If you fall behind on your mortgage payments, your mortgage servicer (the company that handles collecting the money for your lender) can take your house to cover the money owed. This process is called foreclosure. Find out how our VA loan technicians can help you avoid foreclosure and keep your house.
We’re calling for a targeted pause on foreclosures through December 31, 2024
We’re calling on mortgage servicers to extend a targeted pause on foreclosures of VA-backed home loans, with certain exceptions, throughDecember 31, 2024. During this pause, we’ll work with servicers to find ways to help Veterans and survivors stay in their homes until servicers can determine if an option for avoiding foreclosure, including VASP, will work for them.
Learn more about the VASP program
Can I get VA counseling to help avoid foreclosure?
- If you’re a Veteran or the surviving spouse of a Veteran, we’ll provide counseling—even if your loan isn’t a VA-guaranteed loan.
- If you have a VA-guaranteed loan, you can contact us anytime to discuss your loan.
- If you have a VA-guaranteed loan and it’s 61 days past due, we’ll automatically assign a VA loan technician to review your loan.
What should I do if I’m having trouble paying my mortgage?
If you’re having trouble making your mortgage payments, contact your loan servicer right away. They will work with you to try to find a solution to your situation.
If you’re nervous about contacting your servicer, or if you’d like our help and advice, please contact a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702. You can also send us a message online through our home loan guaranty support portal.
Go to our Loan Guaranty Support portal
Be careful of potential scams
If you’re behind on your mortgage payments, contact us or the servicer of your mortgage to get help. And be careful of scams. Work only with trusted organizations.
How can I avoid foreclosure?
There are 6 general ways you can try to avoid a foreclosure.Our VA loan technicians can help you figure out which option is best for you. Contact a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702.
These are your options for trying to avoid foreclosure:
- Repayment plan: If you’ve missed a few mortgage payments, this plan lets you go back to making your regular payments, with an added amount each month to cover the ones you’ve missed.
- Special forbearance: This plan gives you some extra time to repay the missed mortgage payments. Missed payments aren’t automatically added to the end of your loan. You must contact your servicer to discuss how you’ll make payments after the special forbearance ends.
- Loan modification: Sometimes you need a fresh start. This plan lets you add the missed mortgage payments and any related legal costs to your total loan balance. You and your servicer then come up with a new mortgage payment schedule. Note: Due to rising interest rates, the modified payment amount could increase.
- Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program: Starting May 31, 2024, if you have a VA-guaranteed loan, you may be able to participate in the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program. Through VASP, VA buys the modified loan through your loan servicer. Your servicer must first have tried all other options to help you keep your home.
Learn more about VASP - Extra time to arrange a private sale: If you need to sell your home, this plan lets you delay a foreclosure so you have time to sell.
- Short sale: If you owe more money than your house is worth, your servicer might agree to a short sale. This means the servicer will accept the total proceeds from the home sale (even if it’s less than the full amount you owe on the mortgage) as full payment of the debt you owe.Note: This option could result in a loss or reduction in your future home loan benefit. Contact a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702 for more details.
- Deed in lieu of foreclosure: This plan lets you avoid the foreclosure process by signing over the deed to the home to your servicer. The home will then belong to the servicer.Note: This option could result in a loss or reduction in your future home loan benefit. Contact a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702 for more details.
If I can’t avoid foreclosure, will I have to pay back my loan?
If your loan closed before January 1, 1990, and we have to pay back the amount of your loan to the servicer, you may need to pay this amount back to the government. If you can’t repay a VA debt, you may be able to get a waiver. Learn more about waivers for VA debt
If your loan closed on or after January 1, 1990, and we have to pay back the amount of your loan to the servicer, you’ll need to pay this amount back to the government if we find evidence of fraud, misrepresentation, or bad faith on your part.
How does foreclosure affect my future home loan benefit?
If your loan ends in foreclosure, short sale, or deed in lieu of foreclosure, you’ll need to pay back the amount we lost on your loan to restore your future benefit. We call this process “restoration of entitlement.”
To find out the amount you need to pay to restore your entitlement,contact a VA loan technician at877-827-3702.
What if I need help or more information?
- Talk to a housing counselor
- Read HUD’s homeowner’s guide to success (PDF)
- Read the consumer advisory that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) posted about how to identify a foreclosure relief scam. Learn about the advisory on the CFPB website
- Find out how the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) helps Veterans and their families who are behind on their mortgages and other housing-related expenses due to the impacts of COVID-19. Learn about the HAF on the National Council of State Housing Agencies website
- Schedule a free consultation with a credit or financial counselor through our Veterans Benefits Banking Program (VBBP). Get more information about financial counseling on the VBBP website
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