New RESPA Rule FAQs – HUD-1 Forms

1) Q: How are courier and overnight delivery fees shown on the HUD-1 Settlement Statement?

A: Courier and overnight delivery fees are considered to be fees for administrative or processing services. They are part of a primary service, such as the origination service or title service, and may not be separately itemized.

2) Q: Does voluntarily using the HUD-1 in a transaction that otherwise is not subject to RESPA result in RESPA applying to the transaction?

A: No, using the HUD-1 form does not subject a transaction to coverage under RESPA.

3) Q: Does “conducting a settlement” (from the definition of “title service”) have the same meaning as “conducting the closing”?

A: Yes. The terms “conducting a settlement” and “conducting the closing” have the same meaning under HUD’s RESPA regulations and are subject to identical requirements under the regulations.

4) Q: What if at closing the seller is paying for a settlement service that was listed on the GFE, such as the Owner‘s title insurance policy? How is this shown on the HUD-1?

A: If the seller is paying for a service that was on the GFE, such as Owner‘s title insurance, the charge remains in the borrower‘s column on the HUD-1. A credit from the seller to the borrower to offset the charge should be listed on the first page of the HUD-1 in Lines 204-209 and Lines 506-509 respectively.

5) Q: If there are additional government recording fees, such as to record a power of attorney or road maintenance agreement, are they included in Line 1201 of the HUD-1 or can they be charged separately?

A: Line 1201 is used to record the total government recording charges. Additional items the lender requires to be recorded, other than those already enumerated in Line 1202, must be itemized on Line 1206. The charges for these additional items must be stated outside the column.

6) Q: How do settlement agents get the information to prepare page 3 of the HUD-1? Do they have to search through all of the loan documents to get this information?

A: The lender is required to transmit the information necessary to complete the HUD-1. The instructions for completing the HUD-1 state that the lender must provide information to the settlement agent in a format that permits the settlement agent to simply enter the necessary information to complete the loan terms section on page 3 of the HUD-1 without having to refer to the loan documents.

7) Q: Is it a violation of the tolerance if some of the items in the 10% category in the Comparison Chart exceed 10%, but other items in the category do not exceed 10%?

A: The tolerance applies to the total of all charges shown in the category ―Charges That in Total Cannot Increase More Than 10%.‖ A tolerance violation of this category means that the total of all actual charges in this category exceed the total of all estimated charges in this category by more than 10%.

*The preceding Q&A was originally published on the HUD website.

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