housing counseling program recordkeeping training - … · 2015-09-22 · – chapter 4 and...

Housing Counseling ProgramRecordkeeping Training

Gail OsgoodOffice of Oversight and Compliance

Portland, Oregon

Office of Housing Counseling Recordkeeping Training 2

• Delivery of Housing Counseling Services

• File Maintenance and Other Recordkeeping Issues

• Q & A

AGENDA


DELIVERY OF HOUSING COUNSELING SERVICES


Housing Counseling (6 areas)• Pre-purchase/Homebuyer Education• Resolve or Prevent Mortgage Delinquency or default• Non-delinquency• Locate, secure or maintain Rental housing• Reverse Mortgage• Homeless Assistance

Counseling Services


• Face-to-face• Alternate format: face-to-face at alternate locationTelephonic remote counseling

Alternate formats must be: Included in an agency’s approved work plan with HUD Be mutually acceptable to counselor and client

Counseling Delivery Setting


• Defined as: Action Plan (except reverse mortgage clients) Budget Financial Analysis Home Inspection Publications (Pre-purchase clients

and/or HBE only) Alternatives Referrals Follow-up Termination Report Outcomes to HUD

Counseling Services


• Goals

• Steps

• Who will complete goals

• Estimated timeline

Client Action Plan


• Review client’s Income Expenses Spending habitsHome valuesUses of credit

• Comparative analysis of spending habits to determine if renting or owning is best

• Establish household budget client can afford

Budget and Financial Analysis


Home Inspection Publications

The following publications must be provided to pre-purchase clients and/or home buyer education workshop attendees:

Ten Important Questions to Ask Your Home InspectorFor Your Protection: Get a Home Inspection


• Reasonable discussion of alternatives and options available

• Must include FHA mortgage products

Alternatives


• If unable to provide service-may refer to other source.

• Documented in file

• Must do actual counseling to count as service

Referrals


• No contact within 60 days – must do verbal follow-up

• After two unsuccessful attempts – must send letter/email requesting contact agency within 30 days

• No response-terminate client account

• Surveys and 3rd party agency not considered follow-up

Follow-Up


• Use follow-up outlined above

• If agency does not have contact for 90-day period, must not bill or count as active unless client is reinitiated

Termination of Counseling


• Client meets his or her housing need or problem is resolved

• Agency determines that further housing counseling will not meet client’s need or resolve the problem

• Agency attempts, but is unable to locate the client

• Client does not follow agreed upon action plan

Reasons for Client Termination


• Client terminates housing counseling

• Client fails to appear for appointments or to respond to inquiries concerning progress

• Other circumstances beyond the agency or client’s control such as natural disaster that prevent continuation of counseling

Reasons for Termination (Cont.)


• Counselor must have passed certification exam and be listed on roster

• HECM Protocol effective September 10, 2010– Chapter 4 and Appendix 4 for specific policies and protocol

Reverse Mortgage Counseling


Group Education


• HUD defines “education” as the general provision of housing information, for example through a course

Established curriculum Instructional goalsProvided in a group, classroom setting or other formats

approved by HUD

Group Education


• Web-based education is allowed by HUD• Currently, HUD does not approve or endorse

individual web-based education systems or programs• HUD Housing Counseling program requirements

regarding housing education in general, including content, file, and reporting requirements, also apply to web-based education

• HUD oversight may involve the evaluation of web-based education

On-line Education


• May provide internet education through a third party vendor provided that the counseling agency is able to demonstrate that the clients learned about and accesses the web-based education through the actions, for example marketing and outreach, of the counseling agency

• Agencies planning to offer on-line education must amend their work plan and submit to HUD for approval prior to implementation

On-line Education (Cont.)


• Agency must also offer in-person education on same topics offered on-line

• Agency must offer one-on-one counseling for all education topics including those offered on-line

• The same industry standards for high quality service apply to internet education that apply to in person education/counseling

• HUD fee requirements, file documentation, and reporting requirements apply to on-line education

On-line Education (Cont.)


• Reported by household• Workshop reported as one even if broken into

several sessions• Multiple distinct different counseling services each

are counted separately• Individual counseling requiring multiple visits is still

reported as one activity

Reporting Methodology


Conflict of Interest


Conflict of Interest Definition• Agencies/counselors must avoid any action that might

result in, or create the appearance of, administering the housing counseling operation for personal or private gain

• Cannot refer clients to other businesses including lenders, brokers, realtors, builders or sales agent in which the counselor or other party associated with agency has a financial interest or receive compensation for referrals

• Cannot provide preferential treatment to any organization or person


Possible conflict of interest may occur if an Individual holding position of trust has direct interest in the client by virtue of role as client’s:

Landlord Real estate agent/broker Creditor Mortgage broker Loan originator, servicing or underwriting mortgage Owning or purchasing property client seeks to rent or purchase Serving as collection agent for lender, landlord or creditor

Conflict of Interest


Avoiding Conflict of Interest

• Client housing counseling disclosure• Providing clients with alternatives• Documentation and recordkeeping• Communicating policies to avoid conflict of interest

to staff, volunteers, board members and industry partners

• If a conflict of interest occurs, notify HUD no later than 15 calendar days – describe incident and corrective action taken


Housing Counseling Client Disclosure 214.303

• Explicitly describes the various types of services provided by the agency

• Discloses relationships with industry partners relevant to the housing counseling client

• Must clearly state the client is not obligated to receive, purchase or utilize any other services offered by the agency or its partners in order to receive housing counseling services

• Update as needed – notify HUD


• The counseling services, down payment assistance, weatherization, counseling, rental assistance, may be offered by Anywhere Housing Corporation, its subsidiaries, affiliates or directors, officers, employees, agents or partners may be offered by other providers and you are under no obligation to utilize any services, including housing counseling, from Anywhere Housing Corporation. Anywhere Housing Corporation has financial affiliation with XWY Bank, County of Nowhere, USDA Rural Development who are industry partners.

Sample Disclosure


Discussing Alternatives

If the counselor provides information about a specific service, program, feature product he/she must also:

Provide at least three alternative sources if availableWhen discussing loan products, FHA must be discussed

as one of the available alternativesIncludes debt management servicesCounselor’s role is to make clients aware of their

options and empower them with the information they need to help them make informed choices


Agencies that provide housing services in addition to housing counseling services must disclose these additional services to HUDAny practices and/or partnerships that would constitute

conflict of interestDescription of organizational structure that protect clientAgency’s written standard of ethicsAgency’s Quality Control Plan to identify mitigating efforts

to comply with conflict of interest

Disclosure to HUD

HUD Handbook 7610.1 Rev-5, 5-1


Housing Counseling Fees


• May charge reasonable and customary fees and must be posted and offered on a sliding scale

• No fee can be charged for intake • Can charge fees as long as it doesn’t place a hardship

on the client• Clients should not be turned away due to an inability

to pay

Housing Counseling Fees 214.313


• Fee schedule included in agency’s approved work plan with HUD

• Changes to fee schedules must be approved by HUD before implementation

• HUD will review fee schedules during the performance review

• No fees can be charged for foreclosure or homeless counseling

Housing Counseling Fees (cont.)


HUD-approved counseling agencies providing HECM counseling may charge a fee for HECM counseling services as long as the cost:

is reasonable, Is commensurate with services provided, does not create a financial hardship for the client, and,meets the other requirements of the regulation

HECM Counseling Fees ML 2011-09


• Counseling agencies choosing to charge HECM fees should not collect a fee at the time of the counseling session from a client whose income is below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty level.

• Agencies may charge these clients a HECM counseling fee at closing provided the client has been advised during the counseling session of the amount of the fee.

• HHS’s poverty guidelines can be found at: http://aspe.hhs.gov/

HECM Counseling Fees (Cont.)


http://aspe.hhs.gov/

Counseling agencies may charge more than $125 for HECM counseling as long as the fee

is reasonable and customary does not exceed a level commensurate with the counseling services

that are provided, and is not being charged to pay for the same portion of or for an entire

service that is already funded with HUD Housing Counseling grant funds or any other funds received for HECM or delinquency counseling

HECM Counseling Fees (Cont.)


Recordkeeping


• Client fileData ElementsHUD is encouraging agencies to implement electronic

recordkeeping through their client management systems (CMS)

Paper/electronic Remote monitoring

Recordkeeping


Three years from the date the: Case was terminated or Final grant invoice was paid by HUD, whichever is later

File Retention


• Required CMS/CARS Interface Data Points• ARM 4.0 Client file number, demographics, financial

information

• File Number• Budget• Financial Analysis• Action Plan• Follow-Up• Home inspection publications (pre-purchase)

Counseling File--Individual (Cont.)


• Referrals• Pertinent Documents• Disclosure• Funding Source• Fees/receipt• HUD grant activity• Termination• Outcome



• Discussion of alternatives• Client Authorization • Miscellaneous



• List of attendees and relationship• Financial Analysis• Signed and dated HECM counseling certificate• Power of Attorney if applicable• Amortization schedules for reverse mortgage loan

options• Total Annual Loan Cost Analysis

Reverse Mortgage File


• Notation of any brochures or handouts on the reverse mortgage lending process/procedures/timelines lenders alternatives

• Documentation demonstrating all content was provided (see Chap 4 & Protocol)

• Other options available

Reverse Mortgage File (Cont.)


• Data Elements:Attendee First and Last Name, Address (city, state, zip)Phone number Referred By First Time Homebuyer indicationAttendee RaceAttendee Ethnicity Income level

Group Counseling Files


• Date, Location, Duration of class• Signature of each attendee• Subject of session• Course Description, outline, goals• Name(s) of counselor/instructors and guest speakers• Disclosure• Fees (if applicable)/receipts• Funding source/HUD grant

Group Counseling Files (Cont.)


Most Common Findings

• Individual Client Files:Missing client file documentationMissing home inspection materials documentationMissing budget Missing documentation of financial analysisMissing action planAction plan does not state what actions the

client/counselor will take to meet client’s needAction plan is not individualizedMissing documentation of client follow-up


Most Common Findings (Cont.)

• Individual Client Files (Cont.):Missing disclosure statement documentationDisclosure statement does not meet requirementsMissing authorization to release informationMissing documentation of service termination

• Group Missing course outlineMissing course goalsMissing disclosure statement documentation



• Grant/Funding Issues:Missing documentation of direct costs

InvoicesReceiptsCanceled checksSalary reports, etc.

Quarterly reports not submitted in timely manner

• Agency/HCS: HUD 9902s not submitted in timely manner Agency HCS profile not updated Agency does not validate profile in timely manner



• Housing CounselingProgram Compliance:Agency does not notify HUD POC of changes to staff,

agency, program, etc. within 15 daysAgency does not conduct or document supervisory

monitory of housing counseling activitiesAgency does not comply with its work plan


General HUD FAQshttp://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/hcc/hc_faq

Office of Housing Counseling [email protected]

Information for Counselorshttp://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/hcc/hcc_home

Resources


mailto:[email protected]

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/hcc/hcc_home

Resources

HUD Handbook 7610.1 REV-5http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/administration/hudclips/handbooks/hsgh/7610.1

24 CFR 214https://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=DOC_12625.pdf

9910http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/administration/hudclips/forms/hud9a


http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/administration/hudclips/handbooks/hsgh/7610.1

https://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=DOC_12625.pdf

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/administration/hudclips/forms/hud9a

QUESTIONS ????

Questions
