§ 1024.38 - General servicing policies, procedures, and requirements.

§ 1024.38 General servicing policies, procedures, and requirements.

Cross Reference

Link to an amendment published at 81 FR 72372, Oct. 19, 2016.

(a) Reasonable policies and procedures. A servicer shall maintain policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to achieve the objectives set forth in paragraph (b) of this section.

(b) Objectives -

(1) Accessing and providing timely and accurate information. The policies and procedures required by paragraph (a) of this section shall be reasonably designed to ensure that the servicer can:

(i) Provide accurate and timely disclosures to a borrower as required by this subpart or other applicable law;

(ii) Investigate, respond to, and, as appropriate, make corrections in response to complaints asserted by a borrower;

(iii) Provide a borrower with accurate and timely information and documents in response to the borrower's requests for information with respect to the borrower's mortgage loan;

(iv) Provide owners or assignees of mortgage loans with accurate and current information and documents about all mortgage loans they own;

(v) Submit documents or filings required for a foreclosure process, including documents or filings required by a court of competent jurisdiction, that reflect accurate and current information and that comply with applicable law; and

(vi)

(A) Upon

notification

receiving notice of the death of a borrower or of any transfer of the property securing a mortgage loan, promptly

identify and

facilitate communication with any potential or confirmed successors in interest regarding the property;

(B) Upon receiving notice of the existence of a potential successor in interest

of the deceased borrower with respect to the property secured by the deceased borrower's mortgage loan

, promptly determine the documents the servicer reasonably requires to confirm that person's identity and ownership interest in the property and promptly provide to the potential successor in interest a description of those documents and how the person may submit a written request under § 1024.36(i) (including the appropriate address); and

(C) Upon the receipt of such documents, promptly make a confirmation determination and promptly notify the person, as applicable, that the servicer has confirmed the person's status, has determined that additional documents are required (and what those documents are), or has determined that the person is not a successor in interest.

(2) Properly evaluating loss mitigation applications. The policies and procedures required by paragraph (a) of this section shall be reasonably designed to ensure that the servicer can:

(i) Provide accurate information regarding loss mitigation options available to a borrower from the owner or assignee of the borrower's mortgage loan;

(ii) Identify with specificity all loss mitigation options for which borrowers may be eligible pursuant to any requirements established by an owner or assignee of the borrower's mortgage loan;

(iii) Provide prompt access to all documents and information submitted by a borrower in connection with a loss mitigation option to servicer personnel that are assigned to assist the borrower pursuant to § 1024.40;

(iv) Identify documents and information that a borrower is required to submit to complete a loss mitigation application and facilitate compliance with the notice required pursuant to § 1024.41(b)(2)(i)(B); and

(v) Properly evaluate a borrower who submits an application for a loss mitigation option for all loss mitigation options for which the borrower may be eligible pursuant to any requirements established by the owner or assignee of the borrower's mortgage loan and, where applicable, in accordance with the requirements of § 1024.41.

(vi) Promptly identify and obtain documents or information not in the borrower's control that the servicer requires to determine which loss mitigation options, if any, to offer the borrower in accordance with the requirements of § 1024.41(c)(4).

(3) Facilitating oversight of, and compliance by, service providers. The policies and procedures required by paragraph (a) of this section shall be reasonably designed to ensure that the servicer can:

(i) Provide appropriate servicer personnel with access to accurate and current documents and information reflecting actions performed by service providers;

(ii) Facilitate periodic reviews of service providers, including by providing appropriate servicer personnel with documents and information necessary to audit compliance by service providers with the servicer's contractual obligations and applicable law; and

(iii) Facilitate the sharing of accurate and current information regarding the status of any evaluation of a borrower's loss mitigation application and the status of any foreclosure proceeding among appropriate servicer personnel, including any personnel assigned to a borrower's mortgage loan account as described in § 1024.40, and appropriate service provider personnel, including service provider personnel responsible for handling foreclosure proceedings.

(4) Facilitating transfer of information during servicing transfers. The policies and procedures required by paragraph (a) of this section shall be reasonably designed to ensure that the servicer can:

(i) As a transferor servicer, timely transfer all information and documents in the possession or control of the servicer relating to a transferred mortgage loan to a transferee servicer in a form and manner that ensures the accuracy of the information and documents transferred and that enables a transferee servicer to comply with the terms of the transferee servicer's obligations to the owner or assignee of the mortgage loan and applicable law; and

(ii) As a transferee servicer, identify necessary documents or information that may not have been transferred by a transferor servicer and obtain such documents from the transferor servicer.

(iii) For the purposes of this paragraph (b)(4), transferee servicer means a servicer, including a master servicer or a subservicer, that performs or will perform servicing of a mortgage loan and transferor servicer means a servicer, including a master servicer or a subservicer, that transfers or will transfer the servicing of a mortgage loan.

(5) Informing borrowers of the written error resolution and information request procedures. The policies and procedures required by paragraph (a) of this section shall be reasonably designed to ensure that the servicer informs borrowers of the procedures for submitting written notices of error set forth in § 1024.35 and written information requests set forth in § 1024.36.

(c) Standard requirements -

(1) Record retention. A servicer shall retain records that document actions taken with respect to a borrower's mortgage loan account until one year after the date a mortgage loan is discharged or servicing of a mortgage loan is transferred by the servicer to a transferee servicer.

(2) Servicing file. A servicer shall maintain the following documents and data on each mortgage loan account serviced by the servicer in a manner that facilitates compiling such documents and data into a servicing file within five days:

(i) A schedule of all transactions credited or debited to the mortgage loan account, including any escrow account as defined in § 1024.17(b) and any suspense account;

(ii) A copy of the security instrument that establishes the lien securing the mortgage loan;

(iii) Any notes created by servicer personnel reflecting communications with the borrower about the mortgage loan account;

(iv) To the extent applicable, a report of the data fields relating to the borrower's mortgage loan account created by the servicer's electronic systems in connection with servicing practices; and

(v) Copies of any information or documents provided by the borrower to the servicer in accordance with the procedures set forth in § 1024.35 or § 1024.41.

[78 FR 10876, Feb. 14, 2013, as amended at 81 FR 72372, Oct. 19, 2016]