The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced that it will delay compliance for digital signatures in its Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) system, which originally was set to take effect Aug. 5.
The delay for using XML digital signatures is in effect until further notice, FHA announced in a release.
The appraisal transfer improvements are intended to simplify the process when a borrower changes to another lender. Transferring an existing valid appraisal to the new lender has been a challenge at times, and FHA said the change should make the process simpler and timelier for the borrower.
“Since these changes are systematic, any impact to the appraisers should be minimal if noticed at all,” the FHA said when the change originally was announced. “They will be implemented by the appraisal software companies. As currently expected, the appraiser will need to be involved with any changes to the original appraisal.”
In the meantime, the FHA says, XML digital signature hard stops remain eligible for automatic overrides. For complete information on the previously revised hard stops, review the EAD Hard Stop Checks and Error Messages Fact Sheet.
FHA said additional information on the XML digital signatures requirement will be shared in the near future.