Going for a loan modification – need to know what happens if you send off a hardship letter
The first thing your loan servicer will do to see if you are eligible for the loan modification program is establish if the loan you have meets the terms for loan modification and if it does:
They will ask about your current income, what assets you have, if any, and any ongoing expenses. What they want to know is whether you will be able to make any new payments that will be due after loan modification by understanding your specific circumstances. Anything you tell them will eventually need to be supported by documented evidence i.e. tax returns, pay stubs etc.
They will also need to establish that your monthly first lien mortgage repayment does not exceed 31% of your gross monthly income.
If you get this far they will add past charges (any tax, interest, insurance and costs that your lender paid to 3rd parties on your behalf to the loan balance, effectively consolidating your debts into the mortgage balance. Note this does not include late fees, charges you have received as a result of being late on payments, these must be written off.
They will then calculate the interest rate required to bring your payments to a maximum of 31% of your gross monthly income.
Then there will be a value test to establish if the cost of the loan modification is less costly for the investor than the other option of not modifying the loan. The government’s incentive payment is also taken into account when applying the value test and people who have a lot of equity or whose incomes are very low compared to their home value are unlikely to pass this test.
Assuming you make it this far the next hurdle is to make the first 3 months of payments at the new repayment level. If you do this the loan modification is then made a permanent arrangement that will keep your repayments at a fixed rate for 5 years after which it will be capped at a low rate for the life of the loan remaining.
You will of course have to sign the modification agreement and associated documentation attesting all information is true and accurate. Any false declarations will be a violation of Federal Law which is a serious offense so make sure you are upfront and truthful otherwise be prepared to suffer the consequences.
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Good article. I recently did this with BofA and while it took a while and a lot of phone calls to get them to do it, I lowered my payment by about $500 a month and got a 3% fixed rate for 5 years and then a 5.5% fixed for 30 in 2014. I think it’s a pretty kick ass deal, you just have to be persistent with these lenders.
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The procedure for applying for a loan modification when sending off a hardship letter.
There are a number of stages you need to go through when applying for a loan modification, it is worth knowing what these stages are and the procedures that surroun…
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I’m a US Bank customer loan # 6850010488,and i sent a hardship letter to us bank back in March 2009 and the bank said I meet all requirements for a Modification (H.A.M. ) and I got 2 letters that your bank would get with me to redo my Mortgage but no HELP Why are you not working with me ??
Hi Richard, I am not a representative of the bank, so all I can suggest is that you get in touch with them again and persevere, alternatively you may need to get in touch with an approved counselor and ask them to see if they can help you progress things. Try this link http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/hcs.cfm