B8-1-01, Publication of Legal Documents (06/28/2011)

Fannie Mae publishes Legal Documents  on its website. These legal documents include security instruments, notes, riders and addenda, and special-purpose documents that should be used in connection with regularly amortizing, conventional, residential mortgage loans sold to Fannie Mae. Many of these forms are published jointly by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and are referred to as Uniform Instruments.

Each legal document published on Fannie Mae's website is accompanied by a Summary or Instructions document, which provides:

• the latest revision date for the document,

• the document’s purpose and type of mortgage transactions for which it is used,

• instructions on how to print the electronic version of the document,

• specific changes that must be made to the document,

• additional changes that may be made to the document, and

• other pertinent information about special circumstances that may affect the user or completion of the document.

A lender should use legal documents for regularly amortizing FHA-insured mortgages, VA-guaranteed mortgages, RD-guaranteed mortgages, and HUD-guaranteed mortgages that are acceptable to the government agency and are appropriate for the state in which the security property is located.

Although Fannie Mae does not publish documents for government mortgages, in some cases Fannie Mae allows (or requires) its legal documents to be used. If a lender chooses to use Fannie Mae’s legal documents for conventional mortgages, and if those documents must be modified or amended to comply with applicable government agency requirements, the following requirements must be met:

• The documents must be enforceable under their terms.

• The documents must comply with all applicable state and local requirements for a recordable and enforceable document.

• The lender must make nonstandard document warranties that are similar to those Fannie Mae requires for other mortgages closed on documents other than Fannie Mae’s standard documents. See A2-2-03, Document WarrantiesA2-2-03, Document Warranties.