The non-borrower financial contribution form is a document your mortgage servicer provides so a household member who is not on the loan can pledge their income toward your modified mortgage payment. You use it when your own income falls short of the debt-to-income requirements for a loan modification and a spouse, partner, parent, or adult child living with you agrees to help cover the payment. It travels with the rest of your loss mitigation package.
Where the Form Comes From
Your servicer issues this form. It is not a government document, and there is no universal version. Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and other large servicers each publish their own layout, but the fields and the legal commitments track closely across the industry.
Most servicers include the form in the loss mitigation packet they send after you request mortgage assistance, available through their online portal or by calling the loss mitigation department. Some only add it once you tell them a non-borrower will contribute income, so if it is not in your packet, call and ask for it by name. A generic letter or affidavit will not substitute; underwriting needs the servicer’s own form to process the contribution.
What the Contributor Fills In
The contributor completes and signs the form themselves. A borrower cannot sign on their behalf. Every entry needs to match the contributor’s identification, because the servicer will cross-check it against pay records, tax filings, and a credit report pull.
Expect the form to ask for:
- Full legal name, exactly as it appears on the contributor’s Social Security card, including any suffix.
- The property address, with any apartment or unit number, confirming the contributor lives there.
- Date of birth in MM/DD/YYYY format.
- Social Security number, used for income verification and the credit report authorization.
- Primary employment start date in MM/DD/YYYY format.
- Signature and date.
The employment start date matters more than it looks. Servicers weigh whether the contributor’s income is stable and ongoing, so someone who started a job two weeks ago will draw closer scrutiny than someone with a year or more on the job. Recent hiring is not automatically disqualifying, but the supporting documents will have to carry more weight.
What the Contributor Is Agreeing To
Signing is not a soft promise. On a typical servicer form, the contributor certifies that they live at the borrower’s primary residence, that they will contribute to household expenses and mortgage payments each month, and that they will keep doing so “for the foreseeable future.”1Wells Fargo. Non-Borrower Financial Contribution Form The form also warns that any misrepresentation will be referred to law enforcement for investigation.
Credit Report Authorization
Most versions include a clause letting the servicer pull the contributor’s credit. Wells Fargo’s form states the servicer “may access my credit report to support this application.”1Wells Fargo. Non-Borrower Financial Contribution Form The pull confirms the contributor’s address and helps the servicer decide whether their income can be counted in the modification review. It is not optional language you can strike through, so the contributor should go in knowing about it.
FHA Loans and Personal Liability
If your mortgage is an FHA loan, the commitment goes further. Under the FHA Home Affordable Modification Program, each non-borrower whose income is used to qualify for the modification must assume personal liability for the modified loan and sign the permanent modification documents.2Bank of America. FHA Mortgage Assistance Application That assumption takes effect only after the trial period is completed and the permanent modification is executed, but once it does, the contributor is personally on the hook for the debt. For conventional loans, the assumption requirement generally does not apply, though the ongoing financial commitment on the form still stands.
Documents to Submit With the Form
The form on its own will not carry the application. The servicer needs proof that the contributor’s income is real, stable, and sufficient to support the contribution amount you have written down. Plan to include:
- At least 30 consecutive days of recent pay stubs showing year-to-date earnings.
- The two most recent years of complete, signed federal tax returns, with every schedule and attachment.
- For self-employment income, a signed and dated year-to-date profit and loss statement plus business bank statements for the same period.
- For Social Security, disability, pension, or unemployment income, the benefits statement or award letter showing the amount and duration.
- Two months of consecutive, complete bank statements for all open accounts. Transaction history printouts do not qualify; the servicer wants the actual statements showing account ownership.
Bank statements do two jobs. They verify income deposits, and they show whether money is actually moving from the contributor to the borrower or toward the mortgage. If the form says the contribution is $1,200 a month but the statements show nothing close to that, the underwriter will flag the inconsistency. Match the number on the form to what the records can actually support, and use a round monthly figure the pay stubs can back up.
A few small things reject packages more than they should. Missing pages from a bank statement or a tax return will bounce the whole document, so include every page, blank ones included. An unsigned form goes back without review. If the credit report authorization is on a separate line, that line needs its own signature.
How to Submit the Package
Send the completed form and the supporting documents through your servicer’s preferred channel. Most large servicers have a secure online portal where uploads get a digital timestamp, and that is the fastest and cleanest route. If you cannot upload, fax the packet to the loss mitigation department and keep the confirmation page, or use certified mail with return receipt. Either way, keep a full copy for yourself. Servicers lose documents, and having your own set lets you resubmit without starting over.
Federal rules give the servicer five business days after receiving your loss mitigation application to send written acknowledgment telling you whether it is complete or what is missing.3eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures If something is missing, respond fast. An incomplete application sits in limbo and does not shield you from foreclosure proceedings.
What Happens After You Submit
Once the servicer treats the application as complete, meaning the non-borrower form, the income documents, the hardship letter, and every other required item are in, the servicer has 30 days to evaluate you for every available loss mitigation option and send a written decision.3eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures The review considers combined household income, yours plus the contributor’s, against the requirements of the modification programs the loan qualifies for.
Do not assume silence during those 30 days means everything is fine. Watch your mail and the servicer’s portal. Underwriters often ask for updated pay stubs when the ones on file start to age out, and a request for more documents is a sign the file is being worked, not denied.
Foreclosure Protections While You Wait
A complete loss mitigation application submitted before the servicer starts foreclosure blocks the servicer from initiating foreclosure while the application is under review. If foreclosure has already started but the sale is more than 37 days away, the servicer cannot move for a foreclosure judgment or conduct a sale during the review.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures These protections fall away if you reject the offered options or fail to follow through on an agreed plan.
The Trial Period Follows
Approval does not go straight to a permanent new loan. The servicer puts you on a trial period plan first, meaning you make the proposed modified payments for at least three consecutive months. The payment amount reflects the new, lower figure that the combined household income is expected to support, which is where the contributor’s commitment gets tested. If a scheduled trial payment is not made within 15 days of its due date, the plan is considered broken.5U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mortgagee Letter 2011-28 – Trial Payment Plan Completing all trial payments leads to the permanent modification, and for FHA loans that is the moment the contributor formally assumes liability on the modified note.
A Note on Gift Tax for Contributors
Money a non-borrower puts toward someone else’s mortgage can count as a gift for tax purposes. The IRS defines a gift as any transfer to an individual where the giver does not receive full value in return, and a household member paying on a home they do not own fits that description.6Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions on Gift Taxes
For 2026, the annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient.7Internal Revenue Service. Gifts and Inheritances Contributions to the borrower that stay below that amount in a calendar year do not require a gift tax return. Above it, the contributor files IRS Form 709, though actual tax typically is not owed until the lifetime exemption is exceeded. Most monthly contributions land well under the annual exclusion, but a contributor helping cover a large payment on an expensive property should run the numbers with a tax professional.