UAD 3.6 Fatal Findings Explained: What Stops a Report in UCDP
Published October 5, 2026
When a UAD 3.6 report comes back from UCDP as Not Successful, it is because of Fatal findings. This page explains what that means and where the fatal rules sit, so you know where to look.
What a Fatal finding is
Every URAR compliance rule has a severity. In the published rules, a Fatal finding makes the UCDP submission status Not Successful. A Warning does not stop a Successful status, but it flags something that should be reviewed. Of the 728 URAR compliance rules, 592 are Fatal and 136 are Warnings.
A Not Successful report is fixed by correcting the data and sending a new file. For what happens step by step, see UCDP Not Successful: what it means. For how the two severities differ, see Warning vs Fatal.
Not Successful is not the same as Rejected. Rejected is a separate UCDP status for problems with the package itself, such as a broken ZIP, a missing or extra XML file, malformed XML, a duplicate submission or a file over 60 MB. See Not Successful vs Rejected.
Where the fatal rules are
The rules are grouped by the URAR section they belong to. These are the areas with the most Fatal rules, counted from the published rules:
| Area | Fatal rules | What they cover |
|---|---|---|
| Sales Comparison Approach | 70 | Comparable data: proximity, parking, finished area, bedrooms, contract dates, and adjustment totals that must add up (UAD1461). |
| Site | 66 | View and site influence (UAD1361, UAD1328), utilities, access, water frontage, and descriptions whenever Other is picked. |
| Unit Interior | 43 | Room and bathroom counts, areas including below grade even when 0 (UAD1189, UAD1190, UAD1484), and interior ratings. |
| Assignment Information | 41 | The assignment reason, how inspections were done, and appraiser and supervisory appraiser details. |
| Project Information | 41 | Condominium, cooperative and other project data, when the property is in a project. |
| Subject Property | 37 | The subject address and its format (UAD1001 to UAD1007), dwelling and unit counts, and property rights. |
| Dwelling Exterior | 28 | At least one dwelling, construction method, foundation details and condition status. |
| Data that does not display on the form | 78 | Technical items in the XML, such as data sources, parcel identifiers and image file references. Many say to contact the software vendor. |
89 of the rules say "For assistance with this message, contact the appraisal software vendor." The published notes call these technical and likely not something the appraiser can fix alone.
Fatal findings with their own fix guides
- Below grade areas left blank: finished, unfinished and nonstandard below grade area are required even when 0.
- View and site influence missing: at least one of each, and a description for Other.
- Sales concession answers missing: whether there are concessions, whether the amount is known, and the total.
- Subject address incomplete: every part of the address, a valid ZIP and a 2-letter state code.
Counts and rule IDs from Appendix H-1, URAR Compliance Rules v1.5. Areas are the rules' Report Section; a few rules span two sections and are not counted above.
Check the whole file, not just this field. The SpreadRun UAD 3.6 validator runs the delivery specification checks and 585 of the 728 published URAR compliance rules on your XML or ZIP and lists every finding with its rule ID and location. $1.00 per completed report from prepaid credits, with a free test on the page. Check a report
A PASS is not UCDP acceptance. UCDP also runs the rules the validator does not, GSE proprietary checks and its own system checks.
More UAD 3.6 fixes
- Free UAD 3.6 pre-submission checklist
- UCDP Not Successful: What It Means and How to Fix It
- UAD 3.6 Warning vs Fatal Findings: Which Ones Stop a Report
- UAD 3.6 Basement Fields: Fixing the Below Grade Hard Stop
- UAD 3.6 View and Location Codes: Why UCDP Flags Them
- UAD 3.6 Sales Concessions: What UCDP Checks and What It Cannot
- UAD 3.6 Subject Address Errors in UCDP: What Gets Flagged
- UCDP Not Successful vs Rejected: What Each Status Means
- UAD 3.6 Requirements: The 2026 Guide
Sources: UCDP General User Guide (February 2026), UCDP FAQ, and the URAR Delivery Specification (Appendix A-1) and Compliance Rules (Appendix H-1) on the Uniform Appraisal Dataset page. SpreadRun is not affiliated with or endorsed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. This is general information, not legal advice.