Illinois § 10

§ 10.

Property assessed clean energy program; creation. (a) Pursuant to the procedures provided in Section 15, a governmental unit may establish a property assessed clean energy program and, from time to time, create a PACE area or PACE areas under the program. (b) Under a program, the governmental unit may enter into an assessment contract with the record owner of property within a PACE area to finance or refinance one or more energy projects on the property. The assessment contract shall provide for the repayment of all or a portion of the cost of an energy project through assessments upon the property benefited. The amount of the financing or refinancing may include any and all of the following: the cost of materials and labor necessary for acquisition, construction, installation, or modification of the energy project, permit fees, inspection fees, application and administrative fees, financing fees, reserves, capitalized interest, costs of billing the assessment, and all other fees, costs, and expenses that may be incurred by the record owner pursuant to the acquisition, construction, installation, or modification of the energy project, and the costs of issuance of PACE bonds on a specific or pro rata basis, as determined by the governmental unit and may also include a prepayment premium. (b-5) A governmental unit may sell or assign, for consideration, any and all assessment contracts; the permitted assignee of the assessment contract shall have and possess the delegable powers and rights at law or in equity as the applicable governmental unit would have if the assessment contract had not been assigned with regard to (i) the precedence and priority of liens evidenced by the assessment contract, (ii) the accrual of interest, and (iii) the fees and expenses of collection. The permitted assignee shall have the right to enforce such liens pursuant to subsection (a) of Section 30. Costs and reasonable attorney's fees incurred by the permitted assignee as a result of any foreclosure action or other legal proceeding brought pursuant to this Act and directly related to the proceeding shall be assessed in any such proceeding against each record owner subject to the proceedings. A governmental unit or the Authority may sell or assign assessment contracts without competitive bidding or the solicitation of requests for proposals or requests for qualifications. (c) A program shall be administered by either one or more than one program administrators or the governmental unit, as determined by the governing body. (Source: P.A. 100-77, eff. 8-11-17; 100-980, eff. 1-1-19; 101-169, eff. 7-29-19.)