Who Bears the Primary Burden?
The new TILA-RESPA integrated disclosure rules are directed at persons or entities
extending consumer credit or dealing with federally insured mortgage loans. It is those lenders
who are responsible for ensuring compliance with the new rules, whether in-house or through
authorized agents. Lenders who permit mortgage brokers to issue the Loan Estimate or who
permit settlement agents to prepare or make modifications to the Closing Disclosures are
financially liable for the actions of their agents, including clerical errors. Violations can be
costly — minimally $5,000 per day per occurrence and $25,000 per day if reckless, if not more.
Understandably, the financial and residential closing attorney worlds have been in
upheaval attempting to plan for the new requirements and timetables. Many residential closing
attorneys have had to significantly enhance the security features of their offices to protect
confidential client information received from lenders in order to remain an approved settlement
attorney on a lender’s list. Many lenders will require all email communications to be encrypted
and that access to attorney/staff work areas be restricted to employees. A frequent comment is
what HIPAA did to medical offices, TRID has done to closing attorney offices.
On June 3 2015, Richard Cordray, Director of the CFPB, issued a letter to various
senators in response to a letter from Congress concerning implementation of the new TRID
disclosures. After explaining the many ways the CFPB attempted “... to support industry
implementation and to help creditors, vendors, and others affected by the Rule to better
understand, operationalize, and prepare to comply with the Rule’s new streamlined
disclosures....,” Mr. Cordray replied to a request from Congress for a grace period in
implementing the new Rule as follows:
...we continue to work with industry, consumers, and other stakeholders to answer
questions, provide guidance, and support a smooth transition for the mortgage market.
As we do so, and in response to considerable input we have received from you and your
constituents, I have spoken with our fellow regulators to clarify that our oversight of the
implementation of the Rule will be sensitive to the progress made by those entities that
have squarely focused on making good-faith efforts to come into compliance with the
Rule on time. My statement here of this approach is intended to ease some of the
concerns we have heard about this transition to the new process .....
On June 17, Mr. Cordray, on behalf of the CFPB, issued the following announcement
officially postponing the implementation date of the new TRID rules.
“The CFPB will be issuing a proposed amendment to delay the effective date of the
Know Before You Owe rule until October 1, 2015. We made this decision to correct an
administrative error that we just discovered in meeting the requirements under federal
law, which would have delayed the effective date of the rule by two weeks. We further
believe that the additional time included in the proposed effective date would better
accommodate the interests of the many consumers and providers whose families will be
busy with the transition to the new school year at that time.”
The public will have an opportunity to comment on this proposal and a final decision is
expected shortly thereafter.
The proposed amendment published June 24, 2015 postponed the implementation date to
October 3, 2015.
A completed HUD-1 is compared with completed pages 2 and 3 of the Borrower Closing
Disclosure on the following 4 pages to illustrate the similarity between these two forms.
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