Do you still need to pay for your home if it was destroyed in a disaster?

Wildfires, raging floods, tornadoes and hurricanes can obliterate your home, but not your mortgage.

Wildfires, raging floods, tornadoes and hurricanes can obliterate your home, but not your mortgage. The hard reality is that even when you live in a federally declared disaster area — like those ravaged by wildfires in Los Angeles County or battered by hurricanes in North Carolina and other states — you still will owe the bank whatever is left on your loan, even though your house no longer exists or is uninhabitable. There are, however, some disaster-related relief programs that can temporarily reduce or suspend your mortgage payment for up to a year and sometimes beyond, depending on your circumstance. Here’s what you need to know. The servicer is listed on your mortgage statement and is the first place you should call to learn about your options, which typically involve a form of forbearance. The types of mortgage relief a servicer can provide will be governed in part by the entity that backs your mortgage or holds it in its portfolio. Usually that’s an individual bank or a government agency (e.g., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration, the Veterans’ Administration, etc.) If you’re not sure which it is, your servicer can tell you.