the wrong system for a North Las Vegas homeowner, costing him hundreds if not thousands of dollars he can’t afford to pay.

Jon Taccona and his wife, Karen, are on a fixed income, and they thought switching to solar would help lower their monthly expenditures.

“You know, you gotta watch what you’re spending,” Taccona said.

His story begins, in 2021, like so many do.

“The way it started was a, a girl and a guy came to the front door,” he said.

Those people were from Renewable Energy of Nevada. Their director of field operations, Damien Buzz, spoke with the 8 News Now Investigators at length about the Tacconas’ solar situation, and said that in reviewing their annual energy, someone misjudged the type of solar panel system the Tacconas would need in order to generate the appropriate amount of energy, and lower their bill accordingly. Buzz said Renewable Energy is simply the “middle man,” and that Titan Solar Power, which has an office in Las Vegas, decided which system to install.

A spokeswoman for Titan said that is not correct. Either way, if the solar product installed at the Tacconas’ home is ever going to save them as much as they had hoped, they need to upgrade.

“The best remedy for this situation is to add more panels,” Buzz said.

But Taccona already financed $26,093 on 15 panels, which he financed at $83 per month. Now he has to decide if he wants to pay some $14,000 more to pay for an additional 11 panels.

“I would have been better off not doing it,” Taccona said.

Their NV Energy bills are high as a result of the error in installation, but the Tacconas took another financial hit when they switched to solar because they were on a monthly installment plan intended to divide their monthly payments equally. When they changed over, the entire balance for the remainder of the year became due, and Taccona could barely afford it.

“I didn’t know about that program that you had to pay them back,” Taccona said.

Taccona also said, along the way, that Titan Solar and Renewable Energy accused him of instructing the solar contractors installing the panels where to place them, which may be contributing to their high bills.

“I didn’t tell him where to put it,” Taccona said.

During this 8 News Now Investigation, the aforementioned spokeswoman from Titan Solar looked into Taccona’s complaints and guaranteed that Titan Solar would “offer them a resolution of some sort.”

Titan said Taccona is “not going to be paying $14K.”

Titan Solar issued this statement:

“Titan is committed to our homeowners. As soon as we were informed about the Tacconas, we wanted to make sure that we assessed the situation and did a thorough investigation. We have contacted them and requested 12 months of utility bills. We are going to conduct a thorough production analysis, cross-check the original design, and data that was provided by their sales representative at the time of sale. At the end of the day, the Tacconas are what is important to us and we are committed to ensuring that they feel confident in their decision to go solar.

In the months leading up to the 8 News Now Investigation, the Tacconas filed complaints with the Nevada State Contractors Board and the Public Utilities Commission. The NSCB confirms an investigation is ongoing. The PUC complaint resulted in the Attorney General’s office opening an investigation