SixFifty Launches Free Tool to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure by Delaying Mortgage Payments up to Six Months Under the New Federal Stimulus Bill
The product, called Hello Lender, is available in English and Spanish and generates a letter that people can send to their mortgage company to request forbearance under the CARES Act
Apr 02, 2020, 02:00 ET
SALT LAKE CITY, April 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SixFifty, the technology subsidiary of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, today announced the release of Hello Lender, a free online tool that helps people with federally backed home loans to delay paying their mortgage if they are experiencing financial distress as a result of the COVID-19 emergency. The newly passed federal stimulus, called the CARES Act, allows people with federally backed mortgages to request forbearance (delayed payment) for up to 180 days, without penalties or fees, and to renew the forbearance for an additional 180 days if needed.
Hello Lender prompts borrowers to answer a series of basic questions about their mortgage. The questions appear in English or Spanish, depending on the borrower's preference. SixFifty's automation software takes the borrower's answers and generates a customized letter that requests a forbearance on mortgage payments from the loan servicer. The letter can be printed, signed and sent to the lender via mail, email or the lender's online portal. The letter invokes the CARES Act to ensure that the loan servicer processes the request under the new federal stimulus and not the lender's own forbearance program. Hello Lender is available for free at www.hellolender.org.
"Many of those who have been laid off in recent weeks own homes and are at risk of foreclosure," said Kimball Dean Parker, CEO of SixFifty. "If you've lost your job, or your hours have been cut, you don't need to lose your home, too. Hello Lender will help you write a letter to your loan servicer that invokes the CARES Act and stops you from defaulting on your loan."
Although many people may be unaware, most mortgages in the United States are federally backed and are eligible for forbearance under the CARES Act. Federally backed mortgages include all home loans that are owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae or were issued by a federal agency, such as the Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs. Since Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae own a vast majority of mortgages in the United States, most people can request to delay paying mortgage if they are suffering financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hello Lender is the second housing-related pro bono product that SixFifty has released in the last year. In June 2019, SixFifty launched Hello Landlord, a free product that helps people avoid being evicted by writing a letter to their landlord. The product has been used in every state in the nation. Hello Lender also comes on the heels of SixFifty's free COVID-19 employment toolset, which was created to provide businesses with a way to manage coronavirus-related employment issues, including telecommuting, extended sick leave and pandemic exposure communications. It enables users to generate automated policies developed by Wilson Sonsini's leading employment attorneys and deploy a questionnaire system that can gather information from employees impacted by COVID-19, manage tasks, and automate important communications. Since its launch on March 25, 2020, hundreds of companies have already used SixFifty's COVID-19 tools.
Wilson Sonsini formed SixFifty in February 2019 to develop automated tools designed to make legal processes more efficient and affordable. SixFifty combines the expertise of one of the world's leading technology law firms with technology such as automation to make the law more accessible to people and companies. SixFifty recently released a privacy suite that automates compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act and the General Data Protection Regulation.
About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
For more than 50 years, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offered a broad range of services and legal disciplines focused on serving the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. The firm is nationally recognized as a leader in the fields of corporate governance and finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, securities litigation, employment law, intellectual property, and antitrust, among many other areas of law. With deep roots in Silicon Valley, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offices in Austin; Beijing; Boston; Brussels; Hong Kong; London; Los Angeles; New York; Palo Alto; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Shanghai; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington, DE. For more information, please visit www.wsgr.com.
About SixFifty
Headquartered in the Silicon Slopes area of Utah, SixFifty is a subsidiary of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and combines the expertise of the world's leading technology law firm, made accessible through thoughtful technology. Led by a group of lawyers and software engineers that believe the law should be easier to navigate, SixFifty streamlines complex areas of the law by providing actionable, efficient and affordable solutions for individuals and businesses. For more information, please visit www.sixfifty.com.
SOURCE SixFifty
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