The U.S. Department of Real Estate and Urban Advancement (HUD)’s Workplace of the Inspector General (OIG) released on Thursday 2 reports broadly declaring that home mortgage servicers– and Mr. Cooper in specific— did not satisfy HUD requirements for supplying loss mitigation alternatives to customers with overdue loans guaranteed by the Federal Real Estate Administration (FHA).
The reports come from a compliance audit of the loan servicers needed by the FHA to supply loss mitigation help after customers’ COVID-19 forbearance relief durations pertained to an end. Preliminary forbearance demands ended on Might 31 and no forbearance duration is set up beyond November 30, according to HUD.
Basic audit
The HUD OIG started the audit given that the COVID-era loss mitigation programs “were brand-new and produced a danger for both customers and the FHA insurance coverage fund when servicers do not effectively supply loss mitigation,” the basic report stated.
The objective was to “identify whether servicers offered customers of FHA-insured loans appropriate loss mitigation help after the COVID-19 forbearance ended,” the OIG stated.
The audit discovered that appropriate loss mitigation alternatives were not offered to customers in as numerous as two-thirds of cases.
” Based upon an analytical sample drawn from 231,362 FHA-insured forward loans amounting to $41 billion, servicers did not satisfy HUD requirements for supplying loss mitigation help to customers of 155,297 FHA-insured loans,” the report states. “Almost half of the customers did not get the appropriate loss mitigation help.”
The appropriate help consists of the loss mitigation alternatives that customers received; the appropriate computation of customers’ loss mitigation alternatives; or loss mitigation alternatives that restored balance dues to make customers existing on their payments.
However “these customers did not get the loss mitigation alternative for which they were qualified, had their loss mitigation alternative not computed effectively, or got a loss mitigation alternative that did not renew balance dues,” the report states. “Around one-quarter of the customers got the appropriate loss mitigation alternative, however servicers did not follow COVID-19 loss mitigation assistance to assist customers with payments that were missed out on throughout forbearance.”
Mr. Cooper audit
The Mr. Cooper audit was performed simultaneously with the basic audit and was created to “match that [general] audit by taking a look at how a single service provider [â¦] offered loss mitigation for customers coming out of COVID-19 forbearance,” the OIG stated.
The business was picked due to a 2021 threat evaluation that “determined a considerable volume of overdue loans with previous COVID-19 forbearance in its portfolio and based upon [HUD OIGâs] awareness of problems made about Nationstar [doing business as Mr. Cooper] to the Customer Financial Security Bureau and the HUD OIG hotline.”
The report mentions that as much as 80% of customers with overdue FHA-insured loans were not offered with appropriate loss mitigation alternatives by Mr. Cooper after their COVID-19 forbearance durations ended.
” Based upon an analytical sample drawn from a universe of 4,288 FHA-insured forward loans amounting to $767 million, [Mr. Cooper] did not satisfy HUD’s requirements for supplying help to an approximated 3,572,” the HUD OIG stated. “Based upon our loan sample forecast, over half of the customers got inaccurate loss mitigation help. In these cases, [Mr. Cooper] did not supply the loss mitigation alternative for which customers were qualified, improperly calculated loss mitigation alternatives, did not renew balance dues, or decreased loss mitigation in mistake.”
While more than one-third of customers did get appropriate loss mitigation alternatives after their forbearance duration, Mr. Cooper “did not properly follow COVID-19 loss mitigation assistance for these customers,” the OIG stated.
Mr. Cooper’s action
A representative for Mr. Cooper stated that the report did not “properly show our dedication to those consumers. We are positive in our performance history, and an in-depth counterclaim to the report’s findings is consisted of near completion of the report. Most notably, none of the houses in the sample population were foreclosed upon, and there was no damage to any of the consumers.”
Mr. Cooper likewise admired the OIG’s deal with putting together the report.
” While we were amazed by their choice to singularly concentrate on Mr. Cooper when our lead to helping consumers leaving COVID-19 forbearance exceeded the market, we value HUD OIG’s crucial function in auditing FHA program individuals and the professionalism of the HUD OIG personnel and eagerly anticipate continuous dialog in the spirit of assisting as numerous property owners as possible,” the business representative informed HousingWire
The business likewise kept in mind that no loans from the sample have actually ended in foreclosure, while 90% of consumers were provided a service to bring their loan existing. The huge bulk of affected customers accepted such alternatives, the business stated, and of the staying 10%, the majority of have actually paid their loans completely, remain in active loss mitigation evaluation, or have had their maintenance moved to another service provider.