Sample Hardship Letter Template (Page 2 of 2) in pdf

Ch. 5

GETTING A DEAL: THE MECHANICS OF ARRANGING A WORKOUT

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One other good thing is that John’s new job is indoor work, which will be steady, and

his new employer is a construction company that has been in business for thirty-ﬁve years.

Unlike some of John’s past jobs, he is not going to be laid off for the winter. John is a good

worker and we know he will stick.

We had saved about $2,700 toward the mortgage as of March 1. This is the money

you had returned to us. We had hoped to use this money as part of a plan to get caught up

on our payments. However, we discovered last month that our 1999 Nissan Maxima could

no longer be ﬁxed. Since John’s new job is in Wilmington, he needs a car and we have spent

about $2,000 of the money we had saved as a down payment for a used (2003) Ford truck.

We still have the other $700 and we expect to put aside $800 (the amount of our regular

payment) each month starting August 1.

Our ﬁnancial information is enclosed with this letter. If we can have a forbearance

plan that involves payments of no more than $800 per month, we know we can make it. You

will see that we have minimized all our expenses and it is most important to us to keep this

home. Please put yourself in our position and try to help. We thank you very much for any

effort you can make.

Please contact our foreclosure prevention counselor, Jane Dean, at 312-555-1213, to

discuss this further.

Sincerely,

John Borrower

Joan Borrower

TIPS FOR COUNSELORS ESTABLISHING A WORKOUT PLAN

1. Time is of the essence in working out a foreclosure.

Make sure you know what the

timeline is for the foreclosure process in your state and where in the timeline the borrower

you are assisting is.

2. Keep track of deadlines.

Negotiating a workout may take months. Servicers may neglect

to tell the foreclosure attorney that they are talking to you. Do not let deadlines pass without

an agreement in writing as to an extension.

3. Conﬁrm with the servicer any extension of deadlines in writing.

Do not rely on oral

assurances that everything is taken care of.

4. Protect the client’s data.

As part of the workout process, you may need to quickly pro-

vide information to servicers. It is important to remember that traditional e-mail can be inter-

cepted by unscrupulous scammers or spyware or read by any system through which it passes.

This includes attachments of sensitive information, such as tax returns, pay stubs, etc. While

this possibility may seem remote, you should protect your client (and yourself) by using

secure networks and e-mailing techniques. One method to accomplish this is protecting at-

tachments with passwords and providing the “key” within an encrypted e-mail (the recipi-

ent, of course, must know how to “unencrypt.”) Facsimiles are secure, as is ﬁrst-class mail.

Sample Hardship Letter Template Page 2

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