Servicer Contact Options
Phone: 888-469-0810
Website: AmeriHome Mortgage Coronavirus Information
From Servicer Website
CORONAVIRUS INFORMATION UPDATED AS OF MAY 21, 2020
The COVID-19 Coronavirus has had a huge impact on our daily lives. And whether you’ve been economically impacted, or are just trying to plan ahead, we stand ready to help. As governmental and mortgage industry solutions for consumers who have suffered financial harm are developed and evolve, we are dedicated to doing everything we can to provide those solutions and meet your mortgage needs.
Forbearance
If you have been impacted by the coronavirus and are not able to make your regular mortgage payment, please contact us at 888-469-0810 to discuss options that may be available to you. If your mortgage is “federally-backed,” meaning it has been sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or is insured or guaranteed by the FHA, VA, or USDA – you are eligible for an immediate forbearance plan if the coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted your financial situation, even if you are already delinquent on your loan. We can help determine if your loan is federally-backed.
Forbearance means that for a limited period of time, you do not have to make your regular mortgage payment. Forbearance under the CARES Act is available for federally-backed mortgages for a period of up to 180 days, which can later be extended for up to another 180 days or can be shortened, if necessary. To obtain a forbearance, you simply need to contact us and attest to the fact of your coronavirus impact, and will not be required to provide additional documentation.
After Forbearance
At the end of any forbearance period you may be granted, we can help you transition back to a payment schedule that is appropriate for your situation, from among the options available for your loan program. Unless you are able to do so, you will not be required to repay forborne payments in a lump sum immediately after the forbearance ends. Depending on your loan program and loan owner, your other options for payment of the amount due may include a repayment plan, payment deferral, or modification of the loan including its payment amount and/or remaining term.
Fees, Interest, Penalties and Credit Reporting during Forbearance
During a period of forbearance, no fees, penalties, or interest will be charged beyond the amounts that you would be charged if you made all of the payments on time. Additionally, if your account was current before going into forbearance, you will not be reported as delinquent to credit repositories while in forbearance.
Foreclosures
Except with respect to a vacant or abandoned property, no foreclosures will be initiated, no foreclosure judgments sought, and no foreclosure-related evictions or sales executed on covered loans during the period of any CARES foreclosure moratorium or any foreclosure moratorium required by other federal, state or other investor requirements.
See our Coronavirus FAQ for more details. UPDATED
Please be patient as we are experiencing longer than usual hold times due to increased call volumes as we help our customers during this difficult time. If possible, we encourage you to take advantage of our online resources to avoid delays.
If you have forbearance questions and would like to speak to a certified housing counselor, please call the Hope Hotline at 995Hope.org
Please ask questions or report your experience with this servicer below. Your feedback will help other homeowners navigate homeownership preservation options. REMEMBER: Ask for everything in writing to protect yourself against surprises.
AmeriHome is very disorganized. I called and was offered 90 day forbearance with all payments due in month 4. Additionally they were not offering 180 payment deferrals.
Thank you very much for the feedback! Everyone is pretty disorganized right now, Will. Also, most servicers are doing the same – 90 days out of the gate. The biggest differences are that some are requiring proof of hardship, some are not. I am fairly confident that “all payments due or foreclosure” is not their intention here. They just don’t know what the reinstatement on these loans is going to look like.
I also contacted Amerihome Will was correct they are requiring the entire amount of the forbearance Amount to be paid at the end of the term. This is clearly not realistic. If you are able check but I was told that verbally by two reps.
I have not been able to contact a rep directly. But their website clearly states that they expect payment at the end of deferment. Evem tho in the cares act info it clearly states it can been added on the back end of the loan. Its very difficult to understand
You’re right, Robert, it’s very difficult to understand. All we can really say right now is what “other” servicers are doing. Most servicers require a lump sum at the end of the forbearance term.
If you are unable to make the lump sum payment, that’s when they look at extending forbearance, deferment or a loan modification.
The scary thing is we just don’t know. If you can make your mortgage payment, please do. We are afraid that what comes next is going to be even more confusing once we’re past the virus and trying to keep folks in their homes.
Update 4/21 – I called AmeriHome again about options. The only change is that now they are offering 6 months forbearance if you ask. Also I asked about deferment to the end of the loan. The rep indicated that currently deferment is not an option. However that may change depending on investor guidelines(for me Freddie Mac). Per the Freddie Mac website they are scheduled to release a new 2 months deferment option for homeowners experiencing a temporary hardship in early July.
Thank you for the update, Will! If your loan is owned by Freddie Mac, deferment is available to you. Here is new guidance by FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Agency) – https://www.fhfa.gov/Media/PublicAffairs/Pages/No-Lump-Sum-Required-at-the-End-of-Forbearance-says-FHFAs-Calabria.aspx
Hello, question… I am on a forbearance with AmeriHome, and they are telling me in order to take advantage of their payment deferral option I have to provide ALL my financial information to them. Bank statements, last three years of tax returns, etc. Even more than what I had to provide to get the mortgage in the first place. I think part of the CARES act made it to where we didn’t have to provide this information to them. They currently have this as a requirement… Any info on the legality of this, or if this even sounds right?
Hi Darrel, as I understand it, and I’ve read this section of the CARES Act many times, it provides instruction for granting forbearance to anyone impacted by COVID-19 that has a federally backed mortgage. There is not, however, any language or guidance on how to reinstate those mortgages after the forbearance period is up.
It does not surprise me that they are asking for this. There’s a deeper and potentially more challenging issue that may be driving the abundance of caution with some servicers.
If a servicer requires one person to take deferment with no documentation, and another with less documentation, they could be sued for being treated differently. If a servicer requires little to no documentation, and the homeowner defaults 3 months later because they were not really in a position to start making a regular monthly payment, the servicer could be sued for not giving the borrower enough time to “get on their feet” and didn’t do their due diligence to make sure the homeowner could afford the payment.
I think it’s going to be most common that servicers will ask for the most documentation they can, and require that from all customers, so that if they are making an error, it’s toward the side of caution, to avoid future default if the consumer was not in a position to keep their account current.
Finally, do some research locally to see if there is any State-level legislation that addresses how servicers are to deal with consumers coming out of forbearance. Several States have come out with their own version of the CARES Act, mostly to address the needs and challenges of those whose loans are not federally backed and do not fall under the CARES Act.
Im having to fill out all the paperwork also yet is says no documentation required. I’m ready to pick up my regular monthly payment but fear I’m gonna fill something out wrong and risk foreclosure
Hi. Did Amerihome require you to provide any documents for the deferral option? And did they ask you for any proof that you have been affected by the Pandemic?
I contacted Amerihome to discuss our option and they want us to pay the entire forbearance amount which is impossible right now. We can do repayment but not the whole amount. When I called they direct my call to a debt collector which I don’t understand.
I ended my forbearance and was sent into loss mitigation for loan modification instead of everything being deferred to the end of the loan they want everything now due to being told I had a lein on the property which turned out was not mine so I am going in circles with everything with this bank this has gone on for a couple of years now with them not letting me make payments accept trial ones which are made and then this circle happens again it is very frustrating and irritating