June 3, 2011 (Shirley Allen)

Freddie Mac is joining the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in providing a full menu of relief policies for borrowers who have been recently affected by the storms in the Midwest areas that are located in counties that the President has declared as Major Disaster Areas.

Freddie Mac relief policies include giving mortgage servicers the discretion to reduce or suspend mortgage payments for up to 12 months for borrowers who have Freddie Mac-owned mortgages.

Your mortgage servicer can also waive assessments of penalties or late fees against borrowers with disaster damaged homes and not report forbearance or delinquencies caused by the disaster to credit bureaus.

“In the wake of these astonishing storms, Freddie Mac has authorized the nation’s mortgage servicers to provide a full range of mortgage relief options to affected borrowers with mortgages owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac,” said Anthony Renzi, Executive Vice President of Single-Family Business, Operations and Technology at Freddie Mac. “Options we have instructed our servicers to offer include granting forbearance on their mortgage payments for up to one year.”

Your first step if you need mortgage relief is to contact your mortgage servicer. Each case is individually assessed to determine what assistance best fits a homeowner’s circumstances.

Additional information about disaster relief policies is available through Freddie Mac at http://www.freddiemac.com/singlefamily/service/disastermgmt.html.

Tags: Freddie Mac, disaster relief policies, major disaster areas, mortgage relief