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WASHINGTON-Clarifying an earlier directive, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has published a new mortgagee letter that sets the maximum claim amount on the new HECM for Purchase product.
HUD also issued another mortgage letter last week that reiterates its policies on counseling for seniors who apply for a government-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage and adds several new requirements.
That letter (ML 2009-10) repeats the admonition that lenders are "strictly prohibited" from assisting would-be borrowers in scheduling counseling.
HUD says it is aware on instances in which lenders have dialed a counseling agency and then handed the phone to the borrower to schedule counseling. In other cases, the lender has entered the borrower's contact information into a Web-based system, which automatically puts that borrower's name in a queue to be called by a counselor.
"These two examples run counter to our requirement that the borrower must take the initiative to contact a counseling agency when and if he...