April 28, 2014
The FHA has issued a new Mortgagee Letter updating the rules of the FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) loan program. Mortgagee Letter 2014-07 announces rule changes for HECM loans that feature a non-borrowing spouse.
“This Mortgagee Letter uses the authority granted HUD in the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013 to amend the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) HECM program regulations and requirements concerning due and payable status where there is a Non-Borrowing Spouse at the time of loan closing.”
What are the rule changes? We’ll cover them in depth in another blog post, but essentially the HECM loan program has been modified to further protect the interests of a non-borrowing spouse in cases where the HECM loan borrower dies.
“For many years, Non- Borrowing Spouses were able to refinance HECMs upon the death of their mortgagor spouses in order to retain the homes. However, FHA recognizes that, for some Non-Borrowing Spouses this option has become more difficult. This has, in some cases, left few viable options for a Non-Borrowing Spouse if they wanted to remain in the home they had previously shared with their spouse.”
The new HECM loan rules have been changed as follows, from ML 2014-07:
“For any HECM with a case number issued after the effective date of this Mortgagee Letter, in order to be eligible for FHA insurance, the HECM must contain a provision deferring the due and payable status that occurs because of the death of the last surviving mortgagor, if a mortgagor was married at the time of closing and the Non-Borrowing Spouse was identified at the time of closing.”
“Specifically, the HECM documents must contain a provision deferring due and payable status until the death of the last surviving Non- Borrowing Spouse or until another listed event occurs.”
This basically prevents (under qualifying circumstances) the home from being sold while the non-borrowing spouse is still alive as long as the non-borrowing spouse continues to meet the requirements of the HECM loan.
We’ll cover this rule change in greater detail in another blog post. The new rule changes are effective as of the date of the mortgagee letter, April 25, 2014.
Do you have questions about FHA home loans? Ask us in the comments section. You can get information about applying or getting pre-approved for an FHA loan at FHA.com, a private company and not a government website.
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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