A forbearance form is the written request you send your loan servicer to temporarily pause or reduce payments because of a financial hardship. For a mortgage, you get the form from your servicer’s online portal or loss mitigation department; for federal student loans, you use the Department of Education’s standardized General Forbearance Request. Submitting it with the right documentation starts a formal review with federal deadlines attached.
Where to Get the Form
Most mortgage servicers post their forbearance request inside the online customer portal. That’s the fastest route. If you can’t find it there, call the loss mitigation department directly and ask them to email or mail the packet. The packet typically includes the request form itself, a hardship affidavit, and a financial disclosure worksheet.
There is no single universal form that applies to every mortgage. Each servicer uses its own version. The fields are similar across the industry: personal information, loan number, income, monthly expenses, and a hardship explanation. If your loan is backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, the servicer still uses its own form, but it must follow the investor’s guidelines when evaluating your request.
For federal student loans, the Department of Education publishes a standardized General Forbearance Request form that you submit to your loan servicer. If your loans sit with more than one servicer, you need a separate request for each.1Federal Student Aid. General Forbearance Request
Documents to Gather Before You Fill It Out
Pull your financial records together first. Servicers routinely ask for recent pay stubs, federal tax returns from the prior year or two, and a breakdown of monthly expenses: rent or payments on other properties, car payments, utilities, insurance. This lets the servicer judge whether a pause or reduction is feasible given your overall picture.
Hardship evidence matters as much as the numbers. Depending on your situation that could be an unemployment benefits letter, medical bills, a notice of reduced hours from your employer, a divorce decree, or a death certificate. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau tells borrowers to explain the hardship and provide evidence such as hospital bills or legal documents.
Federal regulation defines a loss mitigation application broadly: any request that includes whatever information the servicer requires to evaluate you for available options.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.31 – Definitions That breadth is deliberate. It also means the servicer sets the specific checklist, and the checklist varies. Ask early so you aren’t gathering the wrong records.
How to Fill Out the Form
The financial section asks for gross monthly income and net income after taxes. Pull the numbers from actual pay stubs rather than estimating. If your income is irregular because of freelance or side work, average the last several months and note the variability. Servicers flag applications where the numbers don’t reconcile, and inconsistencies delay the review or trigger extra verification.
The hardship section asks you to pick a category (job loss, medical emergency, divorce, natural disaster) and write a short explanation. Focus on how the event affects your ability to pay rather than the emotional toll. A sentence or two tying the event to the income drop is usually enough. Overexplaining can bury the core financial problem.
The form ends with a signature line. Most servicer forms require you to sign under penalty of perjury, affirming that everything you reported is accurate. Federal law gives this kind of sworn written statement the same weight as a notarized oath.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury Inaccurate information isn’t just grounds for denial. It can create legal exposure.
Submitting the Form and Proving Delivery
Upload through your servicer’s online portal if one is available. That’s the fastest method and usually generates a confirmation number or receipt page. Screenshot the confirmation immediately. Digital records can disappear when portals update or sessions expire.
If you mail the form, use certified mail with return receipt requested. The return receipt creates a dated record of when the servicer received the package, which matters if there’s ever a dispute about timing. Address it to the loss mitigation department specifically, not the general payment address. Misrouted mail is one of the most common reasons applications sit unprocessed for weeks.
Some servicers accept fax, and the transmission report serves as your delivery proof. Whatever route you take, keep copies of every page. If the servicer later claims something was missing, your copies are the only way to push back.
What Happens After You Submit
Once your servicer receives the application, federal regulations require a written acknowledgment within five business days. That notice must tell you whether the application is complete or incomplete, and if something is missing, it must identify exactly which documents and give you a reasonable deadline to provide them.4eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures Watch your mail, email, and the portal every day during the first week.
After the application is complete, the servicer has 30 days to evaluate you for every loss mitigation option available and send a written determination. That letter must spell out which options the servicer is offering, how long you have to accept or reject each one, and whether you have the right to appeal a loan modification denial.4eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures These protections apply to applications received at least 37 days before a scheduled foreclosure sale.
One point to be clear on: the regulation does not require the servicer to grant any specific option.4eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures The servicer has to evaluate you and respond on time. Forbearance approval itself is not guaranteed. If you’re denied, the determination letter should explain why, and you may have appeal rights if the denial involves a modification.
Foreclosure Protections While Your Application Is Pending
Filing a complete application triggers real foreclosure protections. If you submit a complete application before the servicer has started foreclosure, the servicer cannot file the first foreclosure notice or document until the review is finished, you’ve had a chance to appeal any loan modification denial, and you’ve either rejected all offered options or failed to perform on an agreement.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
Even if foreclosure has already begun, a complete application submitted more than 37 days before a scheduled sale blocks the servicer from moving for judgment or conducting the sale until those same conditions are met.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures The 37-day cutoff is a hard deadline. If you’re close to a sale date, submit immediately and make sure the application is complete.
What Forbearance Will Cost You
Interest does not stop accruing just because your payments are paused. The unpaid interest builds through the forbearance period and gets added to what you owe.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is Mortgage Forbearance? Ask your servicer exactly how interest will be handled under each repayment option before you agree to anything.
Escrow is the second cost that surprises people. Property taxes and homeowners insurance keep coming due, and if your servicer advances those payments for you, those advances join your past-due balance. When the servicer runs an escrow analysis after forbearance ends, a shortage can be spread over up to 60 months rather than collected in a lump sum.7Freddie Mac. Managing Escrow During a COVID-19 Related Hardship Even so, your monthly payment after forbearance will almost certainly be higher than before, because the escrow portion has to cover both ongoing costs and the accumulated shortage.
Credit reporting depends on your situation. Under the CARES Act, if you were current when you entered forbearance, the servicer must report the account as current for the duration of the accommodation. If the account was already delinquent, the servicer maintains the last reported status, and must update to current if you bring it current during forbearance.8Legal Information Institute. 15 USC 1681s-2 – Covered Period Outside the CARES Act context, reporting depends on the agreement and the servicer’s practices. Some use special comment codes that flag the account as in forbearance, which future lenders will see even without a delinquency. Ask your servicer in writing how they plan to report the account before you sign.
Forbearance also has a duration limit. For Fannie Mae-backed conventional loans, the standard maximum is a cumulative 12 months from the start of the initial plan. Anything longer requires Fannie Mae’s prior written approval, and when forbearance is combined with a repayment plan, the total period cannot exceed 36 months.9Fannie Mae. Forbearance Plan Most servicers grant forbearance in three-to-six-month increments and reassess. If your hardship persists, request an extension before the current period expires. Nothing renews automatically.
Paying It Back When Forbearance Ends
Forbearance pauses payments; it doesn’t erase them. Every dollar you didn’t pay is still owed. You don’t have to pay it back all at once, though. Your servicer should reach out roughly 30 days before the forbearance period ends to discuss the options.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Exit Your Forbearance Carefully
For loans backed by Fannie Mae, the standard options are:
- Reinstatement, paying the full past-due amount in a lump sum when forbearance ends.
- A repayment plan that spreads the missed amount over up to 12 months on top of your regular monthly payment.
- Payment deferral, which resumes your normal payment and pushes the past-due balance to the end of the loan, due when you sell, refinance, or pay off the mortgage.
- A loan modification that permanently changes the terms to make monthly payments more affordable, though it may extend the life of the loan.
A Note on Student Loan Forbearance
Federal student loan forbearance comes in two types. General (discretionary) forbearance is one your servicer may grant for financial hardship, but isn’t required to. Each period lasts up to 12 months and you can request more; Perkins Loans have a cumulative cap of three years, and for Direct and FFEL loans the servicer sets its own cumulative limit. Mandatory forbearance is one your servicer must grant if you meet specific criteria, such as serving in a qualifying internship, performing certain community service, or receiving cancer treatment.1Federal Student Aid. General Forbearance Request
The cost is steeper than many borrowers realize. Interest keeps accruing on all loan types during forbearance, and when forbearance ends that unpaid interest capitalizes, getting added to your principal balance. You then pay interest on a larger amount going forward. Before requesting forbearance on student loans, compare the cost against income-driven repayment plans, which may keep payments low without the interest capitalization.