Assigning STCs is a legal step, not a technical one. It concerns who gets the value of the certificates your system earns, nothing more.
What you are signing
The STC assignment form says that you, the owner, transfer your right to create STCs for this installation to a named party, in return for something, normally a lower price. It is signed by you and the installer, and kept with the claim records. The assignment form resource explains each section. The existing explainer on what assigning means covers the basic idea; here we focus on what happens afterwards.
Who owns them afterwards
After assignment, the party named on the form owns the right to create the certificates, and once created, owns the certificates themselves. They sell them to a buyer, for example through a trader. You have no claim to the sale proceeds, and you are not exposed to the price movement. If STCs trade at $40 or $36 when they sell, that is their gain or loss, not yours. At the time of writing STCs are around $38 to $40, and a zone 3 6.6 kW system earns about 45 in 2026.
What you keep
- The system. Ownership of the panels, inverter or battery is unaffected.
- Warranties. Product and workmanship warranties do not depend on STCs.
- The discount. The installer must deliver the value agreed on the quote. If they do not, you have a consumer claim, not an STC claim.
What you give up
- The right to sell the STCs yourself.
- Any later upside if the STC price rises.
- The ability to reassign them elsewhere once the claim is lodged.
What if something goes wrong later
If the certificates are later found invalid, the regulator deals with the party that created them, not normally the household. That said, the form is a declaration by you, so the facts on it, such as address, system size and installation date, must be true. See how STC audits work.
What this means for you
Read the form before signing, check the STC count with our STC calculator, and ask for the dollar value in writing. If you are weighing your options, see should I assign my STCs to the installer, who owns the STCs in a solar system and the homeowners pillar. Installers can read STC trading and pricing.
Common questions
Do I pay anything to assign? It should cost you nothing; the benefit is the discount. Is the form valid if the installer fills it in? You must check and sign it, and it must be accurate. Does assignment affect my feed-in tariff? No.