Most, if not all, Federal Housing Administration
("FHA") mortgagees are now familiar with the US
Department of Housing and Urban Development's ("HUD")
requirement, previously announced in Mortgagee Letter
2022-14, that all FHA-approved mortgagees must have registered
for and obtained an active Unique Entity Identifier
("UEI") at www.sam.gov and input that UEI into HUD's
Lender Electronic Assessment Portal ("LEAP") on or before
December 31, 2022. That Mortgagee Letter did not, however, include
details regarding the process that an FHA-approved mortgagee must
complete annually to renew its UEI to maintain its active
status.
In a recent webinar covering HUD's annual mortgagee
recertification process, representatives of HUD's Lender
Approval Division advised FHA-approved mortgagees that each
mortgagee will need to verify that it has renewed its UEI number
through the System of Award Management ("SAM"). While a
UEI number, once assigned, never expires, the UEI and SAM.gov
system account registrations must be renewed annually.
Specifically, an entity registration must be renewed every 365 days
to remain active. If renewal is not completed on time, the system
account will deactivate, and registrations will expire if not
updated in a timely manner.
Importantly, an expired registration may affect the FHA-approved
mortgagee's ability to do business with the federal government,
including HUD. As FHA-approved mortgagees with a fiscal year end
date of December 31 are fast approaching FHA's next annual
renewal deadline, each FHA-approved mortgagee should check the
status of its UEI and complete the SAM.gov UEI
renewal process to ensure the mortgagee remains in active status
and in compliance with HUD guidelines. Failure to obtain a UEI in
active status during last year's annual renewal process
resulted in referrals to the Mortgagee Review Board, which could be
the case for mortgagees who let the UEI active status lapse going
forward.
FHA representatives stated during the webinar that HUD is working
to create an interface with SAM.gov that will allow HUD to track
each UEI's expiration date in LEAP and generate electronic
reminders for mortgagees; however, that system enhancement is not
likely to be implemented before the end of the first quarter of
2024, when most mortgagees will have to complete their annual FHA
recertification filings. In the meantime, the Federal Service Desk
("FSD") (www.fsd.gov) provides helpful resources
relating to the SAM.gov data services. Please see the FSD Knowledge Database for SAM.gov Data
Services for more information and renewal instructions.
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