When you are struggling to pay your mortgage, your Servicer (company who takes your mortgage payment and handles your account) may offer you assistance by way of a Mortgage Forbearance. Simply put, this is a short break from having to pay your mortgage. Some Servicers offer 2-3 month forbearances, and some offer 6 months with no payments. The difficult (and scary) thing is that most lenders don’t tell homeowners that a forbearance just means they agree to let you not make payments and that they will not institute foreclosure proceedings, however they do not tell you that at the end of the forbearance period, all those missed mortgages payments are due in one lump sum!
This is not feasible for most people in that if you were struggling to pay in the beginning, often times most people can’t borrow and don’t have assets to liquidate to make up those missed payments. At the end of the forbearance period, if other arrangements aren’t made, the lender can in fact initiate a foreclosure action. If you need help post-forbearance, please call the office for an in-depth free consultation. If the situation is not handled property, there could be devastating consequences.