馃攳
Some Energy-Saving Remodel Plans Hit Homeowners With Financing Gotchas - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[0]
kpix 5 first exposed a state-approved
[3]
program to
[4]
help low-income homeowners make energy
[7]
improvements to their properties
[9]
has had many damaging unintended
[11]
consequences
[12]
it has put huge burdens on people who
[15]
truly cannot
[16]
afford it on project project home this
[19]
evening susie steimle took
[20]
one unscientific survey on how the
[22]
so-called
[23]
pace program works the state really
[27]
wants us all to save a bunch of energy
[28]
so
[29]
this man is making a pitch to an elderly
[31]
oakland homeowner
[32]
for a no money down program that will
[34]
make the house more energy efficient
[36]
windows is the biggest energy waster in
[37]
your entire house but some pitches like
[39]
this
[40]
by other contractors have heard instead
[42]
of helped
[43]
thousands of low-income californians
[45]
like teresa bryson
[46]
he made it seem like okay we're going to
[49]
do all these good things for you
[51]
and your house going to be so beautiful
[53]
she got a cold call from a different
[55]
contractor
[56]
who talked her into a long list of home
[58]
improvements
[59]
many of which had nothing to do with
[61]
energy efficiency they
[62]
remodeled the bathroom they painted some
[64]
of the rooms
[65]
the man told her the improvements would
[67]
be paid back through property taxes
[69]
but never explained the tax lien that
[71]
goes into effect immediately on signing
[74]
was like a loan that teresa would have
[76]
to pay back
[77]
in teresa's case a company called
[79]
wygreen placed
[80]
two liens on her home for a total of 135
[83]
thousand dollars my mortgage payment
[85]
went from
[86]
roughly i would say 1500 to about
[90]
35 plus that's a big difference yes yes
[93]
it is
[94]
were you able to afford that no not
[97]
really
[97]
what happened to teresa is part of a
[99]
complex financing program known as pace
[102]
or
[102]
property assessed clean energy it starts
[104]
with so-called solicitor agents or
[106]
solicitors
[107]
or contractors going into the community
[110]
targeting low-income homeowners
[112]
the more equity in the home the more
[114]
pace financing is available
[116]
once the homeowner is qualified the
[117]
contractors get paid through pace fund
[120]
program administrators for homeowners
[122]
there's no upfront cost
[124]
but the program is not free because the
[126]
administrator
[127]
immediately places a loan on the home
[129]
that must be paid back
[131]
through property taxes change needs to
[133]
happen a long time ago
[135]
claudia polsky is founding director of
[137]
berkeley law's environmental law clinic
[139]
she says when the pace program was first
[141]
conceived in berkeley in 2008
[143]
she was a big fan people would love
[146]
lower cost and greener energy
[148]
but not anymore the pace program like
[151]
so much environmental programming has a
[153]
big green halo over it and the glare
[156]
from that halo
[157]
is such that it's very hard to see the
[160]
program
[161]
problems a newly released report she
[163]
authored with the environmental law
[165]
clinic
[165]
finds the pace program under delivers on
[168]
green benefits
[169]
and harms low-income homeowners the
[172]
report finds that despite a new law that
[174]
went into effect in 2018 to crack
[176]
down on abuse bad practices continue and
[179]
those practices
[180]
include door-to-door sales as the
[182]
primary means of reaching
[184]
low-income residents of color often
[187]
monolingual spanish speakers often
[189]
retired
[190]
in teresa bryson's case the solicitors
[192]
involved were not registered
[194]
and as such were not allowed to offer a
[197]
pace financing deal through wygreen
[199]
according to a class action lawsuit
[201]
complaint that she is named it
[203]
weigrain is one of five so-called
[205]
program administrators that offer pace
[207]
loans in california
[209]
they said they don't comment on pending
[211]
litigation but that they are a financing
[213]
company
[214]
and that they don't choose the
[215]
contractors they say the customer does
[217]
so what would you like me to start with
[219]
ron dumas senior was curious about that
[222]
and invited us along
[223]
to listen to a pitch i'm a triple a
[225]
we're a general contractor we do
[227]
everything
[227]
surprisingly the man who showed up was
[229]
not on a list of six
[231]
contractors recommended by wygreen
[234]
after taking measurements of all the
[236]
doors and windows the man who identified
[238]
himself as working for triple a
[239]
remodeling and development
[241]
did the math yeah let me let me sort out
[243]
what all this is going to cost here
[244]
and told ron senior he could replace all
[247]
his windows with energy efficient ones
[249]
for about 19 grand base loan is pretty
[251]
cool as long as you can qualify for it
[253]
there's no down payment there's no
[254]
payments until
[255]
november of this year after the visit we
[258]
checked
[259]
aaa remodeling and development is not
[261]
listed on the state website as licensed
[263]
to solicit for wygreen i had some
[265]
questions about some work that you've
[266]
done through the pace program
[267]
we left several messages on the cell
[269]
phone of the contractor with triple a
[271]
remodeling
[272]
but never heard back neither did the
[274]
dumas family he never picked up the
[276]
phone and he never came back
[278]
they say they were suspicious from the
[279]
start because they never called triple a
[282]
we did not pick the contractor they
[284]
picked one for us
[285]
they solicit us he told me we would have
[288]
been
[288]
pre-approved for thirty four thousand
[290]
dollars worth of work
[292]
without us giving him any information
[294]
their take on the nineteen thousand
[295]
dollar quote
[296]
i thought it was awfully high i'm not
[298]
used to paying that much money for some
[300]
windows
[301]
because of our reporting wygreen is now
[303]
launching an internal investigation into
[305]
how
[306]
aaa remodeling got the dumas family's
[308]
contact information
[309]
in the first place they did say that the
[312]
company is
[312]
properly registered with the state and
[314]
if it doesn't show up on the state's
[316]
website that way
[317]
they say that's the state's problem
[319]
we've got their full statement plus
[320]
dfpi's response on our website kpix.com
[324]
in petaluma suzy steimle kpix 5.
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage