To fill out Form 710, the Uniform Borrower Assistance Form, you first confirm Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owns your loan, then collect your income and asset documentation, complete the form’s five sections honestly, and send the package to your mortgage servicer with proof of delivery. The servicer uses what you submit to evaluate you for forbearance, a repayment plan, a payment deferral, a loan modification, or an alternative to foreclosure.
First, Confirm the Form Applies to Your Loan
Form 710 is only for mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. If your loan is backed by the FHA, VA, or USDA, those agencies run their own assistance processes and use their own forms. Submitting Form 710 on a government-insured loan wastes time you may not have.
Fannie Mae’s Loan Lookup Tool at yourhome.fanniemae.com asks for your name, property address, and the last four digits of your Social Security number.1Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae Loan Lookup Tool Freddie Mac’s tool at myhome.freddiemac.com uses the same inputs plus house number, street, city, state, and zip.2Freddie Mac. Loan Look-Up Tool Both tools are picky about typos and abbreviations. If neither returns a match, your loan may be held in a private portfolio or a private-label security; call your servicer and ask what application they use.
Gather Your Documents Before You Start
The single fastest way to derail a Form 710 is to submit it incomplete. A partial form, or one missing its required attachments, is not treated as a complete Borrower Response Package, which means the servicer isn’t obligated to act on it and the federal timeline protections don’t start running.3Fannie Mae. Receiving a Borrower Response Package Income documents must be no more than 90 days old when the servicer determines your package is complete.
What you need depends on your income type. The form lists required documents next to each income category.
- Wages or salary: your most recent pay stub showing at least 30 days of earnings, plus year-to-date figures if not on the stub. Two recent bank statements showing income deposits can substitute.
- Self-employment income: two recent bank statements showing business deposits, or a signed and dated quarterly or year-to-date profit and loss statement, or the most recent complete signed business or individual federal tax return. One of these is enough, not all.4Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 710 Mortgage Assistance Application
- Other income (Social Security, disability, rental, investment): payment statements or two recent bank statements showing the deposits.
The servicer may also ask you to sign IRS Form 4506-C, which lets them pull your tax transcripts directly. That request typically comes up when the income you report doesn’t line up with your documents, or when Fannie Mae specifically requires it.3Fannie Mae. Receiving a Borrower Response Package
If you’re in an active Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, your servicer can accept a copy of your bankruptcy schedules in place of the form, provided the schedules are no more than 90 days old.
Working Through the Five Sections
You can download the current form from your servicer’s website, the Freddie Mac Single-Family Guide portal, or the FHFA site.5Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 710 Mortgage Assistance Application The form has five sections, each collecting a distinct piece of the picture.
Section 1: Borrower Identification
Enter your name, the last four digits of your Social Security number, email address, and phone numbers. If there’s a co-borrower on the loan, their information goes in the adjacent column. The form asks you to label each phone as cell, home, work, or other. Give a number you actually answer, because the servicer will use it to chase missing documents or deliver a decision.4Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 710 Mortgage Assistance Application
Section 2: Hardship Information
This is where you explain what happened. Enter the approximate date the hardship began and indicate whether it’s short-term (up to six months), long-term or permanent (greater than six months), or already resolved.5Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 710 Mortgage Assistance Application Then check every hardship type from the list that applies:
- Unemployment
- Reduction in income (lost overtime, cut hours, lower base pay)
- Increase in housing-related expenses (uninsured damage, property tax increase, HOA special assessment)
- Natural or man-made disaster affecting the property or your workplace
- Long-term disability or serious illness of a borrower or dependent family member
- Divorce or legal separation
- Death of a borrower or wage earner
- Distant employment transfer or relocation
- Other, with a space to explain
The duration you pick steers the outcome. A short-term hardship points the servicer toward forbearance or a repayment plan. A long-term or permanent hardship points toward a modification or a non-retention option like a short sale. Be accurate about the timeline; if the servicer’s review turns up evidence that contradicts what you wrote, the application is in trouble.
Section 3: Property Information
Indicate whether the property is your primary residence, a second home, or an investment property.5Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 710 Mortgage Assistance Application You’ll also disclose whether the property is listed for sale, whether you’re in bankruptcy, and whether the home is occupied or vacant. If someone other than the original borrower now owns the property through inheritance, divorce, or another qualifying transfer, that person is a successor in interest and can apply by providing documents such as a death certificate or divorce decree establishing how they received the property.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.31 – Definitions
Section 4: Income and Assets
The current form uses an income grid and an assets section. There is no expense section. For income, list every source (wages, self-employment, Social Security, rental income, investment income, alimony or child support if you want it considered) with the monthly dollar amount. The grid tells you what documentation to attach for each type.4Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 710 Mortgage Assistance Application
For assets, list checking, savings, money market funds, CDs, and non-retirement stocks and bonds. The form specifically excludes retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs and college savings accounts like 529 plans. Don’t inflate the numbers and don’t leave them blank. The servicer cross-references what you write against your bank statements.
Section 5: Documentation Checklist
The last section is a checklist confirming which documents you’ve attached. Walk through it item by item before signing. A missing attachment is what pushes a package back to “incomplete” and restarts the clock on every federal protection.
Submitting the Application
The top of Form 710 lists your servicer’s submission options: mail, fax, or online upload.5Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 710 Mortgage Assistance Application Whichever method you use, get proof of delivery. Save or screenshot the confirmation page for online uploads. For mail, use certified with return receipt; the receipt date establishes when the federal timeline starts. Fax confirmations work too, if you keep the transmission report showing the date, time, and page count.
If a foreclosure has already been scheduled, timing is decisive. A complete application received more than 37 days before a scheduled foreclosure sale triggers protections that can stop the sale. An application received inside that 37-day window may arrive too late for those protections to apply. Don’t wait.
What Happens After You Submit
Federal regulation sets the clock. If the servicer receives your application 45 or more days before a foreclosure sale, they must send a written acknowledgment within five business days stating whether the package is complete or incomplete and listing any missing items.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures If something is missing, send it the same day if you can. Every day counts.
Once the package is complete, the servicer has 30 days to evaluate you for every available loss mitigation option and send a written determination explaining what they’ll offer or why they denied you.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures You don’t have to pick a program upfront on the form; the servicer runs the numbers across the programs you might qualify for and presents the results in one letter.
A complete application also activates foreclosure protections. If a foreclosure has been filed but the sale is more than 37 days away, the servicer cannot move for a foreclosure judgment or conduct a sale while your application is being evaluated. The sale can only proceed after the servicer denies you, you reject the offered options, or you fail to perform under an agreed plan.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures If no foreclosure has been filed, the servicer cannot start one while a complete application is pending.
If the Servicer Denies You
A denial letter must state the reasons and explain your appeal rights. You have 14 days from the date the servicer sends the determination to file an appeal.8eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures The servicer then has 30 days to review and respond in writing.
Common denial reasons are incomplete documentation, income that doesn’t fit a program’s requirements, or a property value that makes the modification math unworkable. If the reason was missing documents, you may be able to submit a new complete application, but if foreclosure has started, the timeline pressure is real.
Free Help From a HUD-Approved Housing Counselor
You don’t have to do this alone. HUD-approved housing counseling agencies give free or low-cost advice on defaults, forbearance, foreclosure, and credit issues. A counselor can review your Form 710 before you submit it, help organize your documents, and communicate with your servicer on your behalf.9Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Find a Housing Counselor Find one through the CFPB’s search tool at consumerfinance.gov, or ask your servicer for a referral. Since incomplete packages are the leading cause of delays, a second set of eyes on your packet before it goes out is worth the call.