Perhaps you have fallen behind on your mortgage payments. You may be able to get caught up if only your lender would cooperate with your plans to get back on track. If you can afford your home with just a little bit of help from your lender, they may be willing to provide extra benefits by granting a special forbearance.
Benefits of a Special Forbearance
Your lender has the ability to provide you with extra help to get your mortgage back to where you can afford it. These are options that you may be able to benefit from:
- Reduced payments over a certain number of months
- Suspended payments over a a set period
- Spreading out back payments over several months to catch up arrears
- Reduced interest rate
A special forbearance may include multiple benefits to allow you to bring your mortgage back into compliance. This way, you can afford to stay in your home and your lender can avoid having another non-performing mortgage on its books. Best of all, if you meet all of the demands of the special forbearance, your lender cannot foreclose as long as you remain in compliance.
Qualifications for Special Forbearance
A special forbearance is one option for curing a severe mortgage delinquency. There are some restrictions on its use. These are the general requirements that must be met in order to qualify for a special forbearance:
- The home cannot currently be in foreclosure.
- You must be at least 90 days delinquent.
- You must occupy the home.
- You must maintain the property in good condition.
- You must be able to reasonably afford the special forbearance plan.
- You cannot fall more than 12 months delinquent even while on the plan.
There is no set limit on how much time a lender may give you to cure a delinquency through a special forbearance. It is possible that the plan may last 2 years or longer. However, at no point will they allow you to fall more than 12 months behind on your payments. In some cases, as special forbearance may be altered if your situation changes.
If you intend to request a special forbearance from your lender, you should make sure that you do so prior to the home falling into foreclosure. Find out where you are in the steps of foreclosure so that you know whether a special forbearance or other forms of mortgage assistance may be possible.