We do not believe it would be permissible to combine an annual RESPA escrow account notice with the one-time notice required by the Mortgage Escrow Account Act, since different timing requirements apply to both notices.

Section 5 of the Mortgage Escrow Account Act (MEAA) law requires mortgage lenders to send a notice informing a borrower of the right to terminate the escrow account, and the notice must be sent “[w]hen the mortgage is reduced to 65% of its original amount . . . .” 765 ILCS 910/5. RESPA requires annual escrow account statements “within 30 days of the completion of the escrow account computation year.”  12 CFR 1024.17(i). 

Consequently, in many cases, the RESPA notice will be due at a different time than the MEAA notice. For example, if a mortgage is paid down to 65% of its original amount in the middle of an escrow computation year, and your bank delays sending out the required notice until it mails out the annual RESPA notices at year end, then the borrower could be left waiting up to eleven months before receiving the required MEAA notice, which is much later than “when the mortgage is reduced to 65% . . . .” Consequently, we do not recommend combining the one-time MEAA notice with the RESPA annual escrow account notice.