This home improvement program has drawn complaints, scrutiny. Miami-Dade might crack down

MIAMI — Miami-Dade is considering cracking down on a heavily advertised home improvement funding program that has drawn hundreds of consumer complaints across the state and been the target of lawsuits and federal scrutiny.

The Property Assessed Clean Energy program, or PACE, offers property owners an opportunity to pay for big ticket housing items such as new roofs or impact windows without running a credit check or, in some cases, putting any money down. Instead, users put their homes up as collateral, for an annual fee that’s collected as part of their property tax bill.

PACE was originally pitched as a solution for “green” improvements like solar panels or energy efficiency upgrades, but in Florida it's overwhelmingly used to replace roofs or install impact doors and windows.

The program has grown in Florida over the years as a popular option, particularly for homeowners looking to avoid or who cannot qualify for traditional bank loans. But while bank loans are heavily regulated, PACE is not.

That’s led to plenty of issues over the years, ranging from hundreds of complaints about unreliable contractors and bad business deals with some consumer saying they did not understand how the bills would be paid. The program also has sparked foreclosures in California, class action lawsuits and an ongoing state investigation into the largest PACE provider in Florida: Ygrene.

In February, the Miami Herald published an investigation into Ygrene that found the company temporarily dropped out of the state due to financial problems, leaving potentially thousands of homeowners and contractors with no money to pay for their projects. The investigation also found Florida lagged behind all other states in consumer protections for the program.

But now, Miami-Dade County, which has the...