When a family member passes away, their loved ones sometimes become homeowners unexpectedly.

If the inherited house was owned free and clear, with no encumbrances, the heirs can do with the place what they want. Typically, they sell it, but sometimes they move in and make it their own.

It becomes complicated, though, if there’s a mortgage on the property. And while it can take time to decide what to do with a house in such cases, you should act quickly to make sure the monthly payments don't skip a beat. Otherwise, the property could end up in foreclosure.

The same applies for anyone who ends up with a house after a divorce, or for domestic abuse victims whose abusers are ordered out of the house.

In all of these instances, there's a lot you’ll need to know: the amount of the mortgage payments; where to send them; the loan’s terms, including the interest rate; and the number of payments remaining. You’ll need to know your rights.

Unfortunately, according to a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, help from the loan servicer -- the company hired by the lender to collect payments and pay your taxes and insurance -- isn’t always forthcoming in such situations.

The report says some heirs face “significant challenges” when dealing with loan servicers, including months-long delays and strong-arm pressure tactics about refinancing the mortgage.

There are laws against this type of bad behavior. Federal rules and mortgage program guidelines require servicers to help successor-owners obtain the information they need to manage the existing mortgage and, if the new owner chooses, to assume the loan. Servicers are compelled to let you know what documents are needed to prove your ownership interest, and to process your requests in a timely manner.

But the CFPB has fielded enough complaints that it has seen fit to remind investors and servicers that they must comply with all applicable laws and rules.

According to the agency, people report being told they must refi rather than being offered options for managing the current mortgage. These folks describe “significant stress” at the prospect of taking on unexpected debt at a time when they are still grieving.

In one complaint, a Virginia woman who lost her husband said she had been trying to take over their joint mortgage so she and her children could remain in their familiar home. She said she supplied the required documents, “often multiple times,” but when she called for updates, she was given “inconsistent explanations for deficiencies.”

Then, she told the CFPB, the company tried “to strong-arm me into refinancing the mortgage.”

Many heirs also wait excessively long times for servicers to process their requests, the report says. Some complain that servicers repeatedly request the same documentation or fail to respond to inquiries. And when delays occur, they report incurring legal fees and becoming delinquent on the loan.

A Missouri heir told the CFPB that for 156 days after her husband passed, she had tried to assume their mortgage. The servicer acknowledged her request but said it does not "have a program to remove a name from the loan. ... In order to remove a party from the loan, the loan would have to be refinanced,” the servicer said.

In some cases, servicers are refusing to release the original borrower from liability, even though that person is either dead or no longer resides in the house.

Many successors report being told they cannot assume the loan, even when they demonstrate their ability and willingness to pay it. They describe "showing months or years of making on-time loan payments from their bank accounts, high credit scores, good income and lengthy employment histories and still being steered to a costly refinance instead of having their assumption promptly processed.”

This happens largely in divorce cases in which a court orders an ex-spouse to be removed from the mortgage. For example, a Washington woman, with her ex's full cooperation and knowledge, applied to take over their house's mortgage. She reported exchanging at least 30 emails with the servicer, each time being asked for additional documentation. She had provided multiple bank statements, pay stubs and investment accounts to prove she could handle the monthly payments.

Nevertheless, “they continue to push out my request,” she said. “There is no reason for the delay. I was told it would have been easier to just refinance for the loan, which would be about (a) 4-5% higher interest rate.”

Domestic violence survivors also report that servicers continue sending account information to their abusers and require their consent for account changes, potentially creating threats to the survivor’s safety.

The CFPB report detailed a complaint from a Texas woman who had divorced her husband on domestic violence grounds and was trying to make their house payments to avoid going into foreclosure. Her ex tried to sabotage the process, and the lender didn’t help, either. All communications from the servicer were going to him and him alone.

“I asked them to please send copies of communication(s) to the home on the loan and they would not,” she said, adding that it took the company months to even add her phone number to the account.

"I’ve been trying to save this loan ... (but) they've refused to cooperate, communicate or accept any payment from me.”

Massive, often insurmountable amounts of student debt have prevented millions of otherwise qualified borrowers from obtaining financing to buy a house.

Of the 43 million Americans with education loans, roughly 17 million are in their prime homebuying years, according to the Education Data Initiative. But 51% of renters say those loans have kept them from becoming homeowners.

There are programs on the books to make your student debt go away, though -- or at least to rein it in, so it no longer stands between you and homeownership.

There are several federal education loan relief programs: One plan is income-driven, another is for public servants and a third is for people with medical impairments. And according to a recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau survey, 1 in 10 people who applied for relief with these programs were successful in having the debt discharged, canceled or forgiven.

You can access information and apply for relief on your own at studentaid.gov. But the applications are so full of legalese that you might want to enlist some experts who work with would-be homebuyers every day: people like Cat Kaiyoorawongs of LoanSense and Sara Parrish of CampusDoor. Kaiyoorawongs works with those who have government-backed student loans, while Parrish works with folks with private education loans. (About 93% of all student loans are federal; the rest are private.)

For starters, they say, you shouldn’t give up on owning a house. About 37% of all first-time buyers have student debt, the Education Data Initiative reports, so there is a way. But because of the all-important debt-to-income ratio, those with student debt have an average of 39% less buying power on their first houses than those without.

LoanSense tries to help buck that trend, working directly with consumers as well as mortgage lenders. Customers who are successful in reworking their student loans have lowered their payments from $650 to $350 a month, says Kaiyoorawongs, and raised their homebuying budgets by an average of $50,000 to $80,000 in the process.

One way to accomplish that is to consolidate your loans. While the average balance of student debt is $29,400, Parrish says that the borrowers CampusDoor sees typically have three separate loans with a total average balance of $64,000. And some have more than that.

By combining all your loans into one, you could trim your overall interest rate, at least temporarily, and increase your loan’s term. The monthly payment on the consolidated loans could be low enough that you will be able to qualify for a mortgage.

Beware, though: Refinancing or consolidating federal loans through a private lender results in the loss of important federal protections.

Another possibility is the Income-Based Repayment Plan, which expressly allows for federal loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years of regular on-time payments. Sometimes called the Income-Contingent Repayment Plan, it bases your payment on your income and the size of your family.

To qualify, borrowers need to first consolidate all their student loans and then certify their earnings and family sizes. You’ll have to recertify annually, but the payment plan could be low enough that you qualify for a mortgage. Better yet, after 25 years, Uncle Sam will forgive whatever balance is left, which is most people’s objective, says Kaiyoorawongs.

For debt owners who are public servants -- anyone who works for local, state or federal government; works for a nonprofit organization; or serves in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps or the military -- you may be eligible to have your loan balance forgiven if you have worked full-time for 10 or more years.

To qualify, you must have made a total of 120 qualifying monthly payments under a federal income-driven repayment plan. The payments need not be consecutive, though, and neither does the time worked as a public servant.

Two more options: extended and graduated repayment plans. An extended plan pushes your payments out to 25 years, thereby decreasing your monthly payment. But your balance will not be forgiven. With a graduated plan, your monthly payment starts low and then increases every two years. If you consolidate several loans under such a plan, you can have up to 30 years to pay off your debt, making it a good choice if you expect your income to keep growing.

People with total and permanent disabilities who are unable to work are eligible to have their student loans discharged. Moreover, the forgiven amount is tax-free -- at least for now. That provision is up for renewal soon.

Finally, if you believe your school misrepresented or made false promises about your degree or certification program, you may be able to have your loan balance discharged under the Borrower Defense program. Currently, though, the program's rules are tied up in court.

For those with private education loans, the options are far greater and more varied. Parrish says CampusDoor, which works through lenders and not directly with consumers, supports more than 1,600 unique programs offered by dozens of lenders, who have assisted more than 2.2 million borrowers along the way.

The Department of Justice has warned buyers not to sign contracts binding them to the agent showing them houses. And maybe they shouldn’t. But sellers should also be leery of signing listing agreements that tie them to one brokerage firm for months at a time.

For example, sometimes a seller finds a buyer on their own, with no help or input from the listing agent. In traditional contracts, the agent has the exclusive right to sell -- meaning that they are still owed a commission, even if they didn't find the buyer.

If you intend to proactively work to sell your place while it is listed in the multiple listing service, you may want to consider an exclusive agency agreement instead. You'll still work with a listing agent, but if you find the buyer, you'll have the right to sell without paying a commission.

Sellers also might want to consider the type of deed of conveyance they provide, says Martin Segal, a lecturer at the University of Miami who writes the popular Ask Doctor Law blog.

Rather than warrant the entire chain of ownership, how about a special warranty deed that only guarantees a clear title during the time you owned the place? That gets you off the hook for unknown defects that occurred when you were not the owner.

While it's doubtful that a buyer would accept it, you can also offer a quit-claim deed, which conveys title without any warranties whatsoever.

Property taxes are the largest discretionary source of revenue for local governments, and tax assessors usually try to maximize the valuations of houses within their purview. But not so when it comes to their own residences, according to a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The “Assessing the Assessor” paper, which has not yet been peer reviewed, finds that assessors tend to rate their own properties “at significantly lower values” than those of their neighbors. Consequently, say authors Huaizhi Chen of the University of Notre Dame and Lauren Cohen of Harvard Business School, their tax bills “grow significantly slower” than their neighbors' do.

The paper also finds that the lower the value assessors assign to their own houses, the more likely other homeowners within the county are to sell their homes below their assigned taxation values. In other words, the lower the assessor's assessment, the less others will profit from the sale of their places.

Finally, the paper documents “a significant connection” between the under-assessment of assessors’ own properties and the tax-maximizing assessment gaps documented in the districts they operate.

Worrisome trends:

-- Renter households have formed faster than owner households for the past four quarters, as homebuilders have been unable to keep up with demand. But even if they could, the cost of buying is rising faster than the cost of renting. Owner households now number 86.9 million, according to data collected by Redfin. But the number of renter households hit a record 45.6 million in the third quarter of 2024.

-- The incoming Trump administration’s vow to deport illegal immigrants could slow builders' ability to construct houses. According to the latest Census Bureau stats, the number of immigrants joining the construction industry rose to nearly 130,000 in 2022. There’s no telling how many of those entered the country illegally. But in a business with persistent labor shortages, kicking out any gainfully employed immigrants will slow down the construction process -- probably considerably.

-- The percentage of “defective” mortgages -- those on which borrowers lie or otherwise supply bad information -- is low, but rising, according to quality control analytics company ACES. Less than 2% of all approved loans have issues, the company says, but the number is trending upwards. Most errors in this year’s second quarter were about borrowers’ incomes and employment, but applications with faulty appraisals saw the most significant quarter-to-quarter increase.

Ground has been broken outside of Atlanta for what the builder claims will be the largest zero-energy community in the country.

Located in Marietta, Georgia, the GreenHouse community will have 591 houses, all of which will be built to the Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready standards.

The builder is Beazer Homes, a company that has promised to build every one of its properties to high energy-efficient standards. Based in Atlanta, Beazer currently has 12 projects in various stages of development in the metro area, each of which offers Zero Energy Ready houses.

At GreenHouse, the houses' renewable energy systems will be so efficient that they could offset most, or all, of the home’s annual energy use, the company says.