What's the catch? The only "catch" for receiving this tax break is that you must agree to maintain the historic appearance of your property from the street. Specifically, before beginning remodeling or construction work on publicly visible part of your house, you must allow the State's historic preservation experts to review the plans. If your modifications do not comply with State and Federal standards for rehabilitation of historic properties, you will lose the tax break. Since most homeowners value the historic appearance of their home, this is not usually a "catch" at all.