Better Homes Lanark: $10,000 to $40,000 at 2.75%, With a 30% Reduction Target

Better Homes Lanark is a countywide home-energy retrofit financing program run by Lanark County with backing from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. One detail matters before anything else: Smiths Falls is excluded from the county program, so residents there should check whether a separate town program exists. Everything here reflects the published terms as of July 2026, and terms and cap amounts change as regional funding is committed — confirm current figures on the official program website before applying.

Loans run from $10,000 to $40,000 at 2.75% fixed, repaid as a special charge on your property tax bill. The program requires a minimum 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions or energy use, which is a higher bar than the 25% used by several neighbouring programs. Households for whom energy costs are a genuine burden may also stack non-repayable grants up to a $5,000 total.

The steps are clearly staged. You submit a Pre-Application Form and receive a Notice of Eligibility letter. Retrofit Coach Session 1 is the program introduction call, followed by a pre-retrofit EnerGuide assessment with an NRCan-registered Energy Advisor. Retrofit Coach Session 2 reviews that report and helps you decide on upgrades. You then collect contractor quotes and submit a Funding Request Form, sign the Property Owner Agreement, and receive an initial disbursement. The retrofit must be completed within one year of the Notice of Eligibility, after which a post-retrofit assessment and Completion Report release the final payment and repayment begins on the tax bill.

To qualify you must own a single-family home in Lanark County outside Smiths Falls, all owners on title must agree to participate, and property tax and utility payments must have been in good standing for five years. You can apply twice per property within the $40,000 total, or once each for two properties you own.

Eligible upgrades are unusually wide-ranging. The envelope category covers insulation, windows, doors, air sealing and weather stripping. Mechanical covers air source, ground source and mini-split heat pumps, HRV/ERV, drain-water heat recovery and electric water heaters. Renewables include solar PV, solar water heaters and battery storage. There is also a smart and other category with EV chargers, smart thermostats and battery storage, a climate adaptation category with sump pumps, basement waterproofing and backup generators, and water efficiency measures such as low-flow toilets and hot water circulation systems.

With measures spanning the envelope, mechanicals, renewables, and climate adaptation, choosing where to start can stall a project — Solify's residential incentives guide helps you prioritise the upgrades that deliver the most savings per dollar before you commit.

Three FAQ points are worth carrying into your planning. Stacking other funding is encouraged, but you must disclose it on the Funding Request Form. The County lists program-trained contractors but does not pre-qualify or procure them on your behalf, so contractor due diligence remains yours. And work cannot begin before a fully executed Property Owner Agreement. If you sell, the tax-bill special charge transfers to the new owner along with the energy savings.

The program publishes betterhomeslanark@lanarkcounty.ca, 613-267-4200 ext. 3102 and lanarkcounty.ca as contacts. This article is an independent summary, not an official county page.