New FHA Regulations?

[Shaun R.]

I'm a real estate agent and I do a lot of work with this one lender.  Let me try and make this story as short as possible and then I'll ask my question.  I have a client that owns a house, but after the big flood we had here in '16, she moved out of that house to go help her mother rebuild from the flood.  She has been living with her mom since then, and has a renter in her first home.  Her original loan on that house a FMHA loan and she has owned the house for about 4 years.  

I had her pre-approved with my lender for an FHA loan. Originally he said she couldn't get an FHA loan because she hadn't reported the rental income on her taxes. Then, later he said that wasn't a problem and that since she could show the monthly deposits in her bank account and had a lease agreement that it would work. So we go write an offer on a house for her and get it accepted... the next day the lender calls me and tells me he can't do the loan because there is some "new FHA regulation" that says she has to have 25% equity in the other house.

I don't believe that this is some new regulation that just went in effect this month... I did a search on google and found a post on this site from two years ago where someone mentioned needing 25% equity in your first home if you're getting an FHA loan.

So my question is this... when this guy tells me about some new regulation where can I go to find exactly what it says, in writing, and see when it took effect?