MI Plus Mortgage Insurance

Buying a home may be the biggest investment you’ll ever make, but how will you save for the down payment? Or what happens if you lose your job? How will you pay the mortgage? Introducing MI Plus, a new type of mortgage insurance with payment protection benefits from MassHousing, one of the most reliable and trusted names in affordable mortgage lending. MI Plus gives you the confidence – and the protection – to buy your home.

MI Plus provides mortgage insurance protection that allows you to finance a home with little or no down payment. And if you should happen to lose your job, MI Plus helps get you back on your feet by paying your monthly principal and interest payments – up to $2,000 per month for a period of six months.

Best of all, the mortgage payment protection benefits of MI Plus are offered at no additional cost on all new loans insured by MassHousing.

Coverage

MI Plus provides basic mortgage insurance that enables home buyers to purchase a home with less than the traditional 20% down payment. In fact, MI Plus can make home financing possible with no down payment on many MassHousing lending programs and community bank lending programs.

In addition to mortgage insurance coverage, MI Plus pays up to six months of the principal and interest portion of the monthly mortgage payment – a maximum of $2,000 per month –  in the event that the borrower becomes unemployed during the first ten years of the mortgage term

This benefit period may be nonconsecutive, and may be paid in any combination of six payments during the coverage term (i.e. one period of six benefit payments, two periods of three benefit payments, etc.).

Eligibility

The borrower must be unemployed during all weekly work periods for the month that the MI Plus benefit is claimed. “Unemployed” is defined as the receipt of unemployment benefits from the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA). The borrower must provide proof of unemployment to MIF, which may include copies of unemployment benefit statements provided by the Massachusetts DUA along with the appropriate claim forms as issued by MIF.

The borrower must live in the property that is the subject of the loan. The borrower must have made at least six previous regular monthly mortgage payments to the lender.

The borrower may not have collected more than four weeks of unemployment benefits prior to filing for the initial benefit.

Claim Procedure

The borrower must complete a simple claim form issued by MIF for each month of unemployment in which MI Plus benefits are claimed. The claim form includes a privacy waiver authorizing DUA to release to MIF any information required to verify the claim.

MassHousing administers MI Plus benefits and will determine if the eligibility criteria to receive MI Plus benefits have been satisfied by the borrower. MassHousing makes payments directly to the borrower’s lender. There is no third party or insurance company involved.

The borrower must simply prove unemployment by submitting evidence of DUA benefits for each of the four weeks that comprise the period in which MI Plus is claimed. This evidence must accompany the claim form.

MI Plus Equals Added Protection at No Additional Cost

At MassHousing, our mission is to help low-to moderate-income home buyers achieve and maintain their dream of home ownership. We help make these dreams a reality every day through our low- and no-money-down financing.

Since we believe that keeping your home is just as important as buying your home, we offer the added protection of MI Plus at no additional cost on all loans insured by MassHousing.

MI Plus Equals Peace of Mind

Many people are deterred from buying their first home due to the lack of down payment and from the fear of losing their home due to job loss. With MassHousing’s affordable financing programs and the added protection of MI Plus, we are helping break down the barriers to home ownership by offering peace of mind to first-time home buyers.

To learn more about MI Plus and about how MassHousing can help you achieve your dream of home ownership, visit www.masshousing.com/miplus or contact us at (617) 854-1000.

Other Terms and Conditions

The obligation of the Mortgage Insurance Fund is limited to payment to the lender of a monthly amount not to exceed the principal and interest portion of the borrower's regular monthly payment, or $2,000 — whichever is less — for a period not to exceed six months.

During the period that the MI Plus claim benefit is being processed, the borrower will remain obligated to remit full monthly mortgage payments to the lender as they become due. Failure by the borrower to make regular monthly mortgage payments during such period could be reported to credit reporting agencies as a delinquency.

Only in rare circumstances will the MI Plus benefit be sufficient to satisfy the borrower’s entire monthly mortgage obligation. The borrower may be required to pay a portion of such obligation during any period of unemployment in order for the entire monthly mortgage payment to be recorded as fully paid by lender.

Payment of MI Plus benefits by MIF to the lender on behalf of the borrower will be reported annually to the borrower and the IRS using an IRS-1099-misc statement. The payment of any MI Plus benefits on behalf of the borrower will not result in any adjustment to the IRS-1098-INT statement that will be issued by the lender.

MI Plus benefits shall be limited for co-borrowers to their pro-rata portion of a regular monthly payment, based on their respective share of income as used in underwriting the loan.

In the event that a fraudulent claim is discovered after the disbursement of MI Plus benefits, MIF reserves the right to seek refund of payments directly from the lender, at which time the lender will reverse all transactions applied subsequent to the receipt of MI Plus benefit payments. Late fees may be assessed against the borrower accordingly.