HOMES Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 7858 To require the provision of notice to homeowners regarding available housing relief to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 30, 2020 Mr. EVANS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on Veterans’ Af- fairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To require the provision of notice to homeowners regarding available housing relief to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Helping Owners Main- 4 tain Economic Security Act of 2020’’ or the ‘‘HOMES Act 5 of 2020’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:34 Aug 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7858.IH H7858 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 7858 IH SEC. 2. NOTICE TO HOMEOWNERS. 1 Section 4022 of the CARES Act (15 U.S.C. 9056) 2 is amended— 3 (1) in subsection (b)(1), by inserting after ‘‘cov- 4 ered period,’’ the following: ‘‘which term for pur- 5 poses of this section shall have the meaning given 6 such term in section 623(a)(1)(F)(i) of the Fair 7 Credit Reporting Act,’’; and 8 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub- 9 section: 10 ‘‘(d) NOTICE TO HOMEOWNERS OF AVAILABLE RE- 11 LIEF.— 12 ‘‘(1) NOTICE REQUIREMENT.—Subject only to 13 paragraph (3), not later than the expiration of the 14 30-day period beginning upon the date of the enact- 15 ment of this subsection, each servicer of a Federally 16 backed mortgage loan shall send, by first class 17 United States mail, written notice to the mortgagor 18 sufficient to inform such mortgagor in plain lan- 19 guage of the mortgagor’s eligibility to request for- 20 bearance under subsection (b). 21 ‘‘(2) CONTENT.—The notice established pursu- 22 ant to paragraph (1) shall include a statement— 23 ‘‘(A) that section 4022(b) of the CARES 24 Act provides that, during the covered period, a 25 borrower with a Federally backed mortgage 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:34 Aug 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7858.IH H7858 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 7858 IH loan experiencing a financial hardship due, di- 1 rectly or indirectly, to the COVID–19 emer- 2 gency may receive a forbearance on such loan 3 for up to 180 days, regardless of delinquency 4 status, by submitting a request to the loan 5 servicer and affirming that the borrower is ex- 6 periencing a financial hardship during the 7 COVID–19 emergency, and that such forbear- 8 ance period shall be extended for an additional 9 180 days at the request of the borrower; 10 ‘‘(B) explaining that the mortgagor can 11 seek language assistance and general help 12 through a housing counseling agency in the 13 area that is approved by the Department of 14 Housing and Urban Development and providing 15 information on how to find such an approved 16 housing counseling agency; 17 ‘‘(C) that the moratorium under the 18 CARES Act does not terminate the mortgagor’s 19 obligation to make payments due under the 20 mortgage; 21 ‘‘(D) that mortgagor will owe any mort- 22 gage arrearages that accrue during the morato- 23 rium under the CARES Act; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:34 Aug 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7858.IH H7858 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 7858 IH ‘‘(E) that mortgagors are encouraged to 1 contact their mortgage servicer if they are hav- 2 ing trouble making payments due under their 3 mortgage. 4 ‘‘(3) EXEMPTION.—A servicer shall not be re- 5 quired to send notice pursuant to paragraph (1) to 6 any mortgagor who has previously requested forbear- 7 ance under subsection (b).’’. 8 SEC. 3. NOTICE TO MULTIFAMILY HOUSING MORTGAGORS. 9 Section 4023 of the CARES Act (15 U.S.C. 9057) 10 is amended— 11 (1) by redesignating subsection (f) as sub- 12 section (g); and 13 (2) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol- 14 lowing new subsection: 15 ‘‘(f) NOTICE TO BORROWER OF AVAILABLE RE- 16 LIEF.— 17 ‘‘(1) NOTICE REQUIREMENT.—Subject only to 18 paragraph (3), not later than the expiration of the 19 30-day period beginning upon the date of the enact- 20 ment of this subsection, each servicer of a Federally 21 backed multifamily mortgage loan shall send, by 22 first class United States mail, written notice to the 23 multifamily borrower under such loan sufficient to 24 inform such borrower in plain language of the bor- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:34 Aug 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7858.IH H7858 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 7858 IH rower’s eligibility to request forbearance under sub- 1 section (b). 2 ‘‘(2) CONTENT.—The notice established pursu- 3 ant to paragraph (1) shall include a statement— 4 ‘‘(A) explaining that the borrower can seek 5 language assistance and general help through a 6 housing counseling agency in the area that is 7 approved by the Department of Housing and 8 Urban Development and providing information 9 on how to find such an approved housing coun- 10 seling agency; 11 ‘‘(B) that the forbearance under the 12 CARES Act does not terminate the borrower’s 13 obligation to make payments due under the 14 mortgage; 15 ‘‘(C) that borrower will owe any mortgage 16 arrearages that accrue during the forbearance 17 under the CARES Act; 18 ‘‘(D) explaining the renter protections 19 under section subsection (d) of section 4023 of 20 the CARES Act and the prohibitions under 21 subsection (e) of such section; and 22 ‘‘(E) that borrowers are encouraged to 23 contact their mortgage servicer if they are hav- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:34 Aug 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7858.IH H7858 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 7858 IH ing trouble making payments due under their 1 mortgage. 2 ‘‘(3) EXEMPTION.—A servicer shall not be re- 3 quired to send notice pursuant to paragraph (1) to 4 any multifamily borrower who has previously re- 5 quested forbearance under subsection (b).’’. 6 SEC. 4. MODEL NOTICES. 7 (a) DEVELOPMENT.—Not later than the expiration of 8 the 7-day period beginning on the date of the enactment 9 of this Act, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Develop- 10 ment, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Vet- 11 erans Affairs, and the Federal National Mortgage Associa- 12 tion and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, 13 at the direction of the Director of the Federal Housing 14 Finance Agency, shall jointly establish notices that are 15 sufficient to comply with the requirements of sections 16 4022(d) and 4023(f) of the CARES Act, as added by the 17 amendments made by sections 2 and 3 of this Act, respec- 18 tively. 19 (b) AVAILABILITY.—Such agency heads and entities 20 shall take such actions as may be necessary— 21 (1) to publicize the availability of such notices 22 to servicers of a Federally backed mortgage loans 23 and Federally backed multifamily mortgage loans; 24 and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:34 Aug 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7858.IH H7858 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 7858 IH (2) to make such notices publicly and widely 1 available for use by servicers of a Federally backed 2 mortgage loans and Federally backed multifamily 3 mortgage loans. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:34 Aug 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H7858.IH H7858 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS