FHA Issues Technical Update to COVID-19 Extension of First Legal Action and Reasonable Diligence Time Frame Deadlines

Monday, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2022-02, Technical Update to the Extension of the Deadlines for the First Legal Action and Reasonable Diligence Time Frame.

On June 25, 2021, FHA published Mortgagee Letter 2021-15 entitled, Extension of the Foreclosure and Eviction Moratorium in Connection with the Presidentially-Declared COVID-19 National Emergency, Further Expansion of the COVID-19 Forbearance and the COVID-19 Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) Extensions, and Establishment of the COVID-19 Advance Loan Modification (COVID-19 ALM), which, in part, continued the policy to provide Mortgagees an extension to the first legal deadline and Reasonable Diligence Time Frame for foreclosures on delinquent FHA-insured mortgages.

In that Mortgagee Letter, FHA continued extending the deadlines, “to 180 Days” from the date of expiration of the foreclosure moratorium. FHA’s intent was to provide maximum flexibility to Mortgagees impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to ensure its original intent is made clear, FHA is updating the Handbook and Mortgagee Letter to clarify extensions to the first legal deadline and the Reasonable Diligence Time Frame.

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