Freddie Mac has announced that its full suite of mortgage relief policies for borrowers affected by disasters is being extended to families whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the recent floods in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey and West Virginia and are located in federally declared major disaster areas.
‘Freddie Mac and the nation's mortgage servicers will work together to advance available mortgage relief to homeowners affected by these devastating floods,’ says Ingrid Beckles, Freddie Mac's senior vice president of default asset management. ‘We are instructing our servicers to work with borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages to receive forbearance on their mortgage payments for up to one year.’
Freddie Mac disaster relief policies provide a number of ways for ervicers to provide help to borrowers in the declared major disaster areas where individual assistance has been extended.
Freddie Mac, for example, gives servicers the discretion to reduce or suspend mortgage payments for up to 12 months for borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages. Each case must be individually assessed to determine which alternative will best fit the homeowner's circumstances.
Freddie Mac also strongly encourages servicers to help affected borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned loans by waiving assessments of penalties or late fees against borrowers with disaster-damaged homes; not reporting forbearance or delinquencies caused by the disaster to the nation's credit bureaus; and suspending foreclosure and eviction proceedings for up to 12 months.
SOURCE: Freddie Mac