What are the verbal VOE requirements for hourly, salary, and commission based income?

Verbal Verification of Employment

Requirements:

• The lender must independently obtain a phone number and, if possible, an address for the borrower's employer. This can be accomplished by using a telephone book, the Internet, directory assistance, or by contacting the applicable licensing bureau. 

• The lender must contact the employer verbally and confirm the borrower's current employment status within 10 business days prior to the note date. Alternatively, lenders may obtain the verbal VOE after closing, up to the time of loan delivery. If the verbal VOE cannot be obtained prior to delivery, the loan is ineligible for delivery to Fannie Mae.  

  Note: If the employer confirms the borrower is currently on temporary leave, the lender must consider the borrower “employed.” See B3-3.1-09, Other Sources of Income, for details on temporary leave. 

• The conversation must be documented. It should include the following: 
  • name and title of the person who confirmed the employment for the lender, 
  • name and title of the person who completed the verification for the employer, 
  • date of the call, and
  • the source of the phone number.

Exceptions:

• If the employer will not verbally verify employment, the lender can obtain a written verification (other than an additional paystub) confirming the borrower’s current employment status within the same time frame as the verbal VOE requirements. The written documentation must include the name and title of the person who completed the verification for the employer. 
• If the borrower is a union member who works in an occupation that results in a series of short-term job assignments (such as a skilled construction worker, longshoreman, or stagehand), and the union facilitates the borrower’s placement  in each assignment, the lender may obtain the verbal VOE from the union. 
• If the employer uses a third party employment verification vendor, the lender must obtain written verification from the vendor of the borrower’s current employment status within the same time frame as the verbal VOE requirements. 

Note: Because third-party vendor databases are typically updated monthly, the verification must evidence that the information in the vendor's database was no more than 35 days old as of the note date. 

When employment is validated by DU, DU includes in its assessment the age of the information in the vendor’s database. The DU message will include a date by which the loan must close. This may differ from the age of data and 10 business day requirements above. Compliance with the DU message satisfies the requirement for completing the verification of employment. See B3-2-02, DU Validation Service for additional information. 

For additional information, see B3-3.1-07, Verbal Verification of Employment.