The HUD-1, the ALTA Settlement Statement, and the Closing Disclosure are three different closing documents that people often confuse because they overlap in content. The Closing Disclosure is the consumer form legally required for most residential mortgage closings since October 2015. The HUD-1 is the older federal form it replaced, still used for a handful of loan types that fall outside the current rules. The ALTA Settlement Statement is not a government-mandated disclosure at all; it is an industry accounting form the title company or settlement agent uses to itemize the transaction, and you may see it at closing alongside whichever consumer document applies to your loan.
Which Document Applies to Your Closing
Sorting out which form you should expect comes down to the type of loan, or whether there is a loan at all.
- Standard purchase mortgage or refinance on a home: Closing Disclosure.
- Reverse mortgage (HECM), HELOC, mobile home loan not attached to land, certain no-interest down payment or foreclosure-avoidance second mortgages, or a loan from a lender making five or fewer mortgages a year: HUD-1.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.8 Use of HUD-1 or HUD-1A Settlement Statements
- All-cash purchase with no mortgage: neither is federally required, and the ALTA Settlement Statement often serves as the primary accounting document, though some states impose their own disclosure requirements.
- Any of the above: the title company may also produce an ALTA Settlement Statement for its own reconciliation.
The Closing Disclosure
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule, commonly called TRID, to merge the disclosure requirements of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act into one framework.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) TRID replaced two consumer documents at once: the HUD-1 and the final Truth-in-Lending disclosure. Borrowers now receive a single Closing Disclosure instead.
The form is organized around functional categories rather than the numbered line-item system the HUD-1 used. Costs appear as “Loan Costs” and “Other Costs,” with lettered sections (A through J) that map directly to the same sections on the Loan Estimate you received when you applied. That parallel structure is the point. You are supposed to be able to lay the two documents side by side and see whether your final numbers match what was quoted, and the TRID rule backs the comparison with tolerance limits on how much certain fees can rise before closing.
The borrower must receive the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before the loan closes.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.19 Certain Mortgage and Variable-Rate Transactions That mandatory review period was a significant change from HUD-1 practice, when borrowers sometimes saw their final numbers for the first time at the closing table.
Buyer and Seller Versions
Under TRID, the lender can issue a single Closing Disclosure covering both parties or prepare separate buyer and seller versions. Separate disclosures are increasingly common because the buyer’s form contains loan details, like the interest rate and payment schedule, that the seller has no reason to see. State financial privacy laws sometimes make the separation effectively mandatory.
When the forms are split, the seller’s version strips out the buyer’s loan information and shows only the sale price, the seller’s own closing costs, existing loan payoffs, prorated adjustments, and net proceeds. Any closing costs the seller pays, including real estate commissions, still appear on the buyer’s version. Buyers see what the seller paid; sellers do not see the buyer’s loan terms.
What the HUD-1 Was, and When You’ll Still See It
The HUD-1 was the standardized settlement form required for every federally related mortgage loan under RESPA. Settlement agents used it in any transaction involving both a borrower and a seller, with a shorter version called the HUD-1A for refinances and other no-seller transactions.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.8 Use of HUD-1 or HUD-1A Settlement Statements
The form ran three pages and used a rigid numbered line-item system. Line 801 was origination charges. The 1100 series held title charges. Every cost had a predetermined slot.4HUD. Fill-able HUD-1 Settlement Statement It was useful for accountants and settlement professionals but hard for a first-time buyer to parse quickly, and comparing it back to the original Good Faith Estimate meant cross-referencing between two documents that looked nothing alike.
The borrower’s charges appeared on one side of the form and the seller’s on the other, with separate series of line numbers for each party. The seller’s net proceeds came from credits and debits in the 400, 500, and 600 series; the borrower’s cash-to-close came from the 100, 200, and 300 series. That two-column layout gave a full picture of the whole deal, but it also meant each party saw the other’s financial details.
The HUD-1 has not disappeared. TRID applies only to most standard consumer mortgage loans, and several categories fall outside it:
- Reverse mortgages (HECMs), which follow separate disclosure rules under Regulation Z.
- Home equity lines of credit, which have their own disclosure regime as open-end credit.
- Loans for mobile homes or dwellings not attached to land.
- Certain special-purpose loans, including no-interest second mortgages used for down payment assistance, energy efficiency, or foreclosure avoidance.
- Loans from creditors making five or fewer mortgages per year.
If your loan falls into one of those categories, your settlement paperwork will look different from what a neighbor closing on a conventional purchase mortgage receives. You will get a HUD-1, a Good Faith Estimate, and a separate Truth-in-Lending disclosure rather than a single Closing Disclosure.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.8 Use of HUD-1 or HUD-1A Settlement Statements
The ALTA Settlement Statement
The ALTA Settlement Statement is not a government-mandated consumer disclosure. It is a standardized accounting form developed by the American Land Title Association for title companies and settlement agents to itemize fees and charges in a transaction.5American Land Title Association. ALTA Settlement Statements It functions as the internal ledger the closing agent uses to make sure every dollar moves to the right party.
Title professionals often prefer it because it provides a more granular, transaction-specific breakdown than either the HUD-1 or the Closing Disclosure. It can capture individual line items, prorations, and disbursement details in a format built around the settlement agent’s workflow. At many closings you will see both an ALTA statement and a Closing Disclosure. The ALTA form is for the professionals running the transaction; the Closing Disclosure is the legally required document that protects you as a consumer.
ALTA also has a role in the mechanics of how the consumer documents get produced. When lenders issue separate buyer and seller Closing Disclosures, the settlement agent still needs a unified view of both sides of the transaction to reconcile the money. Title companies frequently prepare the ALTA statement as that unified working document, then generate the separate buyer and seller Closing Disclosures from it.
All-Cash Purchases
When no mortgage is involved, federal law does not require either a Closing Disclosure or a HUD-1. The ALTA Settlement Statement often serves as the primary accounting document in those deals. Some states impose their own disclosure requirements for cash purchases, so what you actually receive depends on where the property sits.
Using the ALTA Statement and the Closing Disclosure Together
If you get both documents at closing, the practical question is what to check against what. The Closing Disclosure is the legally controlling document for your loan costs, and its Loan Costs and Other Costs sections should line up against the Loan Estimate you received when you applied. That comparison is the one that matters for TRID tolerance protections, which cap how much certain fees can increase between the estimate and closing.
The ALTA statement is the place to look for the transaction’s plumbing: who is being paid what, how prorations were calculated, and how the settlement agent reconciled the funds. When numbers on the ALTA statement and the Closing Disclosure look different for the same item, the Closing Disclosure controls for the categories TRID governs, and the ALTA form usually reflects a more detailed breakdown or a proration the Closing Disclosure summarizes. Ask the settlement agent to walk you through any line where the two documents seem to disagree before you sign.