Fannie Mae issued Servicing Guide Announcement SVC-2017-03, setting forth updates to the Servicing Guide. As outlined in the Announcement, the Servicing Guide has been updated to include changes related to the use of Form 176 (Report of Property Insurance Loss), bankruptcy outsourcing (requires Fannie Mae’s approval), and property preservation expense limits (increases limit for clearboarding and adds a limit for window repair/replacement). The Servicing Guide updates also clarify guidance with respect to maximum allowable foreclosure attorney fees, extend the current allowable foreclosure attorney fee in Hawaii to apply to all currently active judicial foreclosure matters (not just those with a referral date on or after June 1, 2012) and remove all references to the HomeSaver Solutions Network from the Servicing Guide. In addition, the Servicing Guide updates clarify that servicers are responsible for paying post-foreclosure fees and assessments with respect to cooperative corporations (the requirement was previously eliminated in Servicing Guide Announcement SVC-2017-02). The Servicing Guide updates generally went into effect April 12, 2017. However, the changes related to the use of Form 176 are effective June 1, 2017. Servicers must implement the Hawaii foreclosure allowable fee update for impacted files no later than July 1, 2017 (although servicers are encouraged to implement the fee update for the impacted files as soon as possible). Servicers must also implement the updated property preservation expense limits no later than July 1, 2017 (although servicers are encouraged to do so immediately).
Click here to view the Fannie Mae Servicing Guide Announcement
