Are you a homeowner affected by the LA fires? Here are some of your options

The wildfires that ravaged L.A. County have damaged or destroyed thousands of properties, leaving many homeowners with hard questions about what’s next.

LAist has put together this resource to help homeowners navigate questions about mortgages and, if they choose to sell, what rights they have.

My house is destroyed. Do I have to pay the mortgage?

Contact your mortgage servicer (the company listed on your mortgage statement) because you might be eligible for some relief per Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae guidelines.

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Jenise Hight, Fannie Mae’s vice president of Single-Family Credit Risk Policy, said mortgage servicers are required  to proactively identify properties that may be impacted by disaster and offer homeowners 90 days of initial forbearance without even speaking to the borrower.

If your loan is held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, you might be eligible for suspended mortgage relief of up to 12 months, during which you will not incur late fees, foreclosures or other legal consequences. Fannie Mae also offers a temporary reduction of mortgage payments.

You can find more information on the Fannie Mae website or visiting the Freddie Mac website. Those whose loan is held by Fannie Mae can call 855 437-3243 for free assistance by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-approved housing counselors.

Hight also said homeowners can work with their mortgage servicers to file insurance claims to rebuild the property.

 ”If it's determined that the property cannot be rebuilt, then the servicer would apply those insurance loss proceeds to reduce the amount of the outstanding mortgage loan balance,” she said. “Then the borrower would also be able to use the proceeds from the sale of the land in order to satisfy the rest of the mortgage debt. But that's a worst case scenario.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom also announced some relief for property owners whose mortgage is through Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. Borrowers from these institutions will be eligible for the postponement of their mortgage for 90 days without having to submit any forms. During that period, they also won’t incur late fees, and late payments won’t affect their credit score.

For 60 days, these banks also won't evict or foreclose on homeowners unable to make their mortgage payments.

For more details, homeowners in these ZIP codes should contact their lenders: 90019, 90041, 90049, 90066, 90265, 90272, 90290, 90402, 91001, 91104, 91106, 91107, or 93536.

Do I still have to pay taxes on my home? 

My colleague Cato Hernández addressed those questions in their informative story. If your home was destroyed in the wildfires, you could be eligible for property tax relief through L.A. County’s disaster relief ordinance. You have 12 months from when the disaster occurred to file an application with the county assessor’s office to get the reduction.

My house is destroyed. I received a call from a real estate agent asking if I am selling my property. Should I?

Newsom also announced an executive order banning unsolicited cash offers for homes in the affected areas for three months.

Chika Sunquist, commissioner for the California Department of Real Estate, said the order  is meant “to protect the Los Angeles area fire victims from predatory buyers who are wanting to exploit them, the trauma and to exploit the disaster.”

“ It's intended to prevent those people from making lowball offers and trying to buy out those properties from people who don't have the time to make the decision or feel like they need to make a quick decision,” she said.

If you do receive one of these calls, you can report the caller to the California Attorney General’s Office.

Sunquist said people who do want to sell their homes should take time to make an informed decision, thinking about what they would have done before the fires.

She recommends thinking through and researching:

• What is the process for selling a home?
• How much do you want to sell the property at? What is a price you are willing to accept for the property?
•  Find the right people to help you through that sale, such as a real estate agent, an attorney to help you read through contracts and agreements, a licensed contractor to fix up the property before the sale and a financial advisory team, which could be family and friends.

And yes, homeowners have to disclose to potential buyers if a property has been damaged in a fire.

“ Rebuilding can be an option. You have your insurance carrier that you can contact to find out how much you might be able to get to rebuild,” she said. “There are licensed contractors you can talk to about maybe building a home that you really wanted, as opposed to the one that you had at the time, that's been passed down or that you previously wanted to restore.”

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation is also warning homeowners to be wary of scams and fraudulent behavior. Verify claims with government sources versus relying on information via social media and secondhand sources. Scammers often come across as urgent, so take your time when reviewing offers and claims.