SECTION 177.9. Fees, Expenses, and Interest

(a) The board must approve all fees and interest rates charged in connection with the program, by any party. These include, but are not limited to:

(1) All fees charged by any party to a veteran receiving a loan under this program must be approved by the board, including fees, expenses, and interest rates charged by the participating lending institution on its portion of the loan to the veteran. Fees and expenses approved by the board may be made a part of the veteran's loan installment payments.

(2) All fees and expenses charged to a participating lending institution under this program by the administrator.

(b) The board finds that it protects the best interests of the program if all fees, expenses, and interest rates are set by resolutions adopted by the board from time-to-time as it deems advisable.

(1) Within a reasonable period of time, the board shall either approve or disapprove any proposed changes to any fees, expenses, and interest rates charged by a participating lending institution.

(2) All fees, expenses, and interest rates shall be limited to the maximum extent practical to those that would be collected by the participating lending institution in the normal course of its residential mortgage lending business.

(3) The administrator shall incorporate in the program and servicing guide (the "guide") for participating lending institutions provisions for the maximum that may be charged. In the alternative, the administrator shall incorporate in the guide the procedures for computing the maximum fees, expenses, and interest rates which participating lending institutions may charge veterans. The contracts between the board and the participating lending institutions shall incorporate the guide.

(4) Violation by a participating lending institution of the board's requirements as to maximum fees, expenses, and interest rates may result in revocation of the board's approval of the lending institution as a participant in the program, or such other remedies as may be available to the board.

(c) The board may require that the veteran make a down payment to be paid at closing. The veteran shall satisfy the participating lending institution's requirements as to down payment for the particular type of loan being made by the participating lending institution.

(d) Principal and interest that becomes delinquent shall be subject to a penalty fixed by the board on its portion of the loan. The participating lending institution may set late payment penalties as permitted by law on its portion of the loan.

Source Note: The provisions of this §177.9 adopted to be effective August 12, 2001, 26 TexReg 5840; amended to be effective December 21, 2010, 35 TexReg 11391