To fill out Form 710, the Uniform Borrower Assistance Form, work through all four pages in order, answer every field (using “N/A” where a question doesn’t apply), report gross income and honest expenses, choose the hardship category that matches your situation, sign the Dodd-Frank certification, and attach the supporting documents your income type requires before sending the package to your servicer’s loss mitigation address. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac created the form as the standard intake for loan modifications, forbearance, short sales, and other workout options, and you can download it from the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s website or your servicer’s portal.1Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 710 Uniform Borrower Assistance Form The form itself is short; what determines whether it moves forward is the accuracy of what you report and the documents you attach.
Confirm Form 710 Applies to Your Loan
Form 710 was designed for mortgages owned or backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Your monthly statement won’t tell you who owns the loan, because the servicer you pay is often a different entity from the investor holding the note. Two free tools give you an answer in a minute:
- Fannie Mae’s Loan Lookup at yourhome.fanniemae.com asks for your name, property address, and the last four digits of your Social Security number.2Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae Loan Lookup Tool
- Freddie Mac’s lookup at myhome.freddiemac.com asks for your address and the last four of your SSN.3Freddie Mac. Loan Look-Up Tool
If neither tool finds your loan, call your servicer’s loss mitigation department. Many servicers accept Form 710 regardless of who owns the loan because it has become the industry standard intake form.
Work Through the Form Section by Section
The form runs about four pages. Complete every field or mark it “N/A.” Blanks are the single most common reason applications come back as incomplete.
Borrower Information
Open with the property details: whether the home is your primary residence, a second home, or an investment property; whether you want to keep it, sell it, or haven’t decided; whether it’s owner-occupied, renter-occupied, or vacant; and whether it’s currently listed for sale. If you have a real estate agent, include their name and phone number.
Then list every borrower on the note with full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, phone numbers, mailing address, and the property address. Co-borrower details go in the adjacent column. The form also asks whether you’ve worked with a HUD-approved credit counseling agency (optional, but list the counselor if so), whether you’ve filed for bankruptcy (chapter, filing date, and case number), and your military service status.4INB. Borrower Assistance Form
Income, Expenses, and Assets
This is where most errors happen. List every source of monthly household income: gross wages, tips, commissions, self-employment income, Social Security or disability, unemployment benefits, child support or alimony received, food stamps or welfare, and any other income. Report gross figures, not net. If income is non-taxable, the servicer adjusts the number during underwriting, so don’t do that math yourself.
For expenses, list your first and second mortgage payments, homeowner’s insurance, property taxes, HOA or condo fees, credit card minimums, car payments, child support or alimony you pay, and food and other living costs. These numbers drive the debt-to-income ratio the servicer uses to decide which options fit. Understating expenses backfires: the servicer compares what you report against your bank statements, and any mismatch triggers a request for clarification that stalls the file.
Under assets, report balances in checking, savings, CDs, stocks, bonds, and cash on hand. If you own other real estate, list its estimated value. Disclose any other liens on the property with the lienholder’s name, balance, interest rate, and loan number.4INB. Borrower Assistance Form
Hardship Affidavit
Select the reason for your financial difficulty from the form’s list, then write a short explanation. The standard categories are unemployment; reduction in income (lost overtime, cut hours, lower pay); increase in housing expenses (higher taxes, insurance, or an adjustable-rate reset); divorce or legal separation; death of a borrower or wage earner; long-term or permanent disability or serious illness of a borrower, co-borrower, or dependent; disaster affecting the property or workplace; distant employment transfer or relocation; business failure; or other.
You’ll also indicate whether the hardship is short-term (under six months), medium-term (six to twelve months), or long-term or permanent (more than twelve months). Be honest about duration. A servicer evaluating you for a permanent modification needs to know the problem isn’t resolving next month; a short-term forbearance fits a short-term hardship better.5Mr. Cooper. Uniform Borrower Assistance Form
Keep the written explanation to two to four sentences describing what happened, when it started, and how it affects your ability to pay. Servicers read thousands of these. Specific facts (“I was laid off in March 2026 and unemployment benefits cover about 60% of my prior income”) work far better than emotional appeals.
Dodd-Frank Certification
Near the end you’ll sign a certification under penalty of perjury that you have not been convicted within the last ten years of a felony larceny, theft, fraud, forgery, money laundering, or tax evasion charge in connection with a real estate transaction. A conviction for any of these disqualifies you from certain federal mortgage assistance programs, and the servicer may run a background check to verify the statement.6New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. Dodd-Frank Certification False information on the form can result in federal fraud charges.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC Chapter 47 – Fraud and False Statements
Documents To Attach
The form alone isn’t enough. Fannie Mae’s servicing guide requires that income documentation be no more than 90 days old when the servicer first determines your package is complete. For borrowers affected by a disaster, that window extends to 180 days.8Fannie Mae. Receiving a Borrower Response Package – Servicing Guide
What to include depends on your income type:
- Wage earners: your two most recent pay stubs showing year-to-date earnings.
- Self-employed borrowers: a signed and dated profit and loss statement, plus your most recent tax returns with all schedules.
- Other income: benefit award letters for Social Security or disability, lease agreements for rental income, divorce decrees or court orders for alimony or child support, and unemployment benefit statements.
- Tax returns: your most recent federal returns with all schedules. The servicer may also require you to sign IRS Form 4506-C so it can pull tax transcripts directly if anything looks inconsistent.8Fannie Mae. Receiving a Borrower Response Package – Servicing Guide
- Bank statements: the two most recent monthly statements for every checking and savings account, showing your name and account number.
- Hardship documentation: proof that matches the category you selected — a layoff letter, medical bills, a death certificate, a divorce decree, or an insurance claim for property damage.
If someone who isn’t on the note contributes to the mortgage payment and you want that income counted, the servicer can include it, but only if that person lives in the home as their primary residence and you document their income the same way you document your own.8Fannie Mae. Receiving a Borrower Response Package – Servicing Guide This comes up when an adult child or partner helps but isn’t on the loan.
How To Submit the Package
The form’s header has a blank space where your servicer fills in its mailing address, fax number, and online upload portal before distributing it.1Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 710 Uniform Borrower Assistance Form Most servicers now accept submissions through a secure portal, which gives you instant confirmation the file arrived. If you mail the package, use certified mail with return receipt requested so you have proof of the delivery date. Fax works too; save the transmission confirmation page.
Before sending anything, copy the completed form and every attachment. Lost documents are among the most common complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about servicers, and keeping your own set means you can resubmit the same day rather than rebuild the file from scratch.
Confirm you’re using the servicer’s loss mitigation address, not the payment processing address. Sending it to the wrong place adds weeks of internal routing.
What the Servicer Must Do After You Submit
Federal loss mitigation rules set specific deadlines. Within five days (excluding weekends and federal holidays) of receiving your package, the servicer must send written notice acknowledging receipt and stating whether the application is complete. If it’s incomplete, the notice must list exactly what’s missing.9eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures Respond fast, because the evaluation clock doesn’t start until the file is complete.
Once complete, the servicer has 30 days to evaluate you for every loss mitigation option available and send written notice of its decision, including which options it will offer, how long you have to accept, and whether you have the right to appeal.10eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
If you’re denied a loan modification, you have 14 days from the date the servicer sends the determination to file an appeal. The servicer then has 30 days to review and respond in writing.10eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures The 14-day window is tight. A strong appeal points to something specific: new income documentation, a corrected figure, or a miscalculated debt-to-income ratio.
Timing Matters for Foreclosure Protection
Filing a complete Form 710 triggers real legal protections. Federal law bars your servicer from starting foreclosure until you’re more than 120 days behind.11Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures After that, when you submit changes what the servicer can do:
- If you submit a complete application before the servicer files the initial foreclosure notice, the servicer cannot begin foreclosure until it has evaluated the application, notified you of the decision, and resolved any appeal.11Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
- If you submit after foreclosure has been filed but at least 37 days before the scheduled sale, the servicer cannot move for a foreclosure judgment or conduct the sale while your application is under review or an appeal is pending.11Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
- If you submit within 37 days of a scheduled sale, the servicer isn’t required to halt the sale under these rules, though it still must evaluate the application under its own policies.
Submit early. The further you are from a sale date, the stronger your protections.
Mistakes That Get Applications Returned
The applications that stall almost always share the same problems:
- Blank fields. Every field needs an answer or “N/A.”
- Stale documents. Income documentation older than 90 days when the servicer reviews it won’t count. If your file sits in a queue, pay stubs you submitted at the start can expire; ask the servicer whether anything needs to be refreshed.
- Mismatched numbers. Reported income that doesn’t line up with pay stubs or bank deposits triggers a request for explanation and may prompt the servicer to require IRS Form 4506-C to pull your transcripts.8Fannie Mae. Receiving a Borrower Response Package – Servicing Guide
- Missing hardship documentation. Checking “unemployment” without a termination letter or benefit statement leaves the servicer without verification. Match every category you check with a document.
- Wrong submission address. Loss mitigation and payment processing are usually different addresses.
If the application is returned as incomplete, the five-day acknowledgment clock resets when you resubmit. Every round trip costs time you may not have if foreclosure is advancing.
One Tax Point To Know
Not every modification affects your taxes. Lowering the interest rate or extending the term doesn’t create a taxable event. But if the servicer reduces the principal balance, the forgiven amount is generally treated as taxable income and reported on IRS Form 1099-C. The insolvency exclusion lets you exclude canceled debt to the extent your total liabilities exceeded the fair market value of your total assets immediately before the cancellation; you claim it on IRS Form 982. A separate exclusion for qualified principal residence indebtedness applied to discharges through December 31, 2025, capped at $750,000 ($375,000 if married filing separately); for modifications finalized in 2026 or later, that exclusion has expired and the insolvency exclusion is the primary remaining path.12Internal Revenue Service. Publication 4681 (2025), Canceled Debts, Foreclosures, Repossessions, and Abandonments If principal reduction is on the table, plan for the tax question before you sign.