An Advocacy Win for the Industry
In one of his first official acts as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA or the Agency), Director William Pulte has rescinded the Agency’s directive imposing three new federally-mandated landlord tenant requirements on covered multifamily housing financed through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (The Enterprises).
The National Apartment Association (NAA) applauds the FHFA and Director Pulte for refocusing the Enterprises’ activities to align with the President’s housing priorities and their core mission—to serve as a reliable source of liquidity and funding for housing finance and community development throughout economic cycles.
This is a huge victory for the rental housing industry, given that this mandate would have required changes to millions of leases at these communities. In NAA and our coalition partners’ comment letter to the Agency, we urged that required changes to millions of leases are unnecessary, given the layers of state and local requirements with which housing providers already comply. These laws and regulations already provide renters with robust protections.
In FHFA’s order, Director Pulte acknowledged this duplication in housing providers’ compliance responsibilities which ultimately impacts the cost of housing, saying “requiring the Enterprises to incorporate additional tenant protections into all multifamily loan agreement would increase compliance burdens for multifamily lenders and property owners.”
This order does not impact the FHFA's mandate that the CARES Act 30-day notice to vacate should be enforced at enterprise-backed communities (See how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac interpret this directive). NAA's advocacy continues to eliminate any ambiguity that this pandemic-era extension of states' required notice prior to an eviction filing ended in 2020.
NAA will continue its federal advocacy efforts with Congress and the Administration to encourage responsible and sustainable solutions to address the nation’s undersupply crisis and increase access to quality, affordable housing options. We look forward to continuing a dialogue with FHFA and Director Pulte as they contemplate changes to policies impacting mortgaged housing. Learn more about the industry’s priorities.
For more information on NAA’s advocacy with the Trump Administration, please contact NAA’s Public Policy Team.