On February 14, 2018, the United States House of Representatives passed the TRID Improvement Act of 2017, H.R. 3978, by a vote of 245 to 171.  The bill would amend the manner in which title insurance premiums are disclosed under the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule.

Under title insurance price structures in many states, when a consumer purchases both an owner’s title insurance policy and lender’s title insurance policy at the same time, a discount is offered on the price of the lender’s title insurance policy.  Nevertheless, when the consumer will purchase both an owner’s title insurance policy and lender’s title insurance policy, the TRID rule requires that the amounts disclosed for the owner’s title insurance policy premium and lender’s title insurance policy premium be determined as follows:

Lender’s Title Insurance Premium:  The premium for the lender’s policy based on the full premium rate (i.e., without regard to any discount offered by the title insurer).

Owner’s Title Insurance Premium:  The result of adding the full owner’s title insurance premium and discounted premium for the lender’s policy, and subtracting the premium for the lender’s policy based on the full premium rate.

Industry members have objected to the required disclosure approach because it deviates from the manner in which the actual premium amounts are charged.

The bill would amend language in the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) to require the itemization of “all actual charges” and not just the itemization of “all charges.”  The bill also would amend RESPA to require that ‘‘Charges for any title insurance premium disclosed on [the TRID rule] forms shall be equal to the amount charged for each individual title insurance policy, subject to any discounts as required by State regulation or the title company rate filings.’’. Thus, the bill would not permit the current approach to the disclosure of title insurance premiums under the TRID rule, and would require that the amounts disclosed for title insurance reflect the actual premium charges, including any discounts.

Forty-three Democrats joined Republications in passing the bill.