Delinquency

Delinquency. Delinquency begins on the day a payment sufficient to cover principal, interest and escrow for a given billing cycle is due and unpaid. It is the policy of the VHPB that once a borrower is delinquent for at least 36 days, the Agency’s servicing department will make a good faith effort to establish live contact with the borrower and if appropriate, inform the borrower about the availability of loss mitigation options. A good faith effort to establish live contact consists of reasonable steps under the circumstances to reach the borrower. For delinquencies that begin on or after January 10, 2014, the VHPB will consider the following communications reasonable steps under the circumstances to establish live contact: A. A borrower working with the VHPB servicing department to obtain loss mitigation. The live contact requirement is satisfied with regard to a case in which a borrower is delinquent in consecutive billing cycles if the VHPB’s representative has established and is maintaining ongoing contract with regard to the borrower’s completion of a loss mitigation application and the service department’s evaluation of that borrower for loss mitigation options. B. A borrower stops paying under a loss mitigation plan or becomes delinquent after curing a prior default. A borrower is not delinquent under the rule if performing as agreed under a loss mitigation option designed to bring the borrower current on a previously missed payment. This includes forbearance plans and trial modifications. If the borrower fails to make a loss mitigation payment, a new delinquency begins and the VHPB should make good faith efforts to contact the borrower within 36 days of the start of the delinquency and for each of any subsequent billing periods for which the borrower’s obligation is due and unpaid. Similarly, if a borrower successfully cures a prior default but becomes delinquent again, the VHPB’s representative should make a good faith effort to contact the borrower within 36 days for each of the subsequent billing periods for which borrower’s obligation is due and unpaid. C. Communication in conjunction with other contact. Live contact is established when the borrower initiates contact with the VHPB. Early Intervention Rule contact is satisfied by combining contacts made with the borrower for other reasons, by adding a brief script to collection calls or other contacts to inform the borrower that loss mitigation options may be available in accordance with the rule. D. A borrower is unresponsive. When the borrower fails to respond to the Agency’s attempts to make live contact, a statement to contact the Agency’s servicing department regarding the delinquency may be included in the periodic statement or in an electronic communication. Such efforts are appropriate when there is little hope of the home retention by the borrower.