Behind on mortgage payments in Georgia, with no sale date yet

Plenty of people put off the call. Some are ashamed to be behind. Some spent two hours on hold last time and got nowhere. The weeks before day 120 are when a call pays off most, because no sale is set and the lender has room to work with you.

Unless your lender is a small one, it has to try to reach you by phone or in person by day 36. By day 45, it must send a letter with the kinds of help it offers. Reverse mortgages are outside that rule too. After day 120 the lender can send the first foreclosure notice. A sale can follow about a month later.

Loss mitigation is the lender's word for help that avoids foreclosure. Ask for the help form, fill in each page, and keep a copy of all of it. The lender has five business days to write back and say what is missing. Once the form is complete, it has 30 days to decide.

Expect to show your income and your monthly costs. You also show what caused the hardship, like a divorce paper or checks for hospital bills. Each lender sets its own list.

Help teams can be slow, and papers do get lost, so write down who you talked to, the date, and what they said. Send pages in a way you can track. A complete form can lead to one of these three kinds of help.

Say the lender turns you down for a loan change. If your form came in 90 days or more before a sale, you can appeal within 14 days. And a complete form that comes in more than 37 days before a sale holds that sale until the lender decides and any appeal is done.

Those holds apply to your first complete form, unless you caught the loan up since the last one. Small lenders that service 5,000 or fewer loans they made or own do not have to follow them. They still can't start before day 120. That is one more reason to send the form now, while no date is set.

If you have not called yet, try the steps in this order.

A HUD housing counselor goes through your budget with you and fills out the lender's form with you. The counselor can call the lender for you, too. There is no charge. Call 800-569-4287, or search HUD's housing counseling list for an agency near you in Georgia.

If you have a VA-backed loan, VA has loan technicians who work with you and your lender. Call 877-827-3702 and press 6, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern. Once the loan is 61 days past due, VA puts one on your file on its own.

Legal aid is free if your income is low enough. A lawyer matters most if the lender broke a rule, lost your form, or won't give a straight answer.

Dial 2-1-1 from any phone. It is free and open all hours, run by United Way groups across most of Georgia. The staff can point you to local help with housing and utility bills. Their funds are limited, so ask early and ask what they have this month.

Georgia Mortgage Assistance used federal pandemic funds to pay missed mortgages. The state says it stopped taking new applications as of March 1, 2026. The portal closed at the end of February 28. Some web pages, including a few government ones, still link to it. If one sends you there, that page is out of date.

Other programs come and go too. Before you count on one, call and ask if it is taking new people today.

A company that is not a lawyer can't charge you before it gets you a deal with your lender. That is a federal rule. GeorgiaLegalAid.org also warns about offers to lend you the catch-up money. Those deals can end with you signing the house over and renting it back. Send mortgage payments only to your loan company.

Sometimes the budget doesn't close, even with a plan. Then you can sell while there is no sale date. If you owe more than the house is worth, you can ask for a short sale or a deed in lieu. Or you can see a bankruptcy lawyer. Each of these is easier with time on your side.

With no sale date on the calendar, you can take the time to compare. Georgia Property Co. can make you an offer on the house to set next to what an agent thinks it would list for.