1. (a) The Department, acting by and through its Executive Director or his/her designee, may authorize, execute, and deliver amendments to any written Agreement or Contract that is not a Household commitment contract, provided that the requirements of this section are met unless otherwise indicated in the Program Rules.

   1. (1) Time extensions. The Executive Director or his/her designee may grant up to a cumulative twelve (12) months extension to the end date of any Contract unless otherwise indicated in the Program Rules. Any additional time extension granted by the Executive Director shall include a statement by the Executive Director identifying the unusual, non-foreseeable or extenuating circumstances justifying the extension. If more than a cumulative twelve (12) months of extension is requested and the Department determines there are no unusual, non-foreseeable, or extenuating circumstances, it will be presented to the Board for approval, approval with revisions, or denial of the requested extension.
   2. (2) Award or Contract Reductions. The Department may decrease an award for any good cause including but not limited to the request of the Administrator, insufficient eligible costs to support the award, or failure to meet deadlines or benchmarks.
   3. (3) Changes in Household. Reductions in Contractual deliverables and Households shall require an amendment to the Contract. Increases in Contractual deliverables and Households that do not shift funds, or cumulatively shift less than 10 percent of total award or Contract funds, shall be completed through an amendment to the Contract and be approved administratively. If such amendment is not approved, the Applicant will have the right to appeal in accordance with this Title.

   4. (4) Increases in Award and Contract Amounts.

      1. (A) For a specific single family Program's Contract, the Department can award a cumulative increase of funds up to 50 percent (50%) of the original award amount.
      2. (B) Requests for increases in funding will be evaluated by the Department on a first-come, first-served basis to assess the capacity to manage additional funding, the demonstrated need for additional funding and the ability to expend the increase in funding within the Contract period.
      3. (C) The requirements to approve an increase in funding shall include, at a minimum, Administrator's ability to continue to meet existing deadlines, benchmarks and reporting requirements.
      4. (D) Funding may come from Program funds, Deobligated funds or Program income.
      5. (E) Qualifying requests will be recommended to the Executive Director or his/her designee for approval.
      6. (F) The Board must approve requests for increase in Program funds in excess of the cumulative increase threshold established in this subsection.

   5. (5) The single family Program's Director may approve Contract budget modifications provided the guidelines described in paragraphs (1) - (4) of this subsection are met:

      1. (A) funds must be available in a budget line item;
      2. (B) the budget change(s) are less than 10 percent of the total Contract's budget;
      3. (C) if units or activities are desired to be increased, but funds must be shifted from another budget line item in which units or activities from that budget line item have been completed, a Contract amendment will only be necessary if the cumulative budget changes exceed 10 percent of the Contract amount; and
      4. (D) the cumulative total of all Contract's budget modifications cannot exceed 10 percent of the total Contract's budget amount.
      5. (E) If these guidelines are not met, an amendment to the Contract will be required.
   6. (6) The Division Director may approve other amendments to a Contract or an Agreement, including amendments to the Administrator's service area, benchmarks, or selection of Activities administered under a Contract or an Agreement, provided that the amendment would not have negatively impacted the priority of Board approved Applications.
2. (b) The Department may terminate a Contract in whole or in part if the Administrator does not achieve performance benchmarks as outlined in the Program Rule and/or Contract, or for any other reason in the Department's reasonable discretion.
3. (c) In all instances noted in this section, where an expected Mortgage Loan transaction is involved, Mortgage Loan documents will be modified accordingly at the expense of the Administrator/borrower.

Source Note:The provisions of this §20.14 adopted to be effective August 24, 2017, 42 TexReg 4124.