Under Iowa law, are you allowed to skip a house payment once each year?

Question

I recently lost most of my income and right now all my bills are due at once. There is no way I can pay everything and I remember someone telling me once that under Iowa law,you are allowed to skip a house payment once each year. Is this true? I am afraid to call my bank, because i know they will ask me to make full payment. If anyone knows of a website they can refer me to that has this information I would really appriciate it.

Answer 1

No such law. Some lenders have a provision in the loan; check your mortgage document for any exceptions to payments due.

Answer 2

You better call the bank and explain your situation. They may be able to be more helpful than you think, and putting it off will only make things worse. You have nothing to gain and everything to lose by NOT calling them.

Forget about whatever nonsense you might have heard once from somebody else about something of which they probably had no direct knowledge. Call the bank and get the straight info from them, not some rumor mill of dubious repute.

By the way, MY bank ( I live in NJ and the bank that holds the mortgage is in NY state) has a policy of "forbearance" which will allow an individual to skip one month's payment upon prior arrangement with the bank, and this skipped payment is made up through partial additional payments each month over the year. You cannot simply skip a payment and you cannot do this without making prior arrangements with the bank first. The point of doing this is to avoid damaging your credit and giving you time to get over a temporary financially difficult period.

The bank is not your enemy. Your fears are.

Answer 3

I don't believe there's such a law, but any bank can let you skip a payment if you've normally been paying on time unless they're jerks. When I fell on hard times the bank let me skip 9 months of mortgage payments. And that was in Iowa. I negotiated with the bank president. You do need to call (sucks, doesn't it?) and don't talk to a drone, escalate the call to a loan manager or the VP or president if you have to. If you talk calmly, firmly, and rationally, they'll make a provision for you. Best wishes.

Answer 4

I used to live in Iowa and there is no such law.

What you can do is call your bank and explain whats going on and ask if you can move your current payment to the end of the loan. You will be charged additional interest, but this is something that most lenders allow once a years if you are in good standing at the time you request it.

Answer 5

kokopelli is right on. In these situations, ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away will only make things worse. Calling the bank and telling them you can't afford the payment this month will leave you no worse off than just not making it. It's not like they won't notice that they didn't get it.

Answer 6

Kokopelli pretty much nailed it. And I'll add misinformation to his list of enemies.

Answer 7

I dont live i Iowa. but i WISH that law was true