You can generally defer mortgage payments for up to about 12 months, though the exact length depends on who backs your loan and why you’re asking. Conventional loans owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac typically start with an initial forbearance of up to six months, with extensions possible after that.1Fannie Mae. Elevated Forbearance FHA, VA, and USDA loans work on a similar timeline. Deferring doesn’t erase the payments — every skipped dollar is still owed, just on different terms.
Maximum Pause by Loan Type
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Loans
If Fannie Mae owns your mortgage, the servicer can grant an initial forbearance of up to six months and may extend it beyond that.1Fannie Mae. Elevated Forbearance Freddie Mac loans follow a similar structure, with total forbearance generally capped at 12 months. Borrowers affected by a federally declared disaster can get up to 12 months through Fannie Mae, during which late fees are suspended and foreclosure proceedings are paused.2Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae Reminds Homeowners, Renters, and Mortgage Servicers of Disaster Relief Options
FHA, VA, and USDA Loans
Government-insured loans allow an initial forbearance of up to 180 days, roughly six months, with an additional 180-day extension available on request. That brings the total to approximately 12 months.3U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). CARES Act Forbearance Fact Sheet for Borrowers with FHA, VA, or USDA Loans These agencies also prohibit servicers from demanding lump-sum repayment the moment the pause ends.
Private or Portfolio Loans
If your mortgage is held in a bank’s own portfolio or bundled into private-label securities, no federal standard sets the length of the pause. Some private lenders mirror the 12-month conventional framework; others may cap relief at three or six months with stricter documentation. The only way to find out is to ask your servicer.
Forbearance and Deferral Aren’t the Same Thing
People use these terms interchangeably, and servicers sometimes do too, but they describe different pieces of the same arrangement. Forbearance is the pause itself — the period when your servicer accepts less or nothing. Deferral is one way of repaying what you skipped: the missed amounts get moved to the end of your loan, becoming due when you sell, refinance, or make your final payment.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is Mortgage Forbearance?
Neither option reduces what you owe. Interest keeps accruing on the balance while payments are paused, so a six-month pause on a typical mortgage can add thousands of dollars that eventually have to be repaid.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is Mortgage Forbearance?
What Happens to Escrow While You’re Paused
If your mortgage payment includes escrow for property taxes and homeowner’s insurance, your servicer should keep making those payments on your behalf during the forbearance.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Manage Your Money During Forbearance Confirm that with your servicer early. A lapse in insurance or an unpaid tax bill is much harder to unwind than the pause itself.
When the pause ends, your escrow account will likely have a shortage, because the regular payments that would have funded it didn’t come in. That gap either raises your monthly payment going forward or is paid down through a repayment plan of up to 60 months.6Freddie Mac. Managing Escrow During a COVID-19 Related Hardship Quick Reference Guide
How You Repay the Skipped Months
You won’t necessarily face a lump-sum bill the day forbearance ends. Talk to your servicer about repayment options before the pause expires. For Fannie Mae loans, the main paths are:
- Reinstatement: paying the entire past-due amount at once, useful if your finances have fully recovered.
- Repayment plan: resuming your normal payment plus an added amount each month to catch up over up to 12 months.
- Payment deferral: resuming your normal payment right away while the missed amounts move to the end of the loan, due at sale, refinance, or payoff.
- Loan modification: a permanent restructuring of your loan terms, which may lower the interest rate, extend the term, or both, to make the ongoing payment affordable.1Fannie Mae. Elevated Forbearance
FHA borrowers have an additional option called a standalone partial claim. HUD places the unpaid balance into an interest-free subordinate lien against the property, with nothing due on that lien until the mortgage ends, the home is sold, or the loan is refinanced.7U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHA Loss Mitigation Program VA and USDA loans offer comparable options and also bar servicers from demanding a lump sum.3U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). CARES Act Forbearance Fact Sheet for Borrowers with FHA, VA, or USDA Loans
How the Pause Shows Up on Your Credit
If you were current on your mortgage when the forbearance began, your servicer must continue reporting the account as current to the credit bureaus while you honor the agreement.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Manage Your Money During Forbearance The servicer can note that the loan is in forbearance, which future lenders may see, but the account should not be reported as delinquent.
If you were already behind when you asked for the pause, the servicer maintains whatever delinquency status was on file. Bring the loan current during the forbearance and the servicer must update the reporting to reflect that.3U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). CARES Act Forbearance Fact Sheet for Borrowers with FHA, VA, or USDA Loans The practical lesson: requesting a pause before you miss a payment protects your credit far more than waiting until you’ve fallen behind.
Requesting the Pause and Foreclosure Protection
Contact your servicer’s loss mitigation department by phone or through the secure online portal. You do not need to be behind to apply, and applying while current gives you more options. Have your account number, a written hardship letter with a realistic recovery timeline, recent pay stubs (or tax returns and a profit-and-loss statement if you’re self-employed), and a breakdown of your monthly expenses ready.8Fannie Mae. Underwriting Factors and Documentation for a Self-Employed Borrower
Federal rules require the servicer to acknowledge receipt of your application in writing within five business days and to send a written decision within 30 days of receiving a complete application.9eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures If you’re denied, you can appeal in writing and a different staff member must review it.
Two protections keep foreclosure at bay while you work through this. A servicer generally cannot start foreclosure until your mortgage is more than 120 days past due.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Will It Take Before I Face Foreclosure And if you submit a complete loss mitigation application before the servicer files the first legal notice of foreclosure, the servicer cannot file until your application is fully resolved, including any appeal. Even after a foreclosure has been initiated, a complete application filed more than 37 days before a scheduled sale blocks the servicer from moving forward with the sale while the request is under review.11Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures Those protections apply to servicers covered by Regulation X, whether or not your loan is federally backed.