Through an agreement with these lenders HUD/FHA will step in and make the required monthly mortgage payments if the people cannot. This in turn enables the individual to get loan approval and to purchase the home with much less down. This has helped millions of people buy homes who otherwise would never have been able to qualify.

In order for HUD/FHA to assist these people they must pay into an insurance policy on that loan. There are two insurance policies used with this program. One of these policies is the One Time Mortgage Insurance Premium, or OTMIP. This policy requires one payment to be made upfront at the time the mortgage is acquired. The other policy is the Mutual Mortgage Insurance policy, or MMI. This policy is paid during the life of the loan.

These people were told that if they paid back the loan without defaulting on any mortgage payments, either by selling the home, making the required payments, or by refinancing the home, they would be entitled to a refund on the amount that was paid into the insurance policy.

HUD/FHA even sends them a letter but if they do not make an attempt to collect the refund for a period of two years, the refund is then deposited into an unclaimed account.

The result is that there are currently thousands of unclaimed cases resulting in millions of unclaimed dollars.

In 1986, HUD/FHA established an effective way of getting this money back to the people. They decided to publish state listings of these unclaimed refund cases and allow anyone who is interested to assist in getting these unclaimed refunds to the people they are owed to.

You are allowed to contact these people, let them know they have an unclaimed refund, and then collect a generous processing fee for the assistance you provide. The processing fee you collect can be as much as 20% of the amount of the refund.