Your warranty covers defects. Who covers the storm, the fire or the thief?

A warranty is not insurance.

A rooftop solar system is a few lakh rupees of equipment sitting on the most exposed part of your house. Most owners assume the warranty looks after it. It does not, at least not for everything. Warranties are written around manufacturing faults and workmanship. Damage from outside events is a different question, and that is what insurance is for.

This guide is general information, not insurance advice. Policy wording varies by insurer, so treat the points below as questions to ask, and get the answers in writing.

What warranties usually leave out.

Read the exclusions in your inverter warranty and your panel documents. Typically, cover for defects does not extend to damage caused by events outside the product, such as fire, flood, theft, falling objects, vandalism or a lightning strike. Some warranties also become void if the equipment was moved, repaired by an unapproved person or installed without proper protection. The exact wording differs by manufacturer, so check your own papers rather than assuming.

This is also why earthing and surge protection matter. They reduce the chance of a claim in the first place, and an insurer or manufacturer may ask whether they were installed.

Step one: check your existing home policy.

If you already have a home or fire policy, start there. Rooftop solar may or may not be treated as part of the building. Do not assume it is automatically included. Call your insurer or agent and ask these questions:

• Is a rooftop solar system covered as part of the building, or does it need to be declared separately?
• Is the sum insured high enough to include the system's replacement cost?
• Which events are covered: fire, storm, flood, theft, lightning, accidental damage?
• Is electrical breakdown of the inverter covered, or only damage from external causes?
• What documents do you need to submit in a claim?

If the system is not covered, ask whether it can be added by endorsement, and what that does to the premium. If you rent the property out or live in an apartment, ask who holds the policy for the roof.

Step two: separate transit and installation risk.

Panels can be damaged on the way to your roof or while being lifted. Ask your installer in writing who bears the risk until the system is handed over and commissioned. A reputable installer should be able to say clearly whether equipment is insured in transit and who pays if a panel breaks during installation.

Step three: build a claim file now.

If you ever have to make a claim, a prepared file saves weeks. Keep these in one folder, on paper and as photos on your phone:

• The final invoice, with panel and inverter model and serial numbers.
• The warranty documents and datasheets.
• Photos of the installation on the day it was commissioned, from several angles.
• The BESCOM net meter paperwork and commissioning documents. See our commissioning checklist.
• Your yearly kWh readings, which show the system was working before any damage.

After an incident, photograph the damage before anything is touched, switch the system off at the isolators if it is safe to do so, and inform your installer and insurer promptly. Many policies expect timely notice, so do not wait.

A note on power cuts and resale.

A grid-tied system switches off during a BESCOM outage, as we explain in our power cut guide. That is a safety feature, not a fault, and it is not something insurance addresses. If you sell the house, the buyer will want the warranty and policy papers too, which is part of the handover in our selling a solar home guide.

Is it worth paying for?

That depends on your system's cost, your roof, your existing policy and the premium quoted. We will not give a number, because it would be a guess. The practical approach is simple: find out what you already have, ask for a quote for what is missing, and compare that cost against the cost of replacing the system yourself. For many homeowners, the answer will be that an existing home policy only needs a small change.