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The Executive must adopt regulations under Method (2) to administer the Program, including:
(a) lending standards and priorities;
(b) minimum and maximum loan amounts;
(c) interest rates, terms, and conditions;
(d) application procedures, including necessary supporting documentations;
(e) criteria for adequate security;
(f) procedures to refer applicants to other sources of funds, and to cooperate with other public and private sources of funds;
(g) procedures to ask the Director to reconsider any denial of a loan or any decision on interest rates, terms, and conditions;
(h) procedures for nonpayment or default;
(i) procedures and requirements for post-installation inspection;
(j) disclosure requirements for real estate transactions; and
(k) criteria for loan disbursement. (2009 L.M.C., ch. 8, § 1.)
(1) Definitions. In this Section, the following words have the meanings indicated:
Department means the Department of Finance.
Revolving loan fund or Fund means the special, nonlapsing fund to finance the Home Energy Loan Program established under this Article.
(b) The Fund consists of:
(1) money appropriated in the County budget for the Program;
(2) money received from any public or private source;
(3) interest and investment earnings on the Fund;
(4) repayments and prepayments of principal and interest on loans made from the Fund; and
(5) any other available funds to support the Program.
(c) The Department must:
(1) disburse funds and collect payments for a loan made under the Program; and
(2) maintain loan records and provide an annual report to the Department of Environmental Protection. (2009 L.M.C., ch. 8, § 1.)
Each August 15, the Director must submit a report to the County Executive and County Council that identifies;
(a) the number of recipients of loans;
(b) the amount of funds loaned; and
(c) any activities during the previous fiscal year to market the Program. (2009 L.M.C., ch. 8, § 1.)
(a) The County may contract with a non-profit or for-profit organization to take any action necessary to fulfill the purposes of this Article, including:
(1) prepare and review, evaluate, and approve applications;
(2) execute loan agreements;
(3) secure and service loans;
(4) collect loan payments; and
(5) conduct collections for defaulted loans.
(b) The County, or a contractor for the County, may charge an applicant or borrower usual and customary fees that the Department finds is consistent with the overall goals of the Program and will not inhibit utilization of the Program, including:
(1) application fees;
(2) loan origination fees;
(3) delinquency fees;
(4) costs of collection; and
(5) other program fees to support verification of program requirements. (2009 L.M.C., ch. 8, § 1.)
Definitions. In this Article, the following words have the meanings indicated:
Certified General Real Estate Appraiser means an individual who is certified as a certified real estate appraiser for general real estate under Title 16 of the Business Occupations Article of the Maryland Code.
Climate Related Improvements or Improvements include measures that address:
(1) renewable energy;
(2) energy and water efficiency;
(3) environmental remediation;
(4) grid resilience; or
(5) property resilience.
Commercial property means any real property located in the County that is either not designed for or intended for human habitation, or that is used for human habitation as a multi-family dwelling of more than 4 rental units.
Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Program or Program means a program that facilitates Climate Related Improvements and requires repayment through a surcharge on the owner’s property tax bill.
County designated program manager means a person who may be selected by the County through a competitive process to provide administrative and management services for the Program.
Department means the Department of Finance.
Director means the Director of the Department or the Director’s designee.
Energy efficiency means any equipment, device, or material that is intended to decrease energy consumption or use less energy to perform the same task.
Environmental remediation means any project that is intended to remove environmental or health hazards, including addressing indoor air quality and building material contaminants.
Grid resilience means any capital improvement investment that addresses reliability improvements during electrical service disruptions and that are consistent with Public Service Commission regulations on interconnection and franchising.
Private lender means a lender selected by the property owner to provide loan funds to the property owner for an Improvement.
Property owner means a person who owns qualified property or has a ground lease or a long-term lease of 8 or more years on qualified property.
Property resilience means any built or nature-based improvement that increases the capacity of a property to withstand natural disasters and the effects of climate change.
Qualified property means any new or existing commercial real property that meets the eligibility criteria for the Program.
Renewable energy means energy that naturally replenishes over a human, not a geological, time frame and that is ultimately derived from solar power, water power, or wind power. A renewable energy source does not include petroleum, nuclear, natural gas, or coal.
Surcharge means the annual repayment of a loan, including principal, interest, and related charges, that funds an improvement and is collected through the real property tax billing process. (2013 L.M.C., ch. 33, § 1; 2015 L.M.C., ch. 16, § 1; 2016 L.M.C., ch. 23, § 1; 2019 L.M.C., ch. 9, § 1; 2022 L.M.C., ch. 9, §1; 2023 L.M.C., ch. 21
, § 1.)
(a) Established. The Director must create and administer a Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Program.
(b) Third-party lender.
(1) The Director may enter into an agreement with a third-party lender that funds a loan for a Climate Related Improvement. The agreement must provide for the repayment of the loan for the Improvement and any cost of administering the Program through a Surcharge on the qualified property. The loan may include the cost of materials and labor necessary for installation, any permit fee, any inspection fee, any application or administrative fee, any bank or lender fee, and any other fee that the property owner may incur for the installation of the Climate Related Improvement. The third-party lender must submit a request for collection of each Surcharge amount to the County designated program manager or, if there is no County designated program manager, to the Department no later than April 1 of each year.
(2) The third-party lender must record a document among the land records of Montgomery County within 30 days of the time the loan is funded, which provides notice of the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy loan associated with the property and that the surcharge will be collected and have lien status like all other real property taxes.
(c) County designated program manager. The Director may enter into an agreement with a County designated program manager. The County designated program manager must notify the Department of the amount of the Surcharge for each account to be collected on the real property tax bill for that year’s levy no later than May 1 of each year, and in a format approved by the Department. The County designated program manager will receive the collections from the County, reconcile the collected and billed Surcharge for each account, and remit the Surcharge amount to the private lender. The County designated program manager must report annually to the County on the participants in the Program by name, property address, property tax account number, amount of each Surcharge billed, collected by the County, and remitted to the private lender, description of project, any administrative fees, the amount of each loan, the amount of each loan balance, and the term of each loan. This report must be submitted to the Department no later than February 15 of each year pertaining to activity in the prior calendar year. (2015 L.M.C., ch. 16, § 1; 2016 L.M.C., ch. 23, § 1; 2022 L.M.C., ch. 9, §1; 2023 L.M.C., ch. 21, § 1.)
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