How to Complete and Submit the FHA Imminent Default Attestation Form

The FHA imminent default certification is a short signed statement you give your mortgage servicer declaring, under penalty of perjury, that a specific financial hardship will prevent you from making your next FHA-insured mortgage payment even though you are currently caught up or less than 30 days late. Filing it opens the door to FHA loss mitigation before you actually miss a payment. Under HUD’s current rules, you do not need to submit tax returns, pay stubs, or a detailed financial worksheet — the certification, a brief description of the hardship, and your occupancy status are the core of what your servicer needs to start an evaluation.¹

Who Can File

Two conditions have to be true at the same time. Your FHA-insured mortgage must be current or fewer than 30 days past due, and you must be experiencing a reduction in income or another hardship that will stop you from making the next required payment during the month it comes due.¹

HUD does not publish an exhaustive list of qualifying hardships. The certification language covers any “reduction in income or other hardship,” which in practice reaches situations like:

Job loss, reduced hours, or the loss of overtime or commission income your budget depended on.
Death or disability of a household earner.
Large unexpected expenses such as a medical emergency or major home repair that has drained your reserves.
Divorce or separation that leaves a two-income household running on one.
Military deployment or a PCS move that has changed your financial picture.

The hardship has to be real and identifiable, not speculative. “I might lose my job next quarter” does not meet the standard. “My employer eliminated my position effective last Friday” does.

What the Certification Actually Says

There is no standalone government form for the borrower to fill out. Older references to Form HUD-92068-A are incorrect; that form is the Monthly Delinquent Loan Report, an internal servicer document used to report loans that are 90 or more days delinquent to HUD.² Borrowers do not sign it.

What you sign is a certification statement. HUD requires servicers to obtain the following language from you, either electronically or on paper:

“I am/We are experiencing a reduction in income or the following hardship(s) that will prevent me/us from making the next required Mortgage Payment due on [date] during the month that it is due: [description of hardship]. I/We, the undersigned, certify under penalty of perjury that the information provided above is true and correct.”¹

Some servicers embed this language inside their own loss mitigation application. Others provide it as a standalone document. The substance is identical either way: your name, the due date of the payment you cannot make, a description of the hardship, and your signature.

The perjury language is not filler. A false certification on a federally insured mortgage can be prosecuted as a materially false statement under federal law, so the description you give needs to be accurate.³

Writing the Hardship Description

Keep it factual and specific. Name the event, when it happened, and how it affects your ability to pay. Something like: “I was laid off from my position at [employer] on [date]. My household income dropped from $X to $Y per month, and my mortgage payment of $Z is no longer affordable.” One or two sentences are enough if they carry the essential facts. Skip vague language and long emotional narratives.

What to Have Ready Before You Contact Your Servicer

Under the current FHA framework, borrowers are not required to submit detailed financial documentation to be evaluated. The servicer needs three things: the reason for the hardship, your occupancy status (whether you still live in the home), and, where relevant, documentation tied to military service or your status as a successor-in-interest to the property.

Having a few basics organized before you call or log in will move things along:

Your FHA case number, which appears on your closing documents and monthly statement and is different from your loan number.
Your servicer’s loss mitigation contact information, printed on your monthly statement under a heading such as “loss mitigation” or “foreclosure prevention.”
A clear timeline of the hardship. When did you lose income? When does severance end? When did the medical event occur?
Proof of the hardship event itself. HUD does not require extensive financial records, but the servicer still has to verify the hardship. A termination letter, death certificate, medical bill, or divorce filing lets the servicer confirm your claim and move the file forward.

If you are not sure who services your FHA loan, check your most recent mortgage statement or call the MERS ServicerID line at 1-888-679-6377.

How and Where to Submit

Send the certification and any supporting documents directly to your servicer’s loss mitigation department. Not to HUD. Not to FHA. Not to general customer service. Most servicers accept three routes:

The online portal, usually the fastest. Major servicers have a dedicated loss mitigation section where you can upload documents and track status.
Fax, still widely accepted. The loss mitigation fax number is normally on your monthly statement or on the servicer’s website under “hardship” or “workout.”
Certified mail, slower but with a verified paper trail. Send it return receipt requested, and address it to the loss mitigation department specifically, not the payment processing address.

Whichever route you use, keep a copy of everything and note the date you sent it. Servicer systems lose documents more often than borrowers expect, and being able to resend the same day prevents weeks of delay.

What Happens After You Submit

Federal Regulation X sets the clock. Within five days of receiving your application (excluding weekends and federal holidays), your servicer must send you written notice acknowledging receipt and telling you whether the application is complete or incomplete. If anything is missing, the notice must list exactly what you still need to provide.⁴

Once the application is complete, the servicer has 30 days to evaluate you for every loss mitigation option you qualify for and send a written determination. That notice identifies which options the servicer will offer, how long you have to accept or reject them, and, if a loan modification was denied, whether you have the right to appeal.⁵

Respond quickly to any request for additional information. A servicer can deny an application for non-cooperation if you miss the deadline in the notice. If you are assigned a single point of contact, use that person as your primary channel to keep the file from stalling between departments.

Options Your Servicer Must Evaluate You For

The old FHA-HAMP program is no longer active. The current FHA home retention options that your servicer must consider include:⁶

Forbearance, a temporary pause or reduction in monthly payments while you recover from the hardship, with a plan to repay the missed amounts afterward.
A repayment plan that spreads the past-due amount across future payments so you gradually catch up.
A standalone partial claim, in which HUD places the past-due amount into a separate, interest-free lien you do not repay until you sell, refinance, pay off the loan, or transfer title.
A loan modification that permanently changes one or more terms — typically interest rate, term, or both — to bring the payment to an affordable level.
A combination modification and partial claim that uses both tools together to lower the payment and resolve arrears.
A payment supplement, in which a partial claim brings the loan current and a monthly principal reduction is applied for 36 months to temporarily lower what you owe each month.⁷

If your servicer approves one of these options, you will normally have to complete a three-month trial payment plan first. During the trial, you make the adjusted payments on time for three consecutive months, and successful completion converts the offer into a permanent resolution. Successors-in-interest complete a six-month trial plan instead.

If Your Application Is Denied

A denial is not always the end. Under Regulation X, if the servicer denies you for a loan modification, you have the right to appeal, and the written determination must tell you how long you have to file and what is required. Appeal windows are short, often 14 days, so read the notice the day it arrives.⁴

Regulation X does not require servicers to offer any particular option. It requires them to evaluate you for what is available and to follow the procedural rules; which options they extend is their discretion. If you believe the servicer violated a procedural requirement — failed to acknowledge the application, missed the 30-day evaluation window, or moved toward foreclosure while a complete application was pending — you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or pursue a claim under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

If the denial was procedural because the application was incomplete, ask exactly what was missing, provide it, and resubmit. An incomplete application is not a final denial.

Getting Free Help

HUD-approved housing counseling agencies give free or low-cost advice on default, forbearance, foreclosure prevention, and loss mitigation applications. A counselor can walk through your options, help you communicate with the servicer, and confirm your certification package is complete before you send it. Find an agency through the CFPB’s housing counselor search tool at consumerfinance.gov/find-a-housing-counselor or by calling HUD’s housing counseling line at 1-800-569-4287.⁸

1
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mortgagee Letter 2025-12
2
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Chapter 7 – Delinquencies/Defaults
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
5
eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
6
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHA’s Loss Mitigation Program
7
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mortgagee Letter 2024-02
8
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Find a Housing Counselor