How to Help Senior Parents Who Can't Pay Their Mortgage
Stock market downturns and other financial instability can wreck havoc with senior citizens' monthly incomes and their ability to pay their mortgage payment. The financial difficulties of the older generation affect you directly when you are trying to help your parents find a way to keep their home. Your parents took care of you for years and it is natural to want to help them through a rough patch. Although your own bills may preclude you from offering monetary assistance, there are still ways that you can help your parents pay their mortgage.
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Instructions
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Help your parents develop a budget. Cut unnecessary expenses to see if you can free up enough money for their payment. Offer to add a line on your cell phone for them so that they can cancel their phone account. Purchase your groceries in bulk when you can and share with your parents to help reduce their food bill.
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Contact the Office of the Aging in your area to ask about programs available to assist your parents with other bills, such as prescriptions and insurance. While there may not be a program to help directly with their mortgage, taking advantage of other programs might provide the extra money needed to pay their mortgage.
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Call the Housing and Urban Development office at 800-569-4287. HUD offers free housing counseling if your parents cannot afford the counseling. HUD will look at your parents' finances and determine if there is any federal or state help available for them.
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Ask your parents to call their lender and give permission for you to speak directly with the lender regarding the mortgage. Ask the lender if your parents can make smaller payments for six months or receive a forbearance if their financial difficulties are temporary.
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Call lenders to inquire about the feasibility of refinancing the loan to a smaller payment. While lenders typically are leery about providing loans for senior citizens, because of federal laws they cannot discriminate against borrowers because of age. While your parents will make payments for a longer period, refinancing might provide a payment that they can afford.
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Talk with your parents about a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM). This reverse mortgage from the Federal Housing Administration does not require that your parents prove their income and, if your parents are at least 62, they can receive monthly payments based on the amount of equity in their home.
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Tips & Warnings
If you can afford the financial risk, offering to cosign your parents' refinancing loan might help the lender approve it.
To qualify for a HECM, your parent's must pay off their existing loan with the reverse loan.
