Illinois § 25

§ 25.

Assessment contracts with record owners of property. (a) A record owner of property within the PACE area may apply to the governmental unit or its program administrator or program administrators to finance or refinance an energy project under the governmental unit's program. (b) A governmental unit may impose an assessment under a property assessed clean energy program only pursuant to the terms of a recorded assessment contract with the record owner of the property to be assessed. (c) Before entering into an assessment contract with a record owner under a program, the governmental unit or its program administrator or program administrators shall verify that the applicable property is entirely within the PACE area and receive evidence of all of the following: (1) (blank); (2) that there are no delinquent taxes, special assessments, or water or sewer charges on the property; (3) that there are no delinquent assessments on the property under a property assessed clean energy program; (4) whether there are any involuntary liens on the property, including, but not limited to, construction or mechanics liens, lis pendens or judgments against the record owner, environmental proceedings, or eminent domain proceedings; (5) that no notices of default or other evidence of property-based debt delinquency have been recorded and not cured; (6) that the record owner is current on all mortgage debt on the property, the record owner has not filed for bankruptcy in the last 2 years, and the property is not an asset in a current bankruptcy proceeding; (7) that all work requiring a license under any applicable law to acquire, construct, install, or modify an energy project shall be performed by a licensed contractor that has agreed to adhere to a set of terms and conditions through a process established by the governmental unit or its program administrator or program administrators; (8) that the contractor or contractors to be used have signed a written acknowledgement that the governmental unit or its program administrator or program administrators will not authorize final payment to the contractor or contractors until the governmental unit has received written confirmation from the record owner that the energy project was properly acquired, constructed, installed, or modified and is operating as intended; provided, however, that the contractor or contractors retain all legal rights and remedies in the event there is a disagreement with the record owner; (9) that the aggregate amount financed or refinanced under one or more assessment contracts does not exceed 25% in relation to the greater of any of the following: (A) the value of the property as determined by the office of the county assessor; or (B) the value of the property as determined by an appraisal conducted by a licensed appraiser; and (10) that an evaluation of the existing water or energy use and a modeling of expected monetary savings have been conducted for any proposed energy efficiency improvement, renewable energy improvement, or water use improvement, unless the water use improvement is undertaken to improve water quality. (d) Before entering into an assessment contract with the governmental unit, the record owner shall provide to the mortgage holders of any existing mortgages encumbering or otherwise secured by the property a notice of the record owner's intent to enter into an assessment contract with the governmental unit, together with the maximum principal amount to be financed or refinanced and the maximum annual assessment necessary to repay that amount, along with an additional request that the mortgage holders of any existing mortgages consent to the record owner subjecting the property to the program. The governmental unit shall be provided with a copy or other proof of those notices and the written consent of the mortgage holder for the record owner to enter into the assessment contract which acknowledges that (i) the existing mortgage or mortgages for which the consent was received will be subordinate to the assessment contract and the lien created thereby and (ii) the governmental unit or its permitted assignee can foreclose the property if the assessments are not paid. (e) (Blank). (f) If the record owner has signed a certification that the governmental unit has complied with the provisions of this Section, then this shall be conclusive evidence as to compliance with these provisions, but shall not relieve any contractor or the governmental unit from any potential liability. (g) (Blank). (h) The imposition of any assessment pursuant to this Act shall be exempt from any other statutory procedures or requirements that condition the imposition of special assessments or taxes against property, except as specifically set forth in this Act. (Source: P.A. 100-77, eff. 8-11-17; 100-980, eff. 1-1-19; 101-169, eff. 7-29-19.)