Situation:

We disclosed recording fees of $152 on our Loan Estimate. Early Closing Disclosure had recording fees at $139. Final Closing Disclosure had fees at $151. $151 is the correct figure but I didn't know if we were bound by the $139 since we had disclosed that on the early Closing Disclosure.

No. Unless a Closing Disclosure is also taking the place of a revised Loan Estimate in adjusting a cost basis, the comparison is between the estimates on the Loan Estimate(s) and the actual costs paid by or imposed on the consumer. You compare the original $152 with the actual $151,

I would tend to disagree. In a secondary review we would track each fee as it's lowest disclosed value. In a similar scenario say you disclose a $500 Lender fee on the LE and the borrower shops your terms and comes up with a better offer. The Lender agrees to match that offer and remove the $500 lender fee.Upon doing so the lender issued an initial CD with the lower figures. They could not then spring the original $500 lender fee from the LE on the borrower at closing and still be within tolerance because you only compare the LE to the final CD figures.

That being said, the recording fee is a 10% fee so it would only be a violation if the total of recording fees and Can shop fees increased by more than 10%. $139 x 1.1 = $153 so as long as there were no other increases you would still be fine in this scenario.

I see your point, but I don't think that you have a tolerance issue when you pull a cost down on the initial CloD and it's back up to the costs on the latest LE at closing. If the lender represented that the $500 cost would be dropped, you have a whole other problem.

Agree with John - a competitive match on a lender fee is a separate scenario - but a good point to think about.

"In a secondary review we would track each fee as it's lowest disclosed value."

Some investors require that, but there is no support in the regulation to require that approach.

Just playing devils advocate. This is harmless scenario regardless. I guess my point is there are a lot of holes so it would be prudent to apply judgement to each scenario and not apply a black and white approach.