HUD has issued a press release stating that they are now offering assistance to homeowners with FHA loans who have defective drywall.
HUD has instructed FHA approved lenders to offer special forbearance to homeowners faced with financial hardship due to the effects of defective drywall.
“We’re instructing our FHA mortgage lenders nationwide to extend temporary relief to allow these families time to remove problem damaging drywall and repair their homes,” said FHA Commissioner David Stevens. “We want to remove additional pressures for these families as they find solutions to allow them to return to a safe, decent and sanitary home."
HUD has stated that while a homeowner is under the special forbearance plan (which can last for up to 12 months), the lender cannot charge late fees if the homeowner is making timely payments.
The entire press release can be viewed by clicking here.
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Tina Merritt and Assoc. can be reached at email: tina@tinamerritt.com or 757-287-6338.
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Tina, Thanks for the information.This is good news for consumers.
Good morning Tina hope all is well. With all due respect, HUD is unable to help with anything. It is the American Taxpayer that will foot-the-bill. Happy New Year.
This is a tough call. How does HUD determine that a homeowners finanical hardship is caused by the drywall? Somehow it sounds like HUD is grasping at straws and in the end the few homeowners that are qualified will find themselves caught in an endless loop of government paperwork.
Thanks Tina, good news. Worth a re-blog. Have a great New Year.
Hadn't had this in Oklahoma to my knowledge, but very helpful for those areas affected. I hope this gets out to the public and thank you for helping.
Tina, what did you mean when you said "the lender cannot charge late fees if the homeowner is making timely payments." Thanks for the press release update.
Thanks for the info. I work with alot of HUD homes and it nice to know they recognize the issue and are taking steps to correct
if this is chinese drywall, hud will not, can not solve the problem. in many cases people should not be occupying the home, and it is very expensive to cure.
although the hud letter does have a nice ring to it doesn't it.
I'm not incredibly well-versed on the subject; however, it has been very much in the news in Virginia as we have a lot of homes with the defective drywall. My understanding is that after touring a few of the homes and meeting with the owners, Glenn Nye, D-VA, went to HUD asking for help. Homeowners who get the drywall replaced and damage repaired are eligible for mortgage forbearance for up to 1 year. IMO, this may help only about 5% of the homeowners with a problem since most homeowners who purchased new construction during the period the drywall was used obtained conventional loans. In our area, a good number also obtained VA loans. So far, no help for them.
Tina, This is good to know, but I'm wondering how many homeowners this will effect.
Good stuff from HUD. Thanks Tina I will reblog this as well as I have many inquires on this issue and the ability to use renovation loans to help with this growing problem.
smart move, they don't any of those homes back. much cheaper to let the homeowner deal with it.
glad my house doesn't stink like rotten eggs.
Can anyone tell me why we still import things from China? If it's not defective drywall then it is lead based paint. What's next?
First of all, this sounds like a publicity ploy more than anything else. How can HUD make these determinations, anyway?
This is certainly good news to us in Florida where Chinese drywall has been a huge problem. Thanks for the update.
Good info...
It's just another "help" that doesn't actually offer any help. Typically, for a forebearance, they charge additional fees on the back end of the loan. These won't be called or considered "late fees", so they're going to go around that too.
Thanks for the great news and getting it out to us on AR today.
Hopefully we'll have a great New Year!!
Patricia/Seacoast NH
Tina, Thanks for the heads up. I hadn't heard about this. Going to do some research so I understand it all. Happy New Year!
Well that good news for those homeowners.
This is great news for homeowners who have Chinese drywall. Tina, thanks for the blog.
I think this is a huge problem on the horizon. I'm glad to see a government agency actually trying to get out in front of it.
Thanks for the tip. Indiana has set up special funds for the last few years to try to hep folks with this but as Lane states. It is a huge problem
Tony
Quite an interesting subject... I'm sure the bubble blogs will have fun with it..
Hi Tina, Should be of some help in Florida. Has anyone heard why we arn't asking China to step up to the plate for this defective merchandise ! Happy 2010 to you!
Great news. I have confidence in Mr. Stevens, he has all the credentials and did a great job with Long and Foster the short amount of time he was with us.
Cindy--I'm sure HUD has a 34 page document and a 128 day process that will be able to take care of determining whether the home owner has defective drywall. It's either that one or the 89 page one. <smile>
Thanks, Tina! I hadn't read this article and I hope this program works!
It's about time someone did something to help these people. Nothing the homeowner did! Thanks for the info.
Great info. just had a deal with a disclaimer about this Chinese Drywall, and out here in California we hadn't seen this before. Thanks for the update
Tina,
Thanks for this information, and the link to it. It will be helpful to me in the future months, I'm sure.
Great Post!
Happy New Year to you!
I'd be in favor of a bill that places the responsibility on the culpable. In this case that would be the government of the People's Republic of China. They allowed their manufacturers to ship the product to the rest of the world. If we sent the same drywall to China they would be raising hell at the United Nations. Fix the problem and send them a bill for the fix.
The chances of that happening are next to zero. Isn't it convenient that the rest of the world can dump their dangerous products here and expect the taxpayers to fix the problem?
Although the drywall situation is serious and I think the Lenders ought to work with people I am sick and tired of the government sticking it's nose in everything. Will they be bailing me out this year?
When they were building these homes what the builders cared about was obtaining the drywall at the cheapest prices and I doubt there was anyone asking about the proucts safety. Surely, everyone would agree that a product with so much potential for creating expensive devastation should be held to a standard. I agree that this, perhaps, well intentioned HUD program will be of little help but I do believe government has a role to play. We're all better served when standards protect us from future harm. Testing this product at the import stage would have added expense but been a pretty simple process. Ripping it out of one home after another is a whole different story. We can't have it both ways - absolute freedom of commerce and consumer safety are not compatible - never were and never will be...
Thanks for alerting me to the press release
Anything to help homeowners is good news. Thanks for the information.
This is excellent news! I saw a news broadcast on this subject a few months ago and was shocked to learn that the replacement of the defective drywall was not covered by the homeowners insurance policy. People were out of their home because of health related issues, they had no way of paying for the removal of the drywall and in the meantime, had to procure housing elsewhere. Glad to hear someone stepped up to the plate to help these folks.