To claim STCs, someone has to create the certificates in the Clean Energy Regulator’s REC Registry, supported by the evidence that the system exists, is eligible and was installed properly. That someone is either the system owner as a registered person, or a registered agent acting on the owner’s assignment. In practice, nearly all residential solar claims go the second way, and the installer or its trader does the work.
The claim itself is a bundle of data and documents. Get the bundle right and the certificates are created and validated. Get it wrong and it comes back, delaying the money by days or weeks. This guide covers the claim from the registry side: the choice of claimant, the fields, the evidence and the deadline. For selling the certificates once created, see how to sell STCs.
Who claims: three options
| Option | Who creates | Who needs a registry account | Typical user |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner claims directly | Owner | Owner as registered person | Rare; some owners who keep their own STCs |
| Installer as registered person | Installer | Installer | Larger installers with back-office capacity |
| Registered agent | Agent or trader | Agent | Most installers |
If the owner wants to keep their certificates rather than take a discount, they must create and sell them themselves. That is possible but needs a registered person account, a complete evidence set and a buyer, and the answer on keeping your STCs covers the trade-offs.
The assignment
Before anyone else can claim, the owner must assign the right to the certificates. This is done on the assignment form, which names the owner, the assignee, the system and the address, and carries the owner’s signature and date. Without it, the claim has no foundation. See the STC assignment form guide and, for what assignment means, what assigning STCs means.
What goes into the claim
A typical solar claim includes:
- System details: capacity in kW, panel and inverter make, model and serial numbers.
- Installation details: address, date, installation type (new, additional or replacement) and accredited installer details.
- Owner details: name and contact, matching the assignment form.
- Calculation inputs: postcode, zone and deeming years, producing the STC count.
- Evidence: photos, electrical safety certificate, network approval and any required statement.
Each field has to be consistent with the others. A 6.6 kW zone 3 system installed in 2026 should show 45 STCs; if the registry shows something else, one of the inputs is wrong. See how to calculate STCs for solar.
The 12-month window
STCs must be created within 12 months of the installation date. Work back from that date, not forward from the day you finish the paperwork. A job installed on 1 March 2026 must be created by 1 March 2027, and a rejection and relodge cycle eats into that. A practical rule is to aim to create within two weeks of installation and to escalate anything still uncreated at six months.
From claim to registered
After creation, the regulator validates the claim. Guidance has indicated that validation can take several weeks for some claims, particularly if documents are incomplete or queries are raised. Certificates that pass validation appear as registered and become tradable. If validation raises an issue, the claim is returned for correction. See claims that fail validation.
Evidence: what to hold even if you do not upload it
The regulator may not require every document with the claim, but you must hold them and supply them on request. Treat the full set as part of the claim even if the registry does not ask for it at lodgement: the signed assignment, original photos with location and time data, certificates and approvals, serial lists and the installer attendance record. The photo checklist and STC compliance checklist give the detail.
Special cases
- Additions: claim only the added capacity, and choose the installation type accordingly.
- Batteries: use usable kWh and the tiered factor, with the labelling photos required since 1 March 2026. See how to claim battery STCs.
- Heat pumps and hot water: the model’s regulator-listed data drives the count. See claiming STCs for a heat pump.
- Systems over 100 kW: not eligible under the small-scale rules; from 1 October 2026, systems up to 1 MW can claim under the mid-scale rules (see mid-scale solar STCs), and LGCs apply above that.
Common claim mistakes
- Claiming against the wrong deeming year because the quote date was used.
- Entering inverter capacity instead of panel capacity.
- Leaving the owner’s name abbreviated or different from the form.
- Uploading compressed photos with no metadata.
- Missing the 12-month window on older jobs.
Choosing who claims for you
If you use an agent, ask what they check before creating the claim, how long it takes, when the rate is fixed and when you are paid. Agents differ widely on these. We run a compliance desk that checks every claim before lodgement and settle within 24 hours of sign-off for established partners, with the first claim taking 48 to 72 hours; whichever agent you choose, compare against those questions.
A claim calendar that stops lapses
Lapsed claims are rare but expensive, and they are almost always the same story: a job with a missing document that nobody chased. A simple calendar prevents it.
| Age of job | Action |
|---|---|
| Day 0 to 14 | Create the claim, or send it to your agent |
| Day 15 to 60 | Chase any missing document by name; log who is responsible |
| Month 3 | Review every uncreated job and its reason |
| Month 6 | Escalate to the business owner |
| Month 9 | Final attempt, including a visit if needed |
| Month 11 | Last chance; decide whether to write the claim off |
Put the 12-month expiry date on each job record the day it is installed. A report that sorts uncreated jobs by days remaining takes five minutes to build in most job systems and will pay for itself the first time it catches a $1,700 claim.
If the owner is not an individual
Where the system owner is a company, trust or body corporate, the assignment must be signed by someone with authority to do it, and the name on the form should match the entity on the records. Use the full legal name and ABN. If you are unsure who can sign, ask for evidence of authority before the crew leaves, because a rejected form can mean chasing a busy director weeks later.
What to do next
Set a calendar rule for 12 months from installation on every job, and a weekly review of anything uncreated. Read the STC process step by step for the whole journey, the STC trading pillar for the overview and how it works for our process. When you have a complete claim, start trading.