On March 19, 2025, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2025-08 titled “Rescinding Multiple Appraisal Policy Related Mortgagee Letters.” As the title suggests, FHA rescinded three mortgagee...more
On January 7, 2025, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) officially revised its Defect Taxonomy (Final Defect Taxonomy) with the publication of Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2025-01 and the related attachment detailing those...more
1/17/2025
/ Compliance ,
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) ,
HUD ,
Loss Mitigation ,
Mortgage Loan Originators ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Mortgages ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Underwriting
On December 19, 2024, the Fair Housing Administration (FHA) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a draft Mortgagee Letter proposing a new Optional Reimbursement Claim Alternative (ORCA)...more
1/10/2025
/ Affordable Housing ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
HUD ,
Insurance Industry ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Mortgages ,
Property Tax ,
Real Estate Financing ,
Reimbursements
On August 6, 2024, in Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2024-16, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced an extension for the implementation of recent Appraisal Review and Reconsideration of Value (ROV) guidelines through and...more
On May 1, 2024, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2024-07 titled “Appraisal Review and Reconsideration of Value Updates,” which enhances the agency’s current policy on home valuations. ML...more
Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) revised multiple regulations and requirements related to servicing Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs, more commonly known as “reverse mortgages”), with...more
On May 31, 2023, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published a draft Mortgagee Letter (ML) titled “Proposed Payment Supplement Partial Claim.” The draft ML proposes use of available partial claims funds to create a new...more
Affirming its commitment to the senior citizen population, on May 17, 2023, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued Mortgagee Letter 2023-10, implementing amendments to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)...more
The Federal Housing Administration recently issued Mortgagee Letter 2022-23, establishing a new COVID-19 Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Property Charge Repayment Plan. The COVID-19 HECM Property Charge Repayment Plan would...more
3/10/2023
/ Borrowers ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
HECM ,
Home Equity ,
Homeowners ,
Lenders ,
Loan Repayment Issues ,
Loans ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Mortgages ,
Repayment Options
On December 19, 2022, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued an additional extension of the temporary waiver of face-to-face contact required under 24 CFR § 203.604 Contact with the Mortgagor, under Mortgagee Actions...more
In a bid to avoid a wave of COVID-19-related foreclosures, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published Mortgagee Letter 2021-18 to lenders and servicers on July 23, 2021, that will allow borrowers with...more
In an All Participants Memo dated April 10, 2020 (APM 20-03), Ginnie Mae announced that it revised and expanded its issuer assistance programs in Chapter 34 of the Mortgage Backed Securities Guide (MBS Guide) to include a...more
During a COVID-19 press briefing at the White House on March 18, 2020, President Donald Trump announced that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will temporarily suspend “all foreclosures and evictions.” The...more
In an effort to provide clarity and certainty to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) approved lenders, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly issued a...more
The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development, and Insurance convened a hearing on September 25, 2019, to discuss the federal Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)...more
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published two reports on September 25 identifying several weaknesses in the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) oversight of reverse mortgages made under the Home Equity...more
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued Mortgagee Letter 2019-15, in which it announced several modifications to the Mortgagee Optional Election (MOE) Assignment claim process for Home...more
After a nearly three-year delay, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has finally released an update to its FHA condominium rules. The new rules, which take effect October 15, 2019, allow for FHA...more
Mortgagees of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (“HECMs,” more commonly known as reverse mortgages) obtained a significant victory in an important federal appellate court, which ruled last month that non-borrowing spouses are...more
10/15/2018
/ Borrowers ,
Contract Terms ,
Estate Planning ,
Foreclosure ,
HECM ,
Homeowners ,
HUD ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Reverse Mortgages ,
Spouses ,
Surviving Spouse
On September 21, 2018, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”)’s Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) completed a review of HUD’s partial claims program. In many ways, the title of the OIG audit report, “HUD...more
As attorneys representing the financial services industry well know, the financial crisis of 2007-2008 resulted in a wave of foreclosures across the country as borrowers struggled to make payments on their mortgages.
The...more
Reverse mortgage lenders received a significant victory in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal last week when the court issued its decision in OneWest Bank, FSB v. Palmero. After previously ruling in Smith v. Reverse...more
4/27/2018
/ Borrowers ,
Foreclosure ,
Judicial Foreclosure Process ,
Mortgage Insurance ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Mortgages ,
Promissory Notes ,
Reverse Mortgages ,
Spouses ,
Surviving Spouse
Oregon’s legislature continues to add state level regulations to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (“HECM,” more commonly known as a reverse mortgage) marketplace. In 2015, the state imposed a series of content and...more
Last year, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) released a set of proposed rules affecting Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) for notice and comment. After receiving 83 comments and responses, the Department of...more
On January 12, 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published its first Mortgagee Letter of the year, in which it again delayed the implementation of the sweeping changes related to Home Equity...more