TRID Fee Tolerances: Zero, 10%, No Tolerance, and Cures

Under TRID fee tolerances, every closing cost on your Loan Estimate falls into one of three buckets that control how much it can rise by closing: zero tolerance (the fee cannot go up at all), ten percent cumulative tolerance (a group of fees can rise up to 10% in total), and no tolerance (the fee can change without a percentage cap, but the original estimate still has to be made in good faith). These categories come from 12 CFR § 1026.19(e)(3), and which bucket a fee sits in tells you exactly when an increase is a violation and when you’re owed a refund.¹

Zero Tolerance Fees

These are the fees your lender has the most control over, and the rule reflects that. If your Loan Estimate says $500 for the appraisal, the charge at closing must be $500 or less. A one-dollar increase is a violation.

The zero-tolerance bucket covers:

Fees paid to your lender or mortgage broker, including origination, application, and underwriting charges.
Fees paid to an affiliate of your lender or broker. “Affiliate” follows the Bank Holding Company Act definition: any company that controls, is controlled by, or shares common ownership with the lender.²
Third-party fees where the lender required a specific vendor and did not let you shop. Credit report fees are the classic example.
Transfer taxes imposed by the government on the property transfer.

The logic is simple. If the lender picked the vendor or controls the price, they should know what it costs, and they shouldn’t be able to quote a lowball figure to make the loan look cheaper up front.

Ten Percent Cumulative Tolerance

The second category allows some movement, but only when you add every fee in the group together. Under 12 CFR § 1026.19(e)(3)(ii), the 10% cap applies to recording fees and to services where the lender gave you a written list of approved providers and you chose from that list.

The word to focus on is “cumulative.” You don’t compare each fee to its own line on the Loan Estimate. You add up every fee in this category on the Loan Estimate, add up every actual charge in this category on the Closing Disclosure, and compare the two totals. If the estimated total was $2,000, the actual total can go up to $2,200. One individual line could jump 20% and still be fine, as long as the group total stays under 110% of the original group total.

Title searches, lender’s title insurance, pest inspections, and survey fees typically land here—when you chose the provider from the lender’s list. Government recording fees for the deed and mortgage sit in this bucket regardless of who performs the work. If a service gets dropped before closing because you don’t need it, that fee comes out of the calculation.

No Tolerance Fees

The third category has no percentage cap, but the lender still can’t put a made-up number on the Loan Estimate. Under 12 CFR § 1026.19(e)(3)(iii), every estimate has to reflect the best information the lender reasonably had when the disclosure was prepared.

Fees with no tolerance cap include:

Prepaid interest, which is the daily interest between closing and the first payment. Because the closing date can shift, this figure is genuinely unpredictable early on.
Homeowner’s insurance premiums. You choose the insurer, so the lender can’t lock the price, but a quote that ignores typical local rates fails the good-faith standard.³
Initial escrow deposits for property taxes and insurance.
Fees for providers you found on your own, off the lender’s list.

Good faith requires due diligence, not perfection. An increase, even a large one, isn’t automatically a violation if the original number rested on current data and reasonable assumptions. Lenders get into trouble when they quote a figure they knew was too low.

How Your Shopping Choices Change the Bucket

For a lot of third-party fees, the tolerance category depends on whether you shopped and where you found the provider. Your lender must give you a written list of service providers with your Loan Estimate, identifying which services you can shop for, the providers they suggest, and contact information.² The list has to include a disclosure telling you that you can pick someone who isn’t on it.

Your decision moves the fee:

Pick a provider from the list, and the fee sits in the 10% cumulative bucket.
Pick a provider not on the list, and the fee moves to the no-tolerance bucket. The lender isn’t expected to predict pricing for a company they didn’t recommend.
Never receive a list at all, and the fee stays in zero tolerance. If the lender didn’t give you the chance to shop, they own the accuracy of whatever they quoted.

Borrowers sometimes bring in their own title company or surveyor without realizing it strips the fee of cost protection. That tradeoff can still be worth it if the outside provider is cheaper, but it’s a choice worth making with the tolerance consequences in view.

When the Tolerance Resets: Changed Circumstances

The tolerance limits aren’t absolute. Federal rules let the lender issue a revised Loan Estimate that resets the baseline when specific events occur. Without these exceptions, you might read an increase as a violation when it’s actually allowed. The regulation identifies six triggers.⁴

Unexpected events affecting charges, such as a natural disaster that changes property values, or new information about you or the property the lender didn’t have at the time of the original estimate. An appraisal that surfaces issues requiring additional inspections is a common example.
Changed eligibility, where your creditworthiness or the property’s value shifts in a way that affects a previously disclosed charge. A credit score drop between application and closing can move loan pricing.
Changes you requested, such as a different loan amount, a different property, or altered credit terms.
An interest rate lock. If your rate wasn’t locked when the initial Loan Estimate was issued, the lender must deliver a revised estimate within three business days of the lock, updating the rate, points, lender credits, and any other rate-dependent charges.
Expired estimates. If you wait more than ten business days after receiving the Loan Estimate to tell the lender you want to proceed, the estimate expires and can be revised.
Construction loan delays, where closing is expected more than 60 days after the initial disclosure.

When any of these events occurs, the lender has to deliver the revised Loan Estimate within three business days of learning about the change, and it must reach you no later than four business days before closing. The lender cannot issue a revised Loan Estimate on or after the day the Closing Disclosure is provided.⁵

What the Lender Owes You When a Tolerance Is Exceeded

When fees exceed the allowable tolerance, the lender must refund the difference. Under 12 CFR § 1026.19(f)(2)(v), they have 60 calendar days after closing to send the refund and deliver a corrected Closing Disclosure showing the accurate final costs.⁶

For zero-tolerance fees, the refund is every dollar above the original estimate. For the 10% cumulative group, the refund is the amount by which the actual group total exceeded 110% of the estimated group total. The corrected Closing Disclosure has to be delivered in person or by mail within the same 60-day window.

If the Refund Doesn’t Arrive

If the 60 days pass without a cure, you have options. Under federal law, an individual borrower on a mortgage-secured loan can sue for actual damages plus statutory damages of $400 to $4,000, along with court costs and attorney’s fees.⁷ The statute of limitations for most disclosure violations is one year from the date of the violation, though certain mortgage-specific violations carry a three-year window.⁸

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can also pursue enforcement against lenders with a pattern of tolerance violations, with per-day penalties that grow when the conduct was reckless or knowing. Filing a complaint with the CFPB can trigger an investigation or compel the lender to respond. The easiest fix, though, is the one you make before signing: during the three-business-day review period after you receive the Closing Disclosure, put it next to the Loan Estimate and compare fee by fee. Catching a tolerance problem at that table is always cleaner than chasing a refund afterward.

1
eCFR. 12 CFR 1026.19 – Certain Mortgage and Variable-Rate Transactions
2
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Small Entity Compliance Guide
3
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR Part 1026 Regulation Z – Section 1026.19
4
eCFR. 12 CFR 1026.19 – Certain Mortgage and Variable-Rate Transactions
5
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure FAQs
6
eCFR. 12 CFR 1026.19(f) – Mortgage Loans Final Disclosures
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1640 – Civil Liability
8
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Truth in Lending Act TILA Examination Manual