Transferring PACE Assessments Upon Home Sale

A significant barrier to investing in renewable energy and comprehensive energy efficiency improvements to homes across the country is the initial capital cost. Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is one of several new financial models broadening access to clean energy by addressing this upfront cost issue.

This policy brief analyzes one of the advantages of PACE, which is the transferability of the special assessment from one homeowner to the next when the home is sold. This analysis focuses on the potential for the outstanding lien to impact the sales negotiation process, rather than the legal nature of the lien transfer itself.

NREL and LBNL have published a series of briefs on different aspects of PACE financing: Lien Transferability, Lien Acceleration and Including PV in PACE Programs. The links to two of these documents follow and one is attached.
http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/emp-pubsall.html
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/47845.pdf