The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has announced that the enactment of Mortgagee Letter 2009-28, Appraiser Independence, will be delayed until Feb. 15, 2010. ML 09-28 (originally planned for a Jan. 1, 2010 implementation) has two parts: A prohibition of mortgage brokers and commission-based lender staff from the appraisal process, and appraiser selection in Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Connection. The effective date for both sections of this guidance will now take effect for all case numbers assigned on or after Feb. 15, 2010. This extension will provide FHA and lenders additional time to adjust systems to accommodate the changes.

Detailed instructions on changes to FHA Connection will be issued in a new mortgagee letter. However, lenders should be aware that the requirement for inputting the appraiser ID and the appraisal assignment date in the FHA Connection case number assignment screen will be removed. Instead, lenders will be required to enter all appraisal data, including the appraiser ID, in the Appraisal Update Screen once the completed appraisal is received by the lender and prior to closing the loan.

Click here to view a full copy of Mortgagee Letter 2009-28, Appraiser Independence.

For more information, visit www.hud.gov.