FHFA Announces New Tenant Protections
Issue Date: July 12, 2024
On Friday, July 12, 2024, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced new resident-centered practice requirements for multifamily properties financed by the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (the GSEs), after the implementation date of February 28, 2025. These new requirements will only apply to new loan applications on or after the effective date. The requirements are:
- A 30-day notice to residents of a rent increase;
- A 30-day notice to residents of the lease expiration; and
- A 5-day grace period to residents for rent payments.
This is the first regulatory action following last year’s Request for Information (RFI) on tenant protections, which NAR submitted a comment to and also joined a coalition comment letter in response to. These comments stressed the importance of allowing housing providers to enforce their lease agreements and to limit unnecessary regulatory burdens on them—especially small, “mom-and-pop” housing providers—at a time when it is more important than ever that housing providers stay in the market. Between the RFI and today’s announcement NAR and our industry stakeholder partners have remained engaged with the FHFA, GSEs, and the administration on rental housing issues, giving a voice to NAR’s housing provider members in the process. NAR will continue to present the concerns and challenges faced by housing providers to the FHFA and GSEs as they develop the guidelines, definitions, and compliance mechanisms to enact today’s announcement, as well as any future policies regarding resident-centered practices.