The following is reposted from Community Association Institute’s (CAI) Government Affairs Division:
On March 29, federal housing agencies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae released a standardized set of lender questionnaires for condominium unit mortgages. The Uniform Condominium Questionnaire is intended to reduce the burden on community associations that routinely provide condominium project information to mortgage lenders.
To comply with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae mortgage purchase guidelines, mortgage lenders must verify financial and property standards for condominium projects. Over the past two years, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae worked with CAI and the mortgage lender community to develop a uniform condominium questionnaire to ease the process of obtaining this information. Lenders will now have two options when requesting information from a condominium association.
“Condominium associations have been plagued by a multitude of questionnaires and forms used by lenders to underwrite mortgages. With the standard Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae condominium questionnaire, association boards and community management companies will no longer need to spend valuable time and resources completing multiple and conflicting questionnaires,” said Dawn M. Bauman, CAE, CAI’s Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs.
The first option, Form 1076, provides a broad overview of a condominium association’s financial, legal, and property status. Once a condominium association has completed a Form 1076 for a lender, it is anticipated the lender will not resubmit Form 1076 for subsequent inquiries.
A second, shorter form, Form 1077, is intended for use by lenders where a condominium association has previously completed a Form 1076. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have requested that lenders update Form 1076 only on a periodic basis.
“Community associations and community management companies want the simplified condominium questionnaire to be successful. We are ready to do our part,” said Bauman. “At this time, the form is not mandatory for lenders to use. Ultimately, lenders must commit to using the standardized forms and we hope they choose to use one standardized form.”