A reverse mortgage right to information is the borrower’s right to accurate, current facts from the company that services the loan — balance, unused line of credit, LESA activity, occupancy status, and a dated payoff. Jay Zayer, CRMP, is a reverse mortgage specialist at reversemortgage.coach. The originator who took the application is often not that company after funding.
Here’s how this plays out: Willa, 71, occupies a house in El Centro, California. A son in Arizona asked whether the dinner-table number from closing was still the unused line. It was not. Accrual had already moved the figure. See who the servicer is. Stay on this page for what you can demand in writing and what to do when the answer is late or wrong.
A HECM is FHA-insured. A right to information is not a public records request.
What numbers can a HECM borrower actually demand from the servicer?
The live unused line, if the payment plan still has one. The outstanding principal plus accrued interest and MIP. Whether a Life Expectancy Set-Aside is paying taxes or insurance this cycle. Whether an occupancy certification is outstanding. A payoff with a good-through date if you are selling, refinancing, or an heir is keeping the house.
24 CFR 206.207 requires an annual statement. That letter is not the only answer you are allowed to get. Mid-year draws, a tax bill the LESA just paid, and a planned sale all need a fresher number. Ask in writing. Keep the confirmation.
Willa’s leftover cash at origination sat in the mid-30s to low-50s percent of appraised value, depending on age and expected rate. That origination worksheet is not today’s unused line. Do not use the calculator as a servicing quote. Do not interpolate HUD rows.
Jay confirmed a LESA cannot be added or changed after closing. If Willa’s residual income never funded one, asking the servicer to “start a LESA now” is not an information request. It is a request the shop cannot grant.
What federal rules sit behind that right, and what do they not invent?
24 CFR 206.201 makes servicing a mortgagee duty. 24 CFR 206.205 governs how property charges are paid from your funds when you fall behind. 12 CFR 1024.33 is the RESPA servicing-transfer notice. 24 CFR 206.201(c)(2) requires at least fifteen days’ notice before a transfer, with the content 12 CFR 1024.33(b)(4) requires.
Those rules require a real shop with a real address. They do not print a HUD form number for “please email my unused line.” I will not invent one. The welcome packet and any later hello letter tell you where to write.
An adjustable HECM still adds interest at 1-month CMT plus lender margin until the loan is paid. Initial MIP of 2.00% of maximum claim amount was already charged at origination (HUD Mortgagee Letter 2017-12). Annual MIP of 0.50% of outstanding balance still accrues. None of that pauses because a family is waiting on a callback.
California Civil Code 1923.2(k) was an origination pause. It does not sit on a servicing-information request. Arizona files never had that statute. Both states still get the same federal servicing duties.
What should you do when the servicer’s number conflicts with your memory?
Trust the written current figure, then ask how it was built: last draw date, last LESA disbursement, per-diem through the good-through date. Memory of the Closing Disclosure is how families under-wire a sale. See how to request a payoff statement when the job is actually a payoff, not a balance curiosity.
If the shop will not answer in writing, use its complaint process and keep ticket numbers. After you have that paper trail, CFPB complaint intake is one consumer path. HUD’s National Servicing Center is the FHA path when an insured mortgagee is not servicing as required.
Do not stop paying taxes or insurance while you argue about a line-of-credit screenshot. Charge default is a separate 24 CFR 206.27 and 24 CFR 206.205 event.
A second geography: a 68-year-old in Cottonwood, Arizona whose unused line looked “too small” after a child compared it to a seminar slide. The slide was origination marketing. The servicer’s written unused line is the legal capacity. Seminar math does not restore line.
Who should not treat a voicemail as the official HECM balance?
This path does not help a household that wants the loan officer to keep quoting leftover cash from a three-year-old Loan Estimate. Origination ended. Servicing began. I work with multiple lenders. I will tell you at closing who is likely to board the loan. I will not pretend I issue payoffs after that.
It does not help someone who ignores occupancy mail and then demands a “status letter” that the house is fine. Occupancy under 24 CFR 206.39 is still the borrower’s job. Mortgagee Letter 2023-23 still wants an annual certification.
Counseling still cost $125–$175 at origination. The HUD certificate lasted 180 days. Neither document answers today’s unused line. Heirs who later keep Willa’s El Centro house still repay the outstanding balance under 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2)(i). A right-to-information letter is how they get that number, not a 95% rumor.
Ask in writing. Date the reply. Use that paper for draws, sales, and estate talks. The refrigerator magnet from closing is not a servicing system.