GoodLeap vs Sunlight vs Mosaic vs Dividend [Lender Review]

Disclaimer This article is factual consumer education and legal-news analysis, not legal advice. Allegations described here are allegations. Corporate and servicing details change; verify your own servicer against your current statement. Consult a licensed consumer-protection attorney in your state.

Answer First

On March 8, 2024, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued the same four companies in one complaint: GoodLeap, Sunlight Financial, Solar Mosaic, and Dividend Solar Finance. The allegation was identical across all four — dealer fees of 15% to 30% concealed inside loan principals on more than 5,000 Minnesota loans, roughly $35 million in undisclosed markups.

Two and a half years later they are in very different places. Two went through Chapter 11. One is now inside a federal MDL with a bank co-defendant. One is still originating at scale. Which one holds your note determines what disputing it actually involves — and for two of the four, the company you signed with is no longer the company sending your bill.

Key Points

• Same alleged mechanic, four different corporate outcomes. The fee structure was an industry norm, not one bad actor.
• Dividend is the furthest along. In re Dividend Solar Finance, LLC, and Fifth Third Bank Sales and Lending Practices Litigation, MDL No. 3128, survived a motion to dismiss on TILA and scam claims in August 2025.
• Mosaic liquidated. Chapter 11 filed June 6, 2025; plan of liquidation confirmed September 5, 2025. Origination ended; servicing moved to Solar Servicing LLC, a Forbright Bank subsidiary.
• Sunlight restructured and survived. Chapter 11 in Delaware, October 2023; emerged that December under a Greenbacker-led consortium.
• GoodLeap is the largest and least disrupted. No bankruptcy, still originating, and carrying the highest documented average fee in the Minnesota complaint.

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The Comparison

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GoodLeap

The largest of the four and the only one that neither restructured nor changed hands. GoodLeap (formerly Loanpal) originates through a very wide installer and dealer network, which is precisely the exposure: the company's consumer-facing conduct is largely conduct by third parties it does not employ.

The Minnesota complaint put the most specific numbers on GoodLeap of any defendant — an average dealer fee of 19.32% of each loan, averaging $7,552.19 added to the borrower's balance — and alleged that GoodLeap contractually prohibited its installer partners from disclosing that fee to customers.

GoodLeap has also lost at least one reported consumer arbitration on an agency theory. In a Georgia arbitration reported by consumer firm Kneupper & Covey, an arbitrator found that installer Pink Energy acted as GoodLeap's agent — pointing to GoodLeap's control over warranty support and workmanship warranties, its broad right to terminate the installer relationship, and referral payments to Pink Energy. The reported result was a $90,000 loan cancelled in full, roughly $13,000 to the homeowner, and attorney's fees paid by GoodLeap.

Disputing a GoodLeap loan you are dealing with a solvent, well-counseled, still-operating lender. That is better than the alternative — there is a real counterparty who can actually cancel a balance and release a lien. Expect an arbitration clause. Our detailed profile is at GoodLeap complaints and solar loan issues.

Sunlight Financial

Sunlight operated as a point-of-sale lending platform rather than a balance-sheet lender, originating through partner banks — commonly Cross River Bank — and then servicing or transferring the paper.

It filed Chapter 11 in the District of Delaware in October 2023 following the collapse of major installation partners, most notably Pink Energy (formerly Power Home Solar), and emerged in December 2023 under an investor consortium led by Greenbacker Capital. Consumer notes were estate assets; they survived the restructuring intact. So did consumer defenses.

Disputing a Sunlight loan step one is establishing who currently holds your note, which is frequently not who services it. Check the statement for the servicer, and the original note for the bank of record. Full detail in our Sunlight Financial lawsuits and complaints guide.

Solar Mosaic

Mosaic is the cautionary case. It filed Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas on June 6, 2025, with estimated assets and liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion. A Fourth Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Liquidation was confirmed September 5, 2025 and went effective September 22, 2025.

Liquidation, not reorganization. The loan origination business terminated. Solar Servicing LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of secured creditor Forbright Bank, acquired substantially all servicing operations and continues to service more than $8 billion in loans.

For borrowers this produced the worst combination in the group: payment obligations unchanged, servicer changed, originator gone, and a bankruptcy claims process with deadlines that many homeowners never registered as applying to them.

Disputing a Mosaic loan hardest of the four, because the questions multiply. Who owns the note now? Who services it? Was there a bar date, and did it pass? Servicing transfer does not by itself establish ownership. See what happens when your solar loan changes hands and installer bankruptcy and lender liability.

Dividend Solar Finance

Dividend is owned by Fifth Third Bank, and that ownership is why this defendant is furthest along in federal court — a national bank co-defendant does not settle quietly and does not disappear into a liquidation.

MDL No. 3128 was created by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on October 3, 2024, consolidating federal proceedings against Dividend and Fifth Third in the District of Minnesota before Judge Katherine M. Menendez. On August 22, 2025, the court denied the motion to dismiss in substantial part: TILA claims over undisclosed platform fees and common-law fraud claims proceeded; RICO claims were dismissed. One loan in the record showed an actual principal of $44,360 disclosed as $70,661 — a $26,301 hidden fee.

That TILA holding is the most consequential development for the entire cohort, not just for Dividend borrowers. Full analysis: hidden solar dealer fees and TILA.

Disputing a Dividend loan active federal litigation cuts both ways — the legal theory is developed and public, but a defendant in an MDL is often less willing to set individual precedent. Most notes still compel individual arbitration regardless.

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What Is the Same Across All Four

Comparing them is useful for logistics. It is misleading if it suggests one was clean.

• Dealer fees folded into principal. Alleged against all four in the same complaint.
• Advertised low rates. Below-market APRs whose cost showed up as inflated principal instead.
• Third-party origination. All four sold through installer and dealer networks they did not employ, which is the structural source of the sales-conduct problem.
• Arbitration clauses and class waivers. Standard across the cohort. See solar arbitration and how to challenge it.
• UCC-1 fixture filings. All four commonly perfect against the property, which is what surfaces at sale or refinance. See UCC-1 solar filings and your home.
• Holder Rule exposure. Consumer credit contracts of this type carry the FTC Holder Rule notice, preserving seller-based claims against the holder. See the FTC Holder Rule and solar loans.

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How to Identify Your Actual Counterparty

Before you dispute anything, establish who you are disputing with. For two of these four, the answer changed without the borrower doing anything.

1. Read the current statement. It names the servicer — the entity collecting payment. That is often not the owner.
2. Read page one of the original note. It names the originator and frequently a bank of record (Cross River Bank, Fifth Third Bank, or another partner institution).
3. Check for a servicing transfer notice. Federal law requires notice when servicing transfers. Mosaic borrowers should have received one naming Solar Servicing LLC.
4. Search your Secretary of State UCC index. Filings name the secured party, which is direct evidence of who claims an interest in your property. See removing an unauthorized UCC-1.
5. Send a written request for the identity of the current holder. Certified mail, return receipt. Ask for the note holder, the servicer, and an itemization of the amount financed.

Direct any written dispute to both the servicer and the identified holder. Sending a Holder Rule notice only to a servicer that no longer owns the paper is a common and costly error.

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FAQ

Which solar lender is the worst to have a loan with?

By dispute difficulty rather than conduct: Solar Mosaic, because its Chapter 11 ended in liquidation, origination terminated, servicing moved to a Forbright Bank subsidiary, and bankruptcy claim deadlines applied that many borrowers missed. The remaining three all have identifiable, solvent counterparties.

Did any of these four lenders go out of business?

Sunlight Financial restructured in Chapter 11 in late 2023 and emerged under new ownership. Solar Mosaic filed Chapter 11 in June 2025 and confirmed a plan of liquidation in September 2025, ending origination while servicing continued under Solar Servicing LLC. GoodLeap and Dividend Solar Finance did not file bankruptcy.

Who took over Solar Mosaic loans?

Solar Servicing LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Forbright Bank, acquired substantially all of Mosaic's loan servicing operations under the confirmed plan and continues servicing more than $8 billion in loans. Servicing transfer does not by itself determine who owns your note.

Is Dividend Solar the same as Fifth Third Bank?

Dividend Solar Finance, LLC is owned by Fifth Third Bank, and both are defendants in MDL No. 3128 in the District of Minnesota. Your loan documents may name either or both.

Which lender charged the highest dealer fees?

The Minnesota complaint provided the most specific figure for GoodLeap — an average of 19.32% per loan, roughly $7,552.19 added to the balance. It alleged a 15% to 30% range across all four defendants, so the specificity reflects the pleading, not necessarily the ranking.

Does my loan get cancelled if my lender goes bankrupt?

No. Consumer promissory notes are assets of the bankruptcy estate and survive restructuring or liquidation. What bankruptcy creates is claim bar dates — deadlines that can extinguish your ability to assert claims against that estate if you miss them.

Can I use the Minnesota lawsuit if I do not live in Minnesota?

You cannot recover through a state enforcement action brought on behalf of Minnesota consumers. What non-Minnesota homeowners can use is the public evidentiary record — the alleged fee mechanic, the ranges, the contractual non-disclosure allegations — as support in their own state UDAP claim, arbitration, or regulator complaint.

Which of these lenders is in a class action I can join?

Only Dividend Solar Finance and Fifth Third Bank are in MDL 3128, and an MDL consolidates federal cases for pretrial proceedings rather than operating as an open claims fund. Most solar notes contain individual arbitration clauses and class waivers that route borrowers out of class litigation.

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Related Resources

• What resolutions actually deliver: solar loan settlements and what homeowners recover.
• The ruling that changed the leverage: hidden solar dealer fees and TILA.
• Every dispute path compared: 6 ways to fight a solar loan.
• Lender-specific detail: Sunlight Financial and GoodLeap.
• The wider pattern: solar company lawsuits.

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Sources

• Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Attorney General Ellison sues solar lenders over $35M in deceptive hidden fees (March 8, 2024).
• pv magazine USA, Minnesota sues GoodLeap, Sunlight, Mosaic and Dividend over dealer fees.
• U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, In re Dividend Solar Finance, LLC, and Fifth Third Bank Sales and Lending Practices Litigation, MDL No. 3128 — Transfer Order (October 3, 2024).
• Silver Golub & Teitell LLP, Federal Court Allows Solar Lending MDL to Move Forward Against Dividend Solar Finance and Fifth Third Bank (August 22, 2025).
• Solar Power World, Solar finance platform Mosaic files for bankruptcy (June 2025).
• Kneupper & Covey PC, GoodLeap Loses Key Solar Arbitration.
• Federal Trade Commission, Preservation of Consumers' Claims and Defenses (Holder Rule), 16 C.F.R. Part 433.

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Not sure who actually holds your solar loan?

For two of these four lenders, the entity billing you is not the entity that originated the loan — and disputing with the wrong party wastes the notice. Our eligibility form organizes your loan documents, statements, and UCC filings for review and may route qualifying matters toward a consumer-protection attorney. We are a marketing company, not a law firm, and submitting the form does not create an attorney-client relationship.

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