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July 2025
J O U R N A L
July 2025 »
themortgagepoint.com
on the front lines of helping borrowers
stay in their homes."
Under the new guidance, effective
July 1, 2025, the mortgagee must not
charge the borrower for the following
services:
• Costs of telephone calls, certi-
fied mail, arranging, conducting
interviews, or other activities that
are normally considered a part of
servicing activity.
• Preparing and providing evidence of
payoff, reconveyance, or termination
of the mortgage.
• Providing information essential to
the payoff of the mortgage.
• Recording the payoff of the mort-
gage in states where recordation is
the responsibility of the mortgagee.
• Fees for services performed by at-
torneys or trustees who are salaried
members of the mortgagee's staff.
• The mortgagee's use of an indepen-
dent contractor, such as services
related to the interview or a tax
service, to furnish tax data and in-
formation necessary to pay property
taxes or make the payments on
behalf of the mortgagee.
"The revised rule is vastly better
than the first draft. The rule mostly
achieves the same results without
overburdening the process," said
Donna Schmidt, President & CEO, DLS
Servicing. "Specific requirements which
would have proven extremely difficult
to small servicers with geographically
diverse portfolios have been removed.
These include requiring that contact at-
tempts be made during certain times of
the day and requiring meetings during
specific hours within a property's time
zone. Mortgage servicers and borrowers
alike will both benefit from the new ap-
proach, and more successful outcomes
can be expected."
