Last Minute Closing Panic - Why HUD Forms are Never on Time : The Real Estate Bloggers

Last Minute Closing Panic - Why HUD Forms are Never on Time

April 22nd, 2006 • Related • Filed Under

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Every closing I have been involved in personally has had the HUD form, which shows all the costs involved with the selling and buying the house, has always shown up at  the last minute. While most buyers are under the misconception that the form should be available a day ahead of time, the Hartford Courant has a good article that explains otherwise.

Although realty agents and consumers may believe that federal rules guarantee them the right to see the final closing numbers a day ahead of settlement, that’s not completely accurate. Washington, D.C., lawyer Phillip L. Schulman of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP, an expert on federal real estate regulations, says the law requires a closing agent to provide a borrower the HUD-1 figures one business day in advance only “if the borrower requests” such a review. Equally important, Schulman said, the closing agent is required to provide only “whatever figures [the agent] actually has received up until that time” from other parties in the transaction.

“The fact is that some of these numbers come in very late in the process,” just hours or even minutes before the scheduled settlement time, Schulman said.

Another widely misunderstood point: The federal agency that regulates real estate settlement procedures has no enforcement powers when closing agents fail to provide advance copies of the HUD-1 to consumers who request them.

Ivy Jackson, who heads the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s investigation unit on settlement complaints, said that “we simply do not have the authority” under current federal law to penalize a firm that ignores consumers’ requests to review settlement information in advance.

Related posts:
  1. Top 10 Most Expensive States For Closing Costs
  2. Top 10 Least Expensive States For Closing Costs
  3. Top 10 Most Expensive States For Closing Costs
  4. Top 10 Least Expensive States For Closing Costs
  5. Top 10 Most Expensive States For Mortgage Closing Costs For 2007



Previous Post: 18 of Top 25 Cities Losing Population Rapidly | Next Post: New Jersey Real Estate Fraud Case - Surprise, Surprise, Surprise



 

If you enjoyed this post, we can deliver daily content from the Real Estate Bloggers.

Subscribe using your RSS Reader

Or Get Updates Delivered Daily By E-Mail:


There Is 1 Response So Far. »

  1. Comment by David Porter on 22 April 2006:

    The key to this problem is to stop tolerating poor service from your providers. When we started our company 15 years ago we created a “Time Track” to put in writing the anticipated dates from application to closing.

    In that plan is having the closing documents done 4 days prior to closing and a closing review with our clients two days prior to closing. Our clients, Realtors, and Title Companies love this. All of our closings go very smoothly with no surprises. If we do find a surprise, it is found two days prior to closing.

    It can be done! Just insist on it from your lenders. If they won’t, find one that will. It won’t happen until you insist.

Post a Response

« Back to text comment