Is forbearance right for me?
Program goal
The goal of mortgage loan forbearance is to help you get your home loan payments — including tax and insurance escrow or impound accounts — reduced or suspended for a set period of time, if you’re suffering from a temporary financial hardship.
Eligibility
You may be eligible for forbearance if:
- You're facing a temporary financial hardship such as a loss of income due to a medical illness, death of a co-borrower, natural disaster or unemployment, and the circumstances you're experiencing have a clear end in sight. For example, if you're unable to live in your home because of a flood and you're waiting for an insurance payment to cover the costs of additional living expenses, like staying in a hotel, that's one situation where forbearance may be an option.
Please note: If you receive forbearance assistance, when your situation improves, you'll be required to repay the past due amount from the unpaid months of your monthly housing payment (principal, interest, taxes and insurance). Details about the repayment will be provided in your offer letter and will be explained by your Customer Relationship Manager.
Now that I’m in the process of applying for a forbearance plan, what's next?
Before you call, please gather the following financial information that we'll be asking for:
- Your loan number
- The monthly pre-tax income of each borrower on the loan
- A description of your hardship
- Details about your monthly household expenses
- Unemployment benefits, if applicable
- Amount of homeowner’s association dues, if applicable
If we confirm that you're eligible to apply for this program, we'll tell you about some important deadlines.
After the call, you'll need to submit a hardship letter explaining your current financial difficulty. We'll pair you with a Customer Relationship Manager who will assist you throughout the process.
I've been approved to receive forbearance.
If you're approved, your Customer Relationship Manager will send you a letter outlining the terms of your forbearance, which may include:
- Temporarily suspending all of your mortgage payments, including tax and insurance payments for escrow accounts, for a set period of no more than 90 calendar days
- Suspension of all your mortgage payments including escrows/impounds for a set period, typically no more than 90 calendar days
- A temporary reduction of the amount you need to pay
In most cases, if you choose to agree to the terms, including the repayment plan, you'll need to sign and return a copy of the offer letter. Your Customer Relationship Manager will let you know whether or not you need to return any signed documents to us.
Please note that in some circumstances, such as natural disasters, we usually don't require you to sign and return the letter to us.
My financial hardship has ended.
After your situation has improved, you'll need to repay the past due amount, according to the plan outlined in your forbearance offer letter, which may include one of the following:
- Increasing the amount of your monthly mortgage payments until the past due amount is repaid
- Making a one-time payment of the full past due amount
- Adding the full past due amount to the back-end of your mortgage, extending the length of your mortgage until the entire balance is paid off
