Call your mortgage servicer right away. Your servicer is the company or bank you send your mortgage payments to every month. Do not stop making payments without talking to them.
You also have a mortgage lender. This may be different than your servicer. The lender owns your mortgage. If you don’t know who your lender is, ask your servicer. What rules apply to you depends on your lender.
Federally-Backed Mortgages
For many loans, servicers have to offer you forbearance options if you ask for help because your income has been affected by the COVID-19 emergency. Forbearance means your payments are not due until the end of the forbearance period. A forbearance can be up to 12 months. You still owe all your mortgage payments for that time, but they can’t charge you late fees or report missed payments to the credit bureaus.
At the end of the forbearance period, you need to work with your servicer to start making payments again, and to deal with the payments you missed in the forbearance. There may be multiple options to catch up on your payments. Talk to your servicer before your forbearance ends.
If you ask for help, servicers have to offer forbearance options for the following types of federally-backed loans:
- FHA
- HUD Reverse Mortgage
- VA
- USDA
- Fannie Mae
- Freddie Mac
If you have one of these loans and need a forbearance, contact your servicer and tell them that you are having financial hardship due to COVID-19. They should give you a forbearance without asking for documentation that proves your hardship. Forbearances can be up to 12 months, but you may have to re-ask your servicer for the forbearance at different times during the 12 months. Pay attention to any dates or deadlines your servicer gives you.
For example: Sarah was approved for a 3-month forbearance by her servicer, for April, May, and June 2020. Sarah kept losing income during this time because of COVID-19. She called her servicer at the end of June to extend her forbearance for another 3 months - July, August, and September 2020. If she keeps losing income because of COVID-19, she can keep applying for forbearance extensions for up to a total of 12 months.
Forbearance options for these kinds of mortgages are available from until December 31, 2020, or the end of the national COVID-19 emergency, whichever comes first.
Private Bank Mortgages
If your mortgage is not a federally-backed mortgage like the ones listed above, it is owned by a private bank. If that is the case, your servicer does not have to offer forbearance options. But your servicer may voluntarily offer a forbearance or have other COVID-related options. Contact your servicer right away and ask for information and options directly from them.
Starting July 1, 2020, some banks and credit unions in Minnesota agreed to offer up to 90-day forbearances. See the Minnesota Attorney General’s announcement for a list of the participating banks and credit unions, and more information on the agreement and how these forbearances will work.
If you have a mortgage that is not covered by a moratorium, or you cannot get a forbearance, you may be able to get financial assistance to pay your mortgage. Visit the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency's webpage to find out more information and to apply. Or, you can call 2-1-1 for more information and to apply over the phone.
