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critical document exceptions.

Curative document work finds and fixes the documents that make a mortgage loan unsalable, uncertifiable, or unenforceable. These include missing or broken assignments, endorsement gaps, lost notes, unreleased liens, recorder rejections, MERS errors, and custodial exceptions. It produces the corrected instrument, records or delivers it, and confirms the exception has cleared. Goldsmith Associates PLLC delivers this work through Curativ™, its curative-document service.

A collateral file exception is a document custodian’s finding that a required document is missing, defective, or inconsistent with the loan data. Common examples are an endorsement gap, a missing assignment, or an unsigned rider. An open exception can block certification, delay delivery, or reprice the loan. It clears only when the document the investor requires is produced in the form the investor requires.

A corrective assignment fixes an assignment recorded with an error, such as the wrong assignee, a mistaken date, or a defective legal description. A missing or intervening assignment fills a gap in the recorded chain. At Goldsmith Associates, an attorney selects the instrument, Curativ™ prepares and records it, and the chain is confirmed against the land records.

A lost-note affidavit is a sworn statement by the owner of a note that the original was lost, destroyed, or cannot be located. It is usually supported by a copy of the note and an indemnity. Investor acceptance and court enforcement are separate questions. Fannie Mae accepts one at initial certification only with a waiver, and Freddie Mac only with its written approval. For a note lost after initial certification, Ginnie Mae requires a lost instrument bond. Courts decide enforcement under UCC § 3-309 as each state adopts it.

A MERS mismatch is fixed by correcting the record that is wrong through a registration, a transfer of beneficial or servicing rights, a deactivation, or a reactivation. The change is then confirmed against the servicing system. MERS requires each member named as servicer on an active MIN to reconcile its records to the MERS® System monthly, or quarterly below 1,000 active MINs. Servicers may also be required to submit a separate Annual Report each year (MERS Procedures Manual).

A rejected document comes back with a reason, often a formatting, fee, legal-description, notary, or indexing defect. It must be corrected and resubmitted, and the lien, assignment, or release it carries is not of record until the county accepts it. Curativ™ tracks each rejection through correction and re-recording to clearance.

Trailing documents are the loan documents that arrive after closing or delivery, most often the recorded security instrument, recorded assignments, and the final title policy. The party that sold or delivered the loan usually owes them under the purchase agreement or seller guide. Custodians report them as exceptions until they arrive.

A Ginnie Mae issuer must obtain final certification of each single-family pool from its document custodian within 12 months of the issue date of the related securities. A transfer to a new issuer or custodian does not extend that deadline. After final certification, a missing document must be replaced within 90 days of the custodian’s written notice, or the pool is considered uncertified until it is (MBS Guide, Chapter 11; Chapter 13).

It can, where the purchase agreement, seller guide, or subservicing agreement assigns the defect to the counterparty that caused it. Recovery turns on the contract’s cure, repurchase, and indemnification terms and on notice given inside its deadlines. Goldsmith Associates PLLC pursues those claims under the governing contract.

A complete intake carries the loan list, the custodian’s exception report, the collateral file or its images, the governing purchase or servicing agreement, and the signing authority for each instrument. Curativ™ inventories the file against the loan list, images and indexes it, and reconciles the note data to the loan tape before diagnosis begins.

An exception clears when the custodian accepts the cure, not when the instrument is drafted or recorded. The instrument is executed under confirmed authority, recorded or registered, captured as recorded, and delivered to the custodian, which re-reviews the file and closes the row. Curativ™ tracks each step to that acceptance and to any recertification it triggers.

Fannie Mae allows six months from receipt of the documents and data, or 30 days for a concurrent sale of servicing. For transfers effective on or after June 1, 2022, it no longer requires the assignment of mortgage to recertify (Fannie Mae Document Transfers). Freddie Mac requires Form 1034T within 180 days of the transfer date (Freddie Mac Handbook, Chapter 5). Ginnie Mae requires recertification within 12 months of the transfer for pools already finally certified (MBS Guide, Chapter 13).

Curative work runs inside the attorney-client engagement, under attorney supervision. Workbooks move through password-protected exchange, originals move under bailee letters with logged shipments and carrier tracking, and released collateral is returned and reconciled to the file.

Curativ™ is the curative-document service of Goldsmith Associates PLLC. Its specialists prepare, record, and reconcile curative documents from attorney-approved forms. Goldsmith attorneys select those forms, draft bespoke instruments, and handle every demand and recovery.

Most files reach draft and submission within three business days of complete intake, with rush handling on request. County, MERS, and notary processing that sits with third parties is tracked through completion.

Goldsmith Associates PLLC, a Dallas law firm focused on mortgage, banking, and secondary-market transactions, handles curative document work nationwide for mortgage bankers, banks, warehouse lenders, and servicers. It delivers that work through Curativ™, with attorney supervision and recovery under one engagement. Jason Goldsmith, the firm’s founder and Managing Member, leads the practice and can be reached at 214.414.9452 or Jason@GoldsmithPLLC.com.