This came out back in March of 2008, I thought my readers would be interested in seeing the new rules.

 

Today, the long-awaited new RESPA rule was released by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (“HUD”).  A copy of the rule is available on the National Association of Morgage Brokers website at namb.org.  

The official RESPA rule was published in the Federal Register, therefore the 60 day comment period goes into effect immediately.  Comments are due on May 13, 2008. NAMB will analyze the proposal and prepare formal comments to submit to HUD before the deadline. 

After an initial review of the proposed rule, HUD has indeed decided to move away from the broad and sweeping revision to RESPA (i.e., the guaranteed mortgage package concept) that was contemplated in 2002.  Instead, the current proposal focuses almost exclusively on a revised Good Faith Estimate (“GFE”).  This new 4-page GFE is, according to HUD, designed to more closely mirror the HUD-1 settlement statement and provide consumers with more detailed information about yield-spread premiums paid to mortgage brokers.  As in 2002, HUD is moving forward with a proposed rule that requires only mortgage brokers to disclose their service charge. 

The proposed rule does however have several new components.  Most notably is the clarification on the definition of required use.  This change, according to HUD, is aimed at encouraging consumers to shop for the homes, home features, loans, and other settlement services that are best for them, free from the influence of dangerous referral arrangements.  As you know, NAMB has long advocated for stricter prohibitions and enforcement against tying arrangements that use the illusion of financial incentives to capture consumers’ settlement service business.

Source – NAMB Press Release