Question: While we survived Hurricane Irma, we missed a great deal of work and had to expend our savings in order to get things normal again. Now we’re not able to afford to make our mortgage payment. Are we likely to lose our house? – Agnes
Mortgage assistance following Hurricane Irma?
Answer:
When disaster strikes, everyone needs to do everything we have to do in order to get through it. Being a small business owner, we have an understanding of the difficulties that this type of disruption could potentially cause to our finances. If your financial resources are limited, it’s better to buy water and gasoline and worry about paying your mortgage when things go back to normal.
Fortunately, most lenders and the government fully grasp this and have offered relief to individuals impacted by the hurricanes. The moment you can, call your lender and see what programs are offered to you.
For those who have a federally backed mortgage, which most homeowners do, you are likely to be given a chance to skip the next three payments and have those payments placed on the end of your loan. Other lenders are providing similar programs, however they will spread the skipped payments out over a year instead.
Your lender could possibly be busy and you will probably have to jump through some hoops, but by all accounts, lenders are already trying hard to make it easy for Mother Nature’s latest victims.
In addition there are relief in the form of student loan payment forbearance and Internal Revenue Service extensions, even though you still will have to pay any taxes due now. Get in touch with the appropriate agencies, or to a financial professional, and you in all probability will discover the assistance you need.