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Polk County Tax Collector Joe G. Tedder is urging homeowners to proceed with caution when approached with offers to pay for energy-efficient and storm-hardening features on their property tax bills.
Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, offers a loan program to property owners for home and commercial improvements dealing with energy conservation and efficiency on items such as solar panels, roof improvements and storm shutter installation. Homeowners are told that they don’t have to worry about making regular loan payments for the improvements, as the costs will instead be added to their tax bills.
This financing option is gaining a reputation in neighboring Florida counties for saddling property owners with debt they cannot afford, while using the power of government to collect the debt, Tedder said. If the debt is not paid, the owner will lose the property.
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“I want to warn people of the financial risk of this type of loan, when such large payments come due at the same time as their tax bills,” Tedder said in a news release. “I hate telling people there is nothing that can be done to save their property from being sold for unpaid taxes, especially when I feel most property owners are being hoodwinked into these types of loans.”
The Polk County Commission on June 6 passed a resolution in support of the Tax Collector’s stance that PACE loans should not exist in unincorporated Polk County.
“Don’t be fooled,” Tedder said. “If an offer seems too good to be true, it usually is. If you are approached by a loaning institution or contractor saying your property improvements will be paid for on the tax bill, be careful. Be very careful.”
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