Housing Programs
Middlebury College Employee Benefits are described in the Employee Handbook chapter of the College Handbook. Because faculty are employed on a contractual basis, specific provisions relating to vacation and sick leave as stated in the Employee Handbook chapter may not be applicable to them. Conversely, faculty may be eligible for specific provisions that are not applicable to general employees.
College Rental Program
The purpose of the Middlebury College rental program is to provide temporary housing for faculty and certain administrative staff positions at the time of hire. Housing is meant to be short-term in duration. This policy is outlined below.
Approved tenured and tenured track faculty tenants can stay in College house for a maximum of 8 years or the end of employment with the College whichever comes first. All other approved tenants can stay in College housing a maximum of 2 years.
All rental relationships are governed by a lease, require a security deposit and the rents are collected by payroll deduction. Most housing units require the tenant to pay some or all of the utilities. Middlebury Town water and sewer charge may be billed to the tenant, by the College according to the lease.
Available housing is listed on the Business Services homepage. Please do not ask to tour occupied houses. Housing is allocated by a lottery process each year in the spring. All leases end on June 30, and are normally written for one year at a time with the option to renew. The first year of a rental will normally begin in mid August.
The College attempts to operate its rental housing on a break-even basis, which in practice means that it is planned that anticipated income and projected expenses be equal for each fiscal year.
Rents are based on the services and utilities provided real estate taxes, maintenance expenses and the local rental market. The College rents are designed to be at local market rates.
Tenants must carry their own renters' insurance to protect their own contents and provide liability coverage.
Mortgage Program
Middlebury College has a mortgage program to assist faculty in the purchase of their first home in the Middlebury area. The home should be within 10 miles of campus, exceptions are made to accommodate spouse/partner employment. Faculty who are tenured or tenure track and have passed their First Review, administrative officers with four years of service, and athletic faculty with five years of service are eligible.
Changes in Vermont and Federal mortgage lending laws now prohibit the College from making mortgage loans. Loans currently on the books can continue but cannot be refinanced by the College.
The National Bank of Middlebury (NBM) has agreed to partner with the College to allow a modified second mortgage program to continue. The new program will need to conform to new mortgage regulations and be standardized to make obtaining a first mortgage easier. The new mortgage regulations are making the underwriting of first mortgages harder and the recent mortgage market crisis is making the rules harder as well.
The new program will be administered by the NBM, who will underwrite, close and hold the second mortgages. The College will collect the payments and subsidize the interest rate on a monthly basis. The new loans will be at an interest rate based at 1.5% above the 30 day commitment Federal National Mortgage Association 30 year fixed rate with a floor of 5% interest, up to $150,000 or the amount of the first mortgage whichever is less, have a term of not more than 25 years(but in no event can the term be longer than the term of the first mortgage), a loan to value ratio (first and second mortgages) of 90% or less* and be payable biweekly. The bank will record all interest paid and issue a 1098 based on the full bank payment. The College and borrower will enter into an agreement, where the College will provide a discount on the second mortgage rate payable to the bank on behalf of the employee every two weeks. This subsidy will be a taxable benefit to the employee.
The amount of the subsidy will be the difference between the NBM loan payment and a payment determined at 2% below the rate on the employee’s first mortgage.
NBM will prepare all disclosures, notes, mortgages and closing documents and will charge a document fee. College will prepare a benefit agreement and payroll deduction form.
Every two weeks the College will forward the payments it has collected plus the subsidy to the NBM.
*For loans with a loan to value ratio (first and second mortgage) in excess of 80% College agrees to guarantee the loan to the NBM until the loan to value ratio is reduced to 80%. The College and NBM will have a signed agreement for each loan indicating the exact amount of the guaranty.
It is possible the new second mortgage program will make it harder for some borrowers to obtain loans as the payment on the second mortgage will be higher for underwriting purposes.
Both the College Housing and Mortgage Programs are administered by the Business Services Office, 802.443.5504.