On October 7, 2015, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would provide a safe harbor from the new TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule for a period of five months. By a vote of 303 to 121 the House passed the “Homebuyers Assistance Act” (H.R. 3192), which would provide a hold harmless period until February 1, 2016 for good-faith efforts to comply with the TRID rule, which went into effect October 3, 2015. The CFPB had previously delayed the effective date of the TRID rule from August 1, 2015 until October 3. The CFPB declined to adopt a formal hold harmless period despite industry requests for such a period based on the considerable difficulty of implementing the TRID rule, which was compounded by the lack of formal guidance on compliance issues posed by the rule. However, the CFPB has indicated it would take into account good-faith efforts to comply with the new requirements. The bill now heads to the Senate where its prospects remain unclear. The House passed the bill by a substantial bipartisan majority, despite a White House threat that it would veto any hold harmless bill.
