VA help to avoid foreclosure

• If you’re a Veteran or the surviving spouse of a Veteran, we’ll provide counseling—even if your loan isn’t a VA-guaranteed loan.
• If you have a VA-guaranteed loan, you can contact us anytime to discuss your loan. 
• If you have a VA-guaranteed loan and it’s 61 days past due, we’ll automatically assign a VA loan technician to review your loan.

If you’re having trouble making your mortgage payments, contact your loan servicer right away. They will work with you to try to find a solution to your situation.

If you’re nervous about contacting your servicer, or if you’d like our help and advice, please contact a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702. You can also send us a message online through our home loan guaranty support portal.

Go to our Loan Guaranty Support portal

Be careful of potential scams

If you’re behind on your mortgage payments, contact us or the servicer of your mortgage to get help. And be careful of scams. Work only with trusted organizations.

There are 6 general ways you can try to avoid a foreclosure. Our VA loan technicians can help you figure out which option is best for you. Contact a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702. Or, you can learn more about your options for avoiding foreclosure from our video. 

Go to our video to learn about your options (YouTube)

These are your options for trying to avoid foreclosure:

1. Repayment plan: If you’ve missed a few mortgage payments, this plan lets you go back to making your regular payments, with an added amount each month to cover the ones you’ve missed.
2. Special forbearance: This plan gives you some extra time to repay the missed mortgage payments. Missed payments aren’t automatically added to the end of your loan. You must contact your servicer to discuss how you’ll make payments after the special forbearance ends.
3. Loan modification: Sometimes you need a fresh start. This plan lets you add the missed mortgage payments and any related legal costs to your total loan balance. You and your servicer then come up with a new mortgage payment schedule. Note: Due to rising interest rates, the modified payment amount could increase. 
4. Extra time to arrange a private sale: If you need to sell your home, this plan lets you delay a foreclosure so you have time to sell. 
5. Short sale: If you owe more money than your house is worth, your servicer might agree to a short sale. This means the servicer will accept the total proceeds from the home sale (even if it’s less than the full amount you owe on the mortgage) as full payment of the debt you owe. Note: This option could result in a loss or reduction in your future home loan benefit. Contact a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702 for more details.
6. Deed in lieu of foreclosure: This plan lets you avoid the foreclosure process by signing over the deed to the home to your servicer. The home will then belong to the servicer. Note: This option could result in a loss or reduction in your future home loan benefit. Contact a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702 for more details.

Yes. This program ended on May 1, 2025. We’re no longer accepting VASP submissions. But if we approved your loan for VASP before May 1, 2025, you’ll stay in the program.

If we approved your loan for VASP, your loan servicer will contact you and ask you to sign an agreement modifying the loan terms. Then, you’ll get a welcome letter from your new loan servicer.

If you wanted to participate in VASP, but your servicer didn’t submit your paperwork to us before the program ended, you won’t be able to participate in this program. Talk with your servicer about the other options available to you for avoiding foreclosure. You can read about these options on this page.

We’re committed to helping you if you’re facing mortgage challenges. If you’re having trouble working with your loan servicer, call us at . Select option 5.

If you’re homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, we offer many programs and services that may help. We can also help you connect with resources in your community, like homeless shelters or faith-based organizations. Call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at for help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If your loan closed before January 1, 1990, and we have to pay back the amount of your loan to the servicer, you may need to pay this amount back to the government. If you can’t repay a VA debt, you may be able to get a waiver. Learn more about waivers for VA debt

If your loan closed on or after January 1, 1990, and we have to pay back the amount of your loan to the servicer, you’ll need to pay this amount back to the government if we find evidence of fraud, misrepresentation, or bad faith on your part.

If your loan ends in foreclosure, short sale, or deed in lieu of foreclosure, you’ll need to pay back the amount we lost on your loan to restore your future benefit. We call this process “restoration of entitlement.”

To find out the amount you need to pay to restore your entitlement, contact a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702.

• Talk to a housing counselor
• Read HUD’s homeowner’s guide to success (PDF)
• Read the consumer advisory that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) posted about how to identify a foreclosure relief scam. Learn about the advisory on the CFPB website
• Find out how the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) helps Veterans and their families who are behind on their mortgages and other housing-related expenses due to the impacts of COVID-19. Learn about the HAF on the National Council of State Housing Agencies website
• Schedule a free consultation with a credit or financial counselor through our Veterans Benefits Banking Program (VBBP). Get more information about financial counseling on the VBBP website