It is our understanding they are only considered part of the finance charge if you are requiring them and charging them. We do our own closing so when we wire or courier funds for items such as a payoff, we used to list them in the 1300 series and include them in the prepaid finance charges. We will now be including them in Block 1. We did not include them if the TC charges them.
http://www.bankersonline.com/tools/compliance/regz_finchg.htmlLearning later is a trickier question because of the 10% tolerance and your knowledge of the charge.
If they are a typical cost that they always charge, you should disclose them up front because they will be subject to the 10% tolerance.
If you simply forgot to put them on the GFE, you can not add them and revise the GFE. You must then list them on the HUD and you pay for them.
If they are charging it due to a changed circumstance then you can re-issue the GFE with those fees. I think this one will be rare. From our experience when we have the title company close the loan for us it is a common practice for them to charge these fees.
Since at the time of application we do not know if we will be doing the closing or sending it to a title company, we are disclosing them in both Block 1 and in the title charges. We are also including the settlement fee in both places. I checked with HUD just to make sure this was permissible and was told yes. We know we will be over disclosing the cost but we will explain to the applicant that one of those fees will be decreased at closing depending on who performs the closing. We have weighted our options and do not feel over disclosing the fees will hurt us if the borrower is truly shopping. There are other factors why a borrower goes to a particular lender such as a current relationship, rate, customer service, etc..
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