Freddie Mac will suspend all foreclosure sales and evictions through Dec. 31 in areas that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has declared eligible disaster areas as a result of hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Freddie Mac is working with servicers to ensure that no property inspection costs resulting directly from either Harvey or Irma are passed on to impacted borrowers.

“We appreciate the understanding and consideration that servicers are extending to borrowers coping with hardships related to these devastating storms. As we continue to work with servicers to assess the damage, we want to reassure borrowers that we will support them during this difficult time,” Yvette Gilmore, Freddie Mac’s vice president of single-family servicer performance management, said in a statement. “They may be able to put their mortgage payments on hold for up to one year if their mortgage is owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac. The first step is for borrowers to contact their mortgage servicers – the companies they send their payments to each month.”

Borrowers can look up the telephone number and mailing address of their mortgage servicers on the Mortgage Bankers Association’s website.

An eligible disaster area is an area comprised of counties or municipalities that have been declared by the president of the United States to be major disaster areas where federal aid in the form of individual assistance is being made available. A list of these areas can be found on FEMA’s website.

These additional disaster relief assistance program changes are scheduled to be sent to Freddie Mac servicers in a guide bulletin that will be issued today. A description of Freddie Mac’s disaster relief policies can be found on the agency’s website.