Veterans Facing Foreclosure in Michigan: The Protections and Programs Most Borrowers Don't Have

If you served, and now the mortgage on the house you came home to is behind, the situation can feel like a private failure. It is not. Veteran homeowners have a set of protections and programs that most borrowers simply do not have — some written into federal law, some brand new as of 2026, some specific to Michigan. Knowing which ones apply to you changes what the next ninety days look like.

This is a plain-English walk through the options for a Michigan veteran or servicemember who is behind on payments or already facing a sheriff sale. Nothing here is a substitute for guidance from a licensed attorney, but it should tell you which phone calls are worth making first.

Start with the one call most veterans skip

If your mortgage is guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, you are not limited to talking with your servicer. The VA staffs loan technicians in its regional loan centers whose job is to intervene with servicers on behalf of veteran borrowers — they can review how your file has been serviced and push for options that were never offered to you. The number is 877-827-3702 (option 6 routes to a technician), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern.

This matters because the VA guarantees the loan, which gives a technician real leverage with the company collecting your payments. Veterans regularly find out on that call that a repayment plan, special forbearance, or modification was available months earlier.

The VA Partial Claim Program is back — and it is new

There was a genuine gap in help. The VA's earlier last-resort program, VASP, stopped accepting new cases on May 1, 2025. Congress responded with the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act, signed July 30, 2025, and the VA formally launched the VA Partial Claim Program on June 15, 2026.

How it works, in short: instead of demanding the arrears in a lump sum, the VA can pay a portion of what you owe to your servicer and place that amount as a separate, non-interest-bearing junior lien on your home. You do not repay it monthly. It comes due when you sell, refinance, or pay off the mortgage. Your regular payment goes back to normal and the delinquency is cured.

Two practical notes for 2026:

• You generally must complete a three-month trial payment plan first, showing three on-time payments, and your servicer has to submit the request — so the conversation starts with them.
• Servicers were given until November 28, 2026 to finish building the program into their systems. If a representative tells you the program does not exist, that is a signal to call a technician at the Department of Veterans Affairs rather than to give up. The program is authorized through July 30, 2030 unless Congress extends it.

If you are serving now, a foreclosure may not even be valid

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is the strongest protection in this article, and it is widely misunderstood. Under 50 U.S.C. § 3953, if the mortgage obligation began before your active-duty service, a sale, foreclosure, or seizure of the property is not valid if it happens during your period of military service or within one year after it ends — unless a court ordered it, or you signed a valid waiver.

In practice that means a Michigan foreclosure by advertisement, the fast administrative route lenders normally use here, is not available against a protected servicemember. The lender has to go to court. That one-year tail after service became permanent in 2018; older summaries citing 90 days or nine months are out of date.

If this describes you or your spouse, say the words "Servicemembers Civil Relief Act" to your servicer in writing, keep a copy, and get your orders in front of them. If a sale has already been scheduled, this is the moment to talk to an attorney — free legal assistance is often available through your installation's legal office or the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency.

The Michigan clock still runs the same way

Veteran protections sit on top of Michigan's ordinary process, so it helps to know where you are on that timeline. Federal servicing rules give you a 15-day grace period, generally bar a foreclosure filing until you are more than 120 days delinquent (12 CFR 1024.41(f)), and stop a servicer from pushing a sale while a complete loss-mitigation application filed more than 37 days before the sale is still under review. After a sheriff sale, Michigan's redemption period under MCL 600.3240 is usually six months — twelve if the unpaid balance is two-thirds or less of the original indebtedness — and you keep possession of the home during it.

Two Michigan-specific items worth checking the same week:

• The disabled veterans property tax exemption (MCL 211.7b). Veterans rated 100 percent disabled, those receiving benefits at the 100 percent rate, and unremarried surviving spouses can be exempt from property taxes on their homestead. You file Form 5107 with your local assessor. Since 2025 the exemption, once granted, stays in place without annual reapplication. If escrowed taxes are part of why the payment became unaffordable, this can change the math permanently.
• Free counseling. HUD-approved housing counselors are free at 800-569-4287. Never pay an upfront fee for foreclosure help — Michigan's Credit Services Protection Act (MCL 445.1821 and following) prohibits it.

If you are earlier in the process and just watching the arrears grow, the sequence in our guide on falling behind on mortgage payments in Michigan lines up month by month with what your servicer is required to do.

When the mortgage is not government-backed

Plenty of veterans bought with conventional financing, so none of the VA-specific programs apply. You still have the full standard menu: reinstatement, a repayment plan, mortgage forbearance in Michigan, payment deferral, or a modification. And if the real problem is a lump sum you cannot produce on a specific date — a deployment gap, a medical stretch, a divorce — but you have significant equity in the home, asset-based funding secured by the property rather than by your credit score is one more option to weigh. Compare it honestly against everything in our rundown of foreclosure alternatives in Michigan before committing to anything, and read the full playbook in our guide to how to stop foreclosure in Michigan.

What to do this week

1. Confirm whether your mortgage is VA-guaranteed. Your closing documents or servicer can tell you in a minute.
2. If it is, call 877-827-3702 (option 6) and ask a technician to review your file and your eligibility for a partial claim.
3. Ask your servicer, in writing, for the reinstatement figure and a payoff statement. A servicer must provide a payoff quote within seven business days of a written request (12 CFR 1026.36(c)(3)).
4. If you or your spouse are on active duty, put your Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protection in writing with a copy of your orders.
5. Check the Form 5107 exemption if a disability rating applies.

You spent part of your life inside systems built on procedure and deadlines. This is another one, and the same instincts work: find out exactly where you stand, get the numbers in writing, and use the advocates who exist for you. Most veteran homeowners who reach the right desk early keep their homes.

All In Horizon provides asset-based bridge financing. Loan availability, terms, and timing depend on the property, equity position, and exit plan, and are subject to underwriting. This article is educational and is not financial, legal, or tax advice. Nothing here is a substitute for guidance from a licensed attorney.