How to Get and Complete the Freedom Mortgage Hardship Assistance Form

The Freedom Mortgage hardship assistance form is the Hardship Assistance Request you file when you can’t keep up with your mortgage and need the servicer to evaluate you for relief. Download it by logging into your Freedom Mortgage account, opening the Help Center, and selecting Forms. Submit the completed package by email to LossMitigation@FreedomMortgage.com or by fax to 866-505-0949.¹ Filing it starts a formal loss mitigation review, the process the servicer uses to decide whether to offer you a modified payment, a temporary pause, or another option to keep your home.

Where to Get the Form

The Hardship Assistance Request lives inside your online Freedom Mortgage account. Log in, select Help Center, then Forms, and download the document.² If you don’t have online access or want a paper copy, call the loss mitigation line at 855-690-5900 and request one by mail.³

The document is a version of the Mortgage Assistance Application used across the industry. It captures your household income, expenses, assets, and the nature of your hardship in a standardized format the servicer uses to match your situation against available programs.

Hardships That Qualify

The servicer needs to see that a specific event outside your control caused, or is about to cause, you to fall behind. Common qualifying situations include:

Job loss, reduced hours, or a documented drop in self-employment revenue.³
Death of a spouse, co-borrower, or other household member whose income helped cover the mortgage.
Serious illness or injury that generates large bills or prevents you from working.³
Divorce or separation that removes a contributing income.
Property damage or income disruption from a presidentially declared disaster. For FHA-insured loans, a disaster declaration can lift the usual 24-month waiting period between loss mitigation options.⁴

What the reviewer looks for is a direct link between the event and your inability to pay. A one-time expense like a car repair won’t clear the bar. Long-term or permanent changes to your finances are what drive approvals.

Documents to Gather Before You Start

Assemble everything first. A missing item can stall the review, and the 30-day evaluation clock doesn’t start until your file is complete. Freedom Mortgage’s checklist breaks down by income type.³

If You Are Employed

The most recent 30 days of pay stubs showing year-to-date income, for every job in the household.
Your most recent complete federal tax return with all schedules and attachments, including W-2s or 1099s.
Two months of statements for every checking and savings account, all pages included, even blank ones.

If You Are Self-Employed

A current-year profit and loss statement, signed and dated.
Two months of personal and business checking and savings statements, all pages included.
The most recent complete business tax return with all schedules and attachments.

Other Income

For Social Security, pension, disability, unemployment, rental, or similar non-wage income, include a copy of the benefit statement or award letter. For rental income, provide either Schedule E from your most recent tax return or a current signed lease.

Hardship Letter

A signed, dated hardship letter is part of the required package. Keep it short: what happened, when, and how it affected your ability to pay. Tie the explanation directly to the income drop or expense increase visible in your bank statements and pay stubs. The letter gives context that the numbers alone don’t convey.

Filling Out the Form

The form asks for your personal details, the hardship description, monthly income from all sources, monthly expenses, and assets. Every figure needs to match your supporting documents. If your pay stubs show $4,200 a month and you write $4,500 on the form, that single discrepancy can trigger a delay or a denial.

List all household occupants and every income source, even small ones. The servicer cross-references what you report against tax returns and bank deposits, so leaving something off looks worse than disclosing a modest side income. For expenses, include credit card minimums, car payments, student loans, insurance premiums, child care, and property taxes. If you pay property taxes and insurance through escrow, those figures are on your most recent mortgage statement.

Sign and date every signature line. The application includes an authorization letting the servicer verify your financial information and pull a credit report. An unsigned form will come back as incomplete.

How to Submit the Package

Put the completed, signed form at the front, followed by the hardship letter, then your financial records. Submit by one of these channels:

Email: LossMitigation@FreedomMortgage.com
Fax: 866-505-0949

Both come from Freedom Mortgage’s own contact page.¹ If you fax, keep the transmission confirmation. If you email, save the sent message and any delivery receipt. That record matters if a dispute later arises about when you submitted.

Freedom Mortgage’s site doesn’t indicate that loss mitigation documents can be uploaded through the online portal. The portal is where you download the form, not where you send it back. To confirm whether other submission methods have opened up, call 855-690-5900.

What Happens After You Submit

Federal rules under Regulation X set deadlines the servicer must follow once your application arrives.

Within five business days of receipt, the servicer must send you a written notice confirming it got the application and telling you whether it is complete or incomplete. If it’s incomplete, the notice must list exactly what’s missing.⁵ Respond fast, because the 30-day evaluation clock doesn’t start until the file is complete.

Once the application is complete, the servicer has 30 days to evaluate you for every available loss mitigation option and send a written decision.⁶ The letter will either offer one or more options or explain why you don’t qualify. If you’re approved for a modification or partial claim, the servicer will typically require a trial period of consecutive monthly payments at the proposed new amount before making the change permanent.⁷

Relief Options You May Be Offered

What’s on the table depends on who owns your loan (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, or a private investor). Most borrowers see some combination of:

Forbearance. A temporary pause or reduction in payments, usually three to twelve months. Your loan terms don’t change; you still owe the skipped amounts and repay them later through a lump sum, installments, or by adding them to the end of the loan.
Loan modification. A permanent change to your loan terms to lower the monthly payment. The servicer might reduce the interest rate, extend the repayment period, or both.
Partial claim, for FHA loans. Past-due amounts move into an interest-free subordinate lien on the property. You don’t repay that lien until you sell, refinance, pay off the mortgage, or transfer title.⁴
Repayment plan. If you’ve missed a few payments but can now afford more than the regular amount, the servicer spreads the past-due balance over several months on top of your normal payment.

For FHA-insured loans, you can only receive one permanent home retention option (partial claim, modification, or combination) within any 24-month period, unless a presidentially declared disaster applies.⁴

Foreclosure Protection While Your Application Is Pending

Federal law limits how a servicer can proceed with foreclosure while a loss mitigation application is under review. Under Regulation X, the servicer cannot make the first foreclosure filing until your loan is more than 120 days delinquent. If you submit a complete application before that filing happens, the servicer cannot move forward with foreclosure unless it has fully evaluated you, denied you for all options, and your appeal period has expired or been exhausted.⁸

If foreclosure has already begun, submitting a complete application more than 37 days before a scheduled sale blocks the servicer from conducting the sale until the same conditions are met.⁸ The word that carries the weight in both scenarios is “complete.” An incomplete application does not trigger these protections. That is why getting every required document together before you submit matters.

Appealing a Denial

If the servicer denies you for a loan modification, you can appeal, but the window is short. File within 14 days after the servicer sends the decision letter.⁵ Different personnel review the appeal, and the servicer must respond in writing within 30 days.

The appeal right only applies if the servicer received your complete application at least 90 days before a scheduled foreclosure sale.⁵ The earlier you file, the more protections you keep.

Tax and Credit Effects to Know Before You Accept

Relief can carry side effects. Two matter most.

How a modification shows up on your credit report depends on how the servicer codes it. Some report modifications with labels like “restructured,” which tends to have a milder impact. Others report the account as settled for less than the full balance, which hits harder and can stay on the report for up to seven years. Ask Freedom Mortgage directly how they plan to report your modification before you accept the terms.

If any part of your mortgage balance is forgiven as part of a modification or short sale, the IRS generally treats the canceled amount as taxable income.⁹ Your servicer would issue a Form 1099-C showing the forgiven amount, and you’d report it on your return for the year the cancellation occurred. For recourse debt, where you’re personally liable for the full balance, the taxable amount is the forgiven debt minus the property’s fair market value. For nonrecourse debt, there’s generally no ordinary income from the cancellation. Talk with a tax professional about whether any exclusion applies to your situation in the year the debt is forgiven.

1
Freedom Mortgage. Contact Customer Service
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Freedom Mortgage. Frequently Asked Questions
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Freedom Mortgage. Need Help with Your Mortgage Payments
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U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHA’s Loss Mitigation Program
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eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
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eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
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U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mortgagee Letter 2011-28 – Trial Payment Plan for Loan Modifications and Partial Claims
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
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Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 431, Canceled Debt – Is It Taxable or Not?