Fannie Mae reminds eligible homeowners affected by the recent floods in Louisiana of options they may have available for mortgage relief.
Mortgage servicers have the ability to grant an initial period of forbearance, or postponement of legal action to enforce payment of a debt, to any borrower they believe has been affected by this natural disaster, according to a Fannie Mae news release. Fannie Mae guidelines also authorize servicers to delay foreclosure sales and other legal proceedings in flood-affected areas.
“We know that many people have had their lives disrupted by the flooding in Louisiana,” Malloy Evans, vice president of servicing at Fannie Mae, said in the release. “Our servicers are committed to helping homeowners affected by natural disasters, and we are grateful for their efforts to offer the appropriate assistance to families in need.”
Freddie Mac, meanwhile, announced in an Aug. 16 news release it also is extending disaster relief for eligible Louisiana homeowners. “Freddie Mac strongly encourages borrowers whose homes or businesses were harmed by the floods to immediately call their mortgage servicer to discuss mortgage relief,” Yvette Gilmore, vice president of single-family servicer performance management for Freddie Mac, said in the release. “If their mortgage is owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac, they may qualify for our full range of options, which includes forbearance on mortgage payments for up to one year.”
Freddie Mac’s mortgage relief options for affected borrowers include suspending foreclosures by providing forebearance for up to 12 months; waiving assessments of penalties or late fees against borrowers with disaster-damaged homes; and not reporting forebearance or delinquencies caused by the disaster to the nation’s credit bureaus, according to the Freddie Mac release.
Under Fannie Mae’s disaster relief guidelines, a servicer may temporarily suspend or reduce a homeowner’s mortgage payments for up to 90 days if the servicer believes a natural disaster has made the home uninhabitable or has temporarily impacted the homeowner’s ability to make mortgage payments. According to Fannie Mae, the servicer may offer forebearance for up to six months — which may be extended for an additional six months — for those homeowners that were current or 90 days or less delinquent when the disaster occurred.
To read the Fannie Mae news release, see http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/about-us/media/corporate-news/2016/6428.html.
The full Freddie Mac release is available at http://freddiemac.mwnewsroom.com/press-releases/freddie-mac-extends-disaster-relief-to-eligible-bo-otcqb-fmcc-1273377.
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