What is mortgage forbearance?

Short answer

Mortgage is a temporary pause or reduction in payments arranged with your servicer. The CFPB says you still owe the full amount and must repay what you skipped or reduced. Forbearance is not forgiveness, and available structures vary.

Full explanation

Forbearance is a hardship arrangement in which the servicer lets you stop payments for a time or pay a smaller amount. The CFPB is clear that it does not erase or shrink the debt. Missed or reduced amounts are repaid later, and interest may keep accruing on those amounts.

How you repay depends on the option the servicer offers. Some plans require a lump-sum catch-up when regular payments restart. Others add the skipped amounts at the end of the loan or through a new loan. A third approach reduces payments for a period and then raises the regular payment to catch up. There is no single structure.

To ask about it, contact the servicer, explain the hardship, and request the forbearance or other hardship options that exist for your loan. Some servicers require that request within a set time after a disaster or other qualifying event. Ask how long payments change, how interest is treated, and exactly how repayment works. A HUD-approved housing counselor can walk through options. This description does not mean any particular borrower will qualify.

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