A fair, on-time review of your application for help

When you apply for help (like a loan modification), your servicer must tell you within 5 business days whether your application is complete and what is missing, if you applied 45 days or more before a sale. If your complete application arrives more than 37 days before a sale, the servicer must review you for every option it has and tell you its decision in writing within 30 days.

Borrowers who apply for loss mitigation on a mortgage loan secured by their principal residence.

• Only while you are behind but have no foreclosure notice yet, after a notice of default or once a sale date is set.
• Only for conventional, FHA, VA, USDA or home-equity loans.
• Only if the home is your primary residence.
• Only after you send an application for help.
• The 5-day completeness notice applies if the servicer got your application 45 or more days before a scheduled sale.
• The 30-day full review applies if your complete application arrived more than 37 days before a scheduled sale.
• Only for a loan on the home you live in as your main home. Small servicers and reverse mortgages are mostly exempt.

• Send a complete application early

  Ask the servicer for its application, fill in every page, attach every document requested, and send it by a trackable method. Keep copies of everything.

  Deadline: At least 45 days before any sale date for the completeness notice; complete more than 37 days before the sale for a full review.

  Open the tool

• Track the servicer's dates

  Add the day you sent the application, the 5-business-day notice date, and the 30-day decision date to your deadlines.

  Open the tool

• The servicer must review you, but it does not have to approve you or offer any specific option.
• If your application is late (37 days or less before a sale), the servicer does not have to review it, although it may choose to.
• If the servicer already fully reviewed an earlier complete application and you have stayed behind since, it does not have to review again.
• This is general legal information, not legal advice, and it does not promise any result. A HUD-approved housing counselor or a lawyer can look at your facts.

1. Federal regulationRegulation X — complete application and reasonable diligence

   12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(b)(1)

   Exact part: (b)(1)

   What it says: A complete application is one with everything the servicer requires; the servicer must use reasonable diligence to get missing items.

   Read the official texthttps://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1024/section-1024.41#p-1024.41(b)(1)
2. Federal regulationRegulation X — 5-day acknowledgment

   12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(b)(2)

   Exact part: (b)(2)

   What it says: If the application arrives 45 or more days before a sale, the servicer must say within 5 business days whether it is complete and list what is missing.

   Read the official texthttps://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1024/section-1024.41#p-1024.41(b)(2)
3. Federal regulationRegulation X — 30-day evaluation

   12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(c)(1)

   Exact part: (c)(1)

   What it says: If a complete application arrives more than 37 days before a sale, the servicer must evaluate it for all options and send a written decision within 30 days.

   Read the official texthttps://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1024/section-1024.41#p-1024.41(c)(1)
4. Federal lawRESPA — private right of action

   12 U.S.C. § 2605(f)

   Exact part: (f)

   What it says: Borrowers can enforce these rules in court for actual damages.

   Read the official texthttps://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title12-section2605&num=0&edition=prelim

• Homeowner lostCited for this right
  Lage v. Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC

  Lage v. Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC, 839 F.3d 1003 (11th Cir. 2016)

  a servicer's duty to evaluate a loss-mitigation application depends on its being submitted more than 37 days before the sale date scheduled at that time

• Homeowner lostSame topic
  Martins v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, L.P.

  Martins v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, L.P., 722 F.3d 249 (5th Cir. 2013)

  a mortgage servicer acting for a properly assigned mortgagee may foreclose in Texas without possessing the original note, and an oral promise to modify a large loan is not enforceable

• Homeowner lostSame topic
  Gresham v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

  Gresham v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 642 F. App'x 355 (5th Cir. 2016) (per curiam) (unpublished)

  the federal dual-tracking bar applies only when the servicer receives a complete loss-mitigation application more than 37 days before the foreclosure sale

• Homeowner lostSame topic
  Boren v. U.S. National Bank Ass'n

  Boren v. U.S. Nat'l Bank Ass'n, 807 F.3d 99 (5th Cir. 2015)

  a lender may abandon a prior acceleration by giving notice that it seeks less than the full accelerated balance, which restarts the four-year limitations period

• Homeowner lostSame topic
  Whittier v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, L.L.C.

  Whittier v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, L.L.C., 594 F. App'x 833 (5th Cir. 2014) (per curiam) (unpublished)

  a RESPA claim against a servicer fails without evidence of actual damages caused by the violation

• Homeowner lostSame topic
  Milton v. U.S. Bank National Ass'n

  Milton v. U.S. Bank Nat'l Ass'n, 508 F. App'x 326 (5th Cir. 2013) (per curiam) (unpublished)

  an agreement to delay a Texas foreclosure falls within the statute of frauds and must be in writing to be enforced

• Homeowner wonSame topic
  Renfroe v. Nationstar Mortgage, LLC

  Renfroe v. Nationstar Mortg., LLC, 822 F.3d 1241 (11th Cir. 2016)

  a servicer that answers a borrower's written request without a reasonable investigation may be liable under RESPA when the borrower alleges resulting damages