Here to Help
The COVID-19 global health outbreak is causing a financial hardship for millions of Americans. These difficulties include a job loss, reduced income, and illness that impact the ability to make timely payments. Fannie Mae is here to help with reliable information and resources to provide financial relief. Explore your options.
How to get help
If you think you might have trouble making a mortgage payment your first call should be to your mortgage servicer (the company that receives your mortgage payments each month). They may be able to arrange temporary mortgage assistance options, including a mortgage forbearance plan.
No matter what the future brings, Fannie Mae will be here to help, providing you with the reliable information you need about forbearance plans and other kinds of mortgage assistance.
Fannie Mae Loan Lookup Tool
Use the simple Fannie Mae Loan Lookup Tool to find out if Fannie Mae owns your mortgage. If so, you’ll be able to access the Disaster Response Network using the contact the number on the screen or request an online appointment.
Fannie Mae’s Disaster Response Network™
Fannie Mae’s Disaster Response Network™ can help if you’ve experienced financial hardships related to COVID-19. It connects you to counselors who can create a personalized action plan, offer financial coaching, and support your ongoing success.
What to know about forbearance
If you own your home and are experiencing financial hardship as a result of COVID-19, you may be able to receive a forbearance plan.
Entering into a forbearance plan can give you some financial breathing room. A forbearance plan doesn’t erase the amount you owe on a mortgage, but it temporarily suspends or reduces your mortgage payment until your hardship is over. At the end of the forbearance plan, you must repay what you missed, but necessarily not all at once.
Talk with your servicer about your situation, so they can help you and give you the best mortgage relief option for your situation.
If you were current on your loan before you started a forbearance plan or another accommodation covered by the CARES Act, you will be reported as current to the credit bureau as long as you continue to make payments as required by the plan you’re set up in, or as long as no payments are required under the plan.
Fannie Mae can help you learn more about what to expect on a forbearance plan and when you’re ready to move forward, you can start here.
What is a Forbearance Plan?
Learn about forbearance and mortgage payment assistance.
What happens after a forbearance plan ends
A forbearance plan doesn’t erase the amount you owe on a mortgage. At the end of the forbearance plan, you must repay missed amounts, but not necessarily all at once. You will not be charged late fees during your forbearance plan as long as you are performing according to the terms of the plan.
Mortgage assistance options are available
What is a COVID-19 Payment Deferral
Fannie Mae is offering repayment options for homeowners who missed their mortgage payments due to a financial hardship related to COVID-19. In fact, earlier this year, Fannie Mae announced a new COVID-19 payment deferral option.
This payment option defers the amount you owe to the end of your loan term (the maturity date). You will have to pay the missed amount when you make your last loan payment or pay off the balance of the loan (e.g., when you sell or transfer the property or refinance your loan).
How COVID-19 payment deferral works
Learn how payment deferral can be an option once your COVID-19-related hardship has been resolved.
Renting to tenants?
If you own a single-family property that is backed by a Fannie Mae loan and that you rent to tenants, you must provide the tenants with at least 30 days’ notice before you can require them to vacate the property for missed payments. The CARES Act doesn’t relieve tenants of their obligations to pay rent, but we encourage you to work with your tenants to make financial arrangements to help them through this challenging time.
Scam prevention
COVID-19 has spread, and so have scams aimed at homeowners.
See how to prevent them
FHFA
Stay updated about changes across the mortgage industry on the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) site
CFPB
Find helpful resources and information from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (ConsumerFinance.gov)
HUD
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) response to COVID-19