A letter from industry leaders to Congress is urging lawmakers for a safety net against the Aug. 1 TRID deadline

In less than two months, enforcement of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) regulation, which aims to consolidate loan documentation, will begin, and while they’ve had months to prepare, lenders are scrambling.

In April, the Capsilon Corporation released national survey results that documented widespread ill-preparedness among mortgage professionals, with only 12 percent of companies categorizing themselves as “very prepared.”

As the implementation date looms, a number of housing industry leaders, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders, have collaborated in an effort to persuade lawmakers to pass a safety net for affected professionals who may not be fully prepared come August 1.

In a letter addressed to U.S. Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas, 5th), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif., 43rd), ranking member of the committee, industry leaders urged the House to pass HR2213, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M., 2nd), which would provide a “reasonable hold-harmless period” for organizations and professionals not yet positioned to integrate the new regulations.

The legislation reads:

No suit may be filed against any person for a violation of (TRID) requirements occurring before (January 1, 2016), as long as the person has made a good faith effort to comply with them.

Said more plainly, real estate professionals who prove a concerted effort to satisfy new regulations prior to the August 1 deadline will be granted an extended period of time in which to comply without threat of legal action.

Already officials from CFPB have promised to be “sensitive to the progress made by those entities that make good-faith efforts to comply”; however, while the letter’s authors “appreciate” the bureau’s understanding, they were articulate in their demand for more “certainty” that those affected, particularly lenders, would not face litigation as a result of non-compliance.

How the vote will go is ultimately a matter of “wait and see,” but as the letter indicates, a large portion of federal lawmakers are airing on the side of the industry leaders.

The letter states: “We note that 250 members of the House and 41 Senators have written to CFPB urging action that this legislation would mandate.”