Fannie Mae DUS | 2026-10-11

Fannie Mae Shared-Use Documents Need a Closing Owner

The current Multifamily Guide connects shared-use agreements to control, assessments, insurance, title coverage, and closing deliverables.

Fannie Mae's current Multifamily Guide, Section 110.02B, requires the lender to evaluate Shared Use Documents, document that evaluation in the Transaction Approval Memo, and obtain the applicable ALTA title policy. The Guide also calls for ALTA Endorsements 5-06, 28-06, and 9-06 when they are available in the property's jurisdiction.

The review reaches ownership and control, not just the text of an REA or declaration. The lender must consider whether the borrower owns all improvements and underlying land, who owns essential elements located outside the property, and who controls decisions made by a developer, declarant, association, community owner, or other governing body.

The Guide also directs attention to fees and assessments, maintenance and enforcement remedies, budgets and reserves, operational mandates and use restrictions, and whether shared-use costs are overly burdensome. Insurance review includes property coverage for rebuilding or repairing off-property essential elements, as well as liability and directors-and-officers coverage.

For borrower-side counsel, one shared-use matrix should identify every governing document and essential element, its owner and decision-maker, the borrower's recorded rights, assessment and maintenance obligations, insurance coverage, title endorsement, open issue, and responsible closing party. Starting that matrix at intake helps align the organizational, title, insurance, and lender-review workstreams before documents circulate for signature. This note is informational only and is not legal advice for any specific transaction.