On August 30, 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Housing Service (“USDA”) announced changes to four forms that have been updated following the implementation of a final rule which mandated the use of the RHS Guaranteed Underwriting System (“GUS”) for all supported loan originations and the Lender Loan Closing System (“LLC”) for loan closings.
The USDA stated in the final rule, effective May 9, 2022, that changes are being made in an effort to streamline the processing of applications through increased automation, and to align the USDA’s program “with mortgage industry expectations in the domain of information technology.”
As part of the implementation, the following USDA forms have been updated:
- Form RD 3555-21 Request for Single Family Housing Loan Guarantee (Form ID: RD355521.RH): has been updated to add space for up to five borrowers, to align with data in GUS. Also, applicant names have been removed from the top of pages 2-4. The current RD 3555-21 form, last revised in March 2021, can be utilized until the new forms mandatory use date of November 30, 2022.
- Form RD 3555-17 Loan Note Guarantee (Form ID: RD355517.RH): Space has been added to the top of page 1 to include up to five borrowers. The contact email has been updated on page 2, under the Full Faith and Credit section, item 8.
- Form RD 3555-18 Conditional Commitment for Single Family Housing Loan Guarantee (Form ID: RD355518.RH): The form has been expanded to include up to five borrowers. On page 1, the box for “attached Lender Certification” has been removed. The instruction now states that “Lender Certification” for SFH Guarantee Loan must be executed electronically in the LLC prior to issuance of a Loan Note Guarantee. The Lender Certification page was moved from page 2 to page 3 as an optional page only to be used when the LLC is officially unavailable.
- Form RD 3555-11 Lender Record Change (Form ID: RD355511.RH): The line for Borrower Social Security Number is removed from the Borrower Information Section to better protect the borrower’s personal identifiable information and to limit data redundancy.
The updated forms are now available in the USDA system and on the USDA’s eForms website with a new revision date of August 2022. DocMagic will release the updates forms on September 15, 2022, ahead of the November 30, 2022 mandatory use date.
