The Federal Housing Administration announced that it will delay until Feb. 15 the enactment of Mortgagee Letter 2009-28 and 2009-51 addressing appraiser independence and adoption of the appraisal update and/or completion report, respectively.

Originally planned for a Jan. 1 implementation, the 2009-28 guidance has two parts: the prohibition of mortgage brokers and commission-based lender staff from the appraisal process, and appraiser selection in FHA Connection.

In a Dec. 22 announcement, the FHA said the extension will provide the agency and lenders additional time to adjust systems to accommodate the changes to both ML 09-28 and 09-51. The agency said it would issue detailed instructions on changes to FHA Connection in a new mortgagee letter, but that the requirement for inputting the appraiser ID and the appraisal assignment date in the FHA Connection case number assignment screen will be removed. “Instead, lenders will be required to enter all appraisal data, including the appraiser ID, in the Appraisal Update Screen once the completed appraisal is received by the lender and prior to closing the loan,” according to the announcement.

All FHA Mortgagee Letters can be read online at www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/letters/mortgagee/ .