Newsroom

April 15, 2015

CFPB issues final guidance on housing counseling rule

CFPB on Wednesday issued a final interpretive ruling for lenders required to provide homebuyers with a list of local homeownership counselors, giving additional interpretive guidance on how to provide applicants living abroad or in remote areas with counseling lists and permissible geolocation tools, among other things.

CFPB initially issued guidance on this requirement in 2013 for those lenders that build their own lists of housing counselors. The Dodd-Frank Act requires that mortgage lenders provide applicants with a list of local housing counselors, which they can fulfill by using a CFPB-developed list or by creating their own list through Department of Housing and Urban Development data.

Lenders that choose to build their own lists can look to CFPB's final interpretive ruling for instructions on combining the homeownership counseling lists with other disclosures, use of a consumer's mailing address to provide the list, high-cost mortgage counseling qualifications and lender participation in such counseling.

Homeownership counselors can provide consumers advice on buying a home, credit issues and foreclosures. CFPB said consumers should receive a list of counselors shortly after they apply for a mortgage loan so they can receive help in deciding what loan is best.