Bankruptcy
DU applies the following guidelines to prior bankruptcies:
- If a Chapter 13 bankruptcy was discharged within the last two years, dismissed within the last four years, or filed but neither discharged nor dismissed within the last four years, the loan casefile will receive a Refer with Caution recommendation and will be ineligible for delivery to Fannie Mae.
- If a non-Chapter 13 bankruptcy was filed, discharged, or dismissed within the last four years, the loan casefile will receive a Refer with Caution recommendation and will be ineligible for delivery to Fannie Mae.
- DU will not take bankruptcy information in the public record section of the credit report into account if the bankruptcy is dated more than seven years prior to the credit report date.
- DU will not take tradeline accounts that are reported with a bankruptcy status code or manner of payment (MOP) code of “7” into account if there is at least one bankruptcy reported in a public record within seven years of the credit report date. In this scenario, DU assumes the date filed and the date discharged in the public record are more accurate than the dates in the tradeline; i.e., specific filed and discharged dates do not exist in the tradeline.
- DU will use tradeline accounts that are reported with a bankruptcy status code or MOP code of “7” if there is not a bankruptcy reported in a public record within seven years of the credit report date. In this scenario, the lender will need to verify the actual filed and discharged dates to determine that the bankruptcy meets the DU bankruptcy policy.
- DU is not able to determine if multiple filings have occurred due to the manner in which bankruptcies are reported to the credit report. DU will issue a message when it appears that there may have been multiple bankruptcy filings. This message will list each of the bankruptcies seen on the credit report, and will instruct lenders to ensure the loan casefile meets the criteria for underwriting loan casefiles with multiple bankruptcies.
For additional information, see B3-5.3-09, DU Credit Report Analysis and B3-5.3-07, Significant Derogatory Credit Events — Waiting Periods and Re-establishing Credit.