The California Purchase Contract is chock-full of deadlines: three days to place a deposit into escrow; 17 days to perform investigations; scheduling utilities, organizing closing, and many other important details.
Your lender is required to send you a Closing Disclosure that you must receive at least three business days before your closing. It's important that you carefully review the Closing Disclosure to make sure that the terms of your loan are what you are expecting.
This three business-day rule may include Saturdays, but it does not count Sundays or holidays. For instance, if you want to sign on a Friday and a holiday falls on a Thursday, you must receive your closing disclosure on Monday. Because of this, the three-day period is NOT measured by hours.
Disclosure of good faith estimate of costs must be made no later than 3 days after application. This means that a creditor must deliver or mail the early disclosures for all mortgage loans subject to RESPA no later than 3 business days (general definition) after the creditor receives a consumer's application.
Changes that require creditors to provide a new Closing Disclosure and an additional three-business-day waiting period after receipt include: changes to the APR above 1/8 of a percent for most loans (and 1/4 of a percent for loans with irregular payments or periods) changes the loan product.
What Happens If a Loan Estimate Is Not Sent Within the 3 Days? This is a violation of the law. If a lender fails to provide origination information, the applicant can report their creditor details to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Saturdays count toward this 3-day rule!
A consumer may modify or waive the right to the three-day waiting period only after receiving the disclosures required by § 1026.32 and only if the circumstances meet the criteria for establishing a bona fide personal financial emergency under § 1026.23(e).
Purpose of the 3-Day Waiting Period
The 3-day waiting period serves a crucial purpose: to empower borrowers with information. It offers an opportunity for reflection, allowing borrowers to compare the final terms with the loan estimate and seek clarification on any discrepancies or concerns.
The formulation of the 'golden rule' of disclosure is unsurprising. The importance to the course and outcome of a criminal trial of the manner in which the prosecution discharges its duty of disclosure cannot be overestimated.
The rule is also known as the TILA-RESPA Rule or TRID. It created new Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure forms that consumers receive when applying for and closing on a mortgage loan. The Loan Estimate replaced the RESPA Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and the early Truth in Lending disclosure.
This is referred to as a Precise Business Day. So, for Closing Disclosure and Rescission purposes, you always count Saturday but never count Sunday as a business day.
The three-day period is measured by days, not hours. Thus, disclosures must be delivered three days before closing, and not 72 hours prior to closing. Note: If a federal holiday falls in the three-day period, add a day for disclosure delivery.
Under another federal law, the "three-day cancellation rule," you have until midnight of the third business day after a contract was signed to cancel a home improvement loan, a second mortgage, or another loan where you pledge your home as security (except for a first mortgage).
This clause allows a seller to continue marketing and accepting offers on their property even after they have accepted an initial offer, with the condition that the original buyer has a specified amount of time, typically 72 hours, to remove or waive any contingencies and proceed with the purchase.
When the Know Before You Owe mortgage disclosure rule becomes effective, lenders must give you new, easier-to-use disclosures about your loan three business days before closing. This gives you time to review the terms of the deal before you get to the closing table.
This form integrates and replaces the existing RESPA GFE and the initial TIL for these transactions. The creditor is generally required to provide the Loan Estimate within three-business days of the receipt of the consumer's loan application.
Three Business-Day Waiting Period
The CFPB final rule requires the lender to give the borrower three business days to thoroughly review the Closing Disclosure to enable them to compare the charges to the loan estimate and ensure the cost and loan program they are obtaining are as expected.
No closing before review: Even if you review and sign the Closing Disclosure within the same day you receive it, the lender cannot proceed with closing until the three-day review period has passed.
CONSUMMATION – Consummation is not the same thing as closing or settlement. Consummation occurs when the consumer becomes contractually obligated to the creditor on the loan, not, for example, when the consumer becomes contractually obligated to a seller on a real estate transaction.
The Loan Estimate must be personally delivered or placed in the mail at least seven days before consummation, and the Closing Disclosure must be provided at least three business days before consummation.
The Loan Estimate must be provided to consumers no later than three business days after they submit a loan application. The second form (Closing Disclosure) is designed to provide disclosures that will be helpful to consumers in understanding all of the costs of the transaction.
After you receive your Loan Estimates, it's up to you to decide whether to move forward with a mortgage application.