How to Fill Out Form HUD-92561: Hotel and Transient Use of Property

HUD Form 92561, the Borrower’s Contract with Respect to Hotel and Transient Use of Property, is a one-page agreement you sign at closing promising that you will not rent your FHA-insured property for stays shorter than 30 days or offer hotel-style services to occupants. Your lender provides the form as part of the closing package, and the signed original goes into your FHA case binder for the life of the loan.

Who Has to Sign It

Not every FHA borrower fills out this form. It is required when the loan covers an investment property or a dwelling with two or more units, such as a duplex, triplex, or fourplex.¹ The form has to be submitted with the request for insurance endorsement, so it moves through closing rather than being handled separately after the loan funds.

The statute defines multifamily housing broadly. It covers any two-, three-, or four-family dwelling, and also any property where five or more single-family homes sit on the same parcel.²

What Counts as Transient or Hotel Use

The form defines a prohibited use two ways, and either one is enough to trigger a violation:

Any rental arrangement lasting fewer than 30 days.
Any rental where occupants receive customary hotel services — room service for food and beverages, maid service, furnishing and laundering of linen, or bellboy service.³

The 30-day floor is written into the statute itself, not a HUD policy that a lender or borrower can negotiate around.² The services prong matters even when a lease runs long. A six-month lease bundled with daily maid service and linen laundering still counts as a hotel-style rental under the contract you are signing.

Filling Out the Form, Field by Field

The document is a single page. Most of it is pre-printed contract language reciting Section 513 of the National Housing Act and the definition of transient use. You are signing to confirm you have read those terms and agree to be bound by them. The blank fields are limited:

FHA Case Number. Your lender assigns this early in the application. It appears on your loan estimate and initial disclosures if you do not have it in front of you.
Borrower’s Name. Your full legal name exactly as it appears on the mortgage note.
Property Address. The complete street address of the property securing the loan.
Date. The date you sign.
Borrower’s Signature.
Co-Borrower’s Signature, if there is one on the loan.

That is the whole form.³ There is no narrative section and no attachments. Before signing, check that the case number, your name, and the property address match your mortgage note and appraisal character for character. Mismatches between the form and the rest of the file can hold up endorsement.

Where to Get It and How It Gets Submitted

The current version of the form was revised in February 2020 and is posted as a PDF on HUD’s website.³ Your lender will almost always hand you the form at closing rather than expecting you to bring your own. If you want to read the language ahead of time, download the HUD copy.

You do not send the form to HUD. The signed original goes to your lender, who places it in the FHA case binder with the rest of your closing documents.¹ HUD reviews that binder when deciding whether to endorse the mortgage for insurance. Without a valid Form 92561 for a qualifying property, the lender cannot obtain the FHA guarantee, and the loan does not close.

What Happens If You Violate the Contract

The contract stays in your file for the life of the FHA-insured loan. If HUD receives a written complaint that any part of your property is being rented in violation of the transient-use ban, the statute requires the Secretary to investigate and, if a violation exists, order it stopped. Failure to comply sends the complaint to the U.S. Attorney General, who can bring civil or criminal action and ask a federal district court for an injunction.⁴

The statute also gives the private hospitality industry standing to sue. Any hotel owner or hotel-industry group operating within a 50-mile radius of the violation can petition a federal court for injunctive relief at their own expense.⁴ In markets with an active hotel sector, a short-term listing on an FHA-insured duplex can draw complaints from competitors, not just from HUD.

The form itself carries a federal false-statements warning. Knowingly submitting false information on Form 92561 exposes you to prosecution under 18 U.S.C. §§ 287 and 1001 and civil penalties under 31 U.S.C. § 3729, with the criminal statutes carrying up to five years of imprisonment and fines.³⁵ Signing while planning to list units on a short-term rental platform is a federal false claim, not a paperwork gray area.

The Only Exceptions Are Historical

Section 513 recognizes two narrow exceptions, both tied to conditions that already existed before May 28, 1954. A project can continue transient use if the Secretary agreed in writing before that date to allow it, or if the project sits in a HUD-designated resort area and specific units were already being rented on a transient basis before that date. Neither exception permits more units on transient rental than were originally approved or historically used.⁶

For any property built or insured after 1954, there is no modern waiver, no application, and no HUD process to request permission for short-term rentals on an FHA-insured property. If you need to rent units for fewer than 30 days or provide hotel-style services, conventional financing without FHA insurance is the route that avoids this contract entirely.

1
Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mortgage Credit Analysis and Borrower Approval – Section: 3-7 Investment Properties and Dwellings for Two or More Families
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1731b – Prohibition Against Transient Housing
3
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD-92561 – Borrower’s Contract with Respect to Hotel and Transient Use of Property
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1731b – Prohibition Against Transient Housing
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally
6
GovInfo. National Housing Act – Section 513