Fannie Mae Form 4099: The Multifamily PCA Requirements on Top of ASTM E2018

When the loan is a Fannie Mae multifamily loan, the property condition assessment is governed by Fannie Mae's Form 4099 instructions and their exhibits, layered on top of ASTM E2018. The instructions are revised by Fannie's guide updates, sometimes effective immediately for reports in progress, so the current text on Fannie's site governs; what follows is the structure that has been stable across recent editions.

Who it applies to

Multifamily properties financed through Fannie Mae's DUS lenders, including the variants the instructions carve out with their own modules: student housing, seniors housing, manufactured housing communities, cooperatives, and commercial space within multifamily. Office, retail and industrial transactions are not Fannie's business, so their PCAs are plain E2018 reports.

The consultant

Fannie sets qualification rules that E2018 does not: a degree in engineering, architecture or construction management, a minimum number of years of experience and a minimum number of recent multifamily PCAs for the consultant; separate minimums for the field observer; insurance; and absence from federal debarment lists. Qualifications are attached to the report as an exhibit. The lender engages the consultant; the report is the lender's deliverable.

The report structure

Seven fixed sections replace E2018's free format. Two schedules replace Table 1 and Table 2: an immediate repairs schedule and a schedule of replacement of capital items over the loan term plus two years, inflated at 3 percent per year. Every cost estimate must reference its source.

The 1 to 5 rating and the useful-life table

Each building component receives a condition rating from 1 to 5 against the criteria in Form 4099.D, which consider life safety, deferred maintenance, routine maintenance and remaining life. A property useful-life table lists every component with its expected useful life from Form 4099.F (separate columns by property type), its effective age, its remaining useful life, and the ratio of remaining to expected life, which drives the reserve schedule. The E2018 concepts of EUL, RUL and effective age carry over exactly; Fannie adds the rating and the ratio.

Sampling

The instructions prescribe how many units to inspect by property size: all vacant units up to a cap plus a set number of occupied units for small properties, and a percentage with a minimum count for larger ones. The sampled units are listed in the report.

The exhibits

• 4099.B pre-site inspection questionnaire to the borrower.
• 4099.C structural risk questionnaire.
• 4099.D condition rating definitions.
• 4099.E an Excel data supplement delivered with the PDF, carrying the structured data of the report. It is a data file, not a cost table.
• 4099.F the useful-life table.
• 4099.G problematic materials and conditions: a checklist of items that must be identified and, for several, photographed, including aluminum branch wiring, certain electrical panel brands, exterior insulation finish systems, polybutylene piping and imported drywall of a specific era.

Relationship to Freddie Mac and HUD

Freddie Mac's multifamily program uses its own form and repair taxonomy; HUD uses the CNA e-Tool. The three agencies share the E2018 foundation and little else in format. See ASTM vs Fannie vs HUD.

Practical implications for a firm

A firm that writes E2018 reports from structured fields (components, conditions, lives, costs) can produce the Fannie schedules and the useful-life table as a different view of the same data; the rating is derived and the 4099.G checklist is a set of questions over the electrical and envelope sections. A firm that writes in Word starts over for each format. Either way, the consultant qualification rules and the sampling rules are engagement matters to settle before the site visit.

Baseline PCR produces the ASTM E2018-24 report today and carries the Fannie 4099.F useful-life value alongside the HUD value on every reserve line; the Form 4099 report format is the planned next output from the same data and is not produced yet.