William Matchneer, who once served as head of the Manufactured Housing Program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and from 2011 to 2014 with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), recounts how implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act directives for High-Cost Mortgages under the Home Ownership and Equity Protections Act (HOEPA) negatively impacts the sale of MH under $20,000.

Now with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, Matchneer helped write the implementing regulations for the Dodd-Frank appraisal provisions, while other CFPB attorneys wrote the Dodd-Frank lending provisions to establish HOEPA thresholds.

Writing in jdsupra, he states, “Under current law, manufactured housing chattel loans are covered by HOEPA if the annual percentage rate (APR) exceeds the average prime offer rate (APOR) by more than 8.5% for loans of less than $50,000. However, given all the additional requirements for points and fees that come with the new HOEPA rules, chattel loans below $20,000 are simply not economical. As a result, most if not all lenders have simply stopped making these loans.”

This hurts some of the most seriously disadvantaged, those with homes valued under $20,000, the very ones the CFPB says it is designed to protect, forcing them to accept cash offers in many case well below market value.

The Dodd-Frank statute does offer to the CFPB the authority to exempt certain loans from HOEPA coverage, but so far CFPB czar Richard Cordray has been unwilling to raise the thresholds.

H.R. 650, the bipartisan Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act did pass the House of Representatives in April, and it amends the thresholds in section 103 of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1602) to APOR plus 10% for transactions under $75,000. This would protect the estimated 1.7 million manufactured homes with a loan balance below $20,000. It still manages to maintain consumer protections from predatory lending practices in Dodd-Frank. The companion bill in the Senate, S. 682, is currently in the hands of the Senate Banking Committee.

These bills would also exclude a retailer of manufactured homes or its employees from being classified as a loan originator and therefore subject to SAFE Act licensing and NMLS registration. Under current Dodd Frank/CFPB regulations, retailers cannot offer one iota of information to prospective consumers about MH financing.

For the MHLivingNews interview with Matchneer, please click here.##