Reprieve : Farmers Get Added Time for Loan Restructuring or Forgiveness

The Farmers Home Administration, after repeated appeals to give farmers more time to ask for loan restructuring, kept its 45-day deadline today but said supporting documents can be filed after the deadline.

The agency sent delinquency notices in mid-November to 83,000 farmers who hold $8.3 billion in overdue loans. Most of the money is more than three years past due. The notices gave borrowers 45 days to notify FmHA that they want to seek restructuring or forgiveness of part of their debts.

In a statement, FmHA Administrator LaVerne Ausman said the agency cannot change the deadline. However, he said FmHA will respect good-faith efforts to meet the deadline and it will allow some documents to be filed after the deadline.

At a minimum, three documents must be submitted before the deadline, which falls in mid- to late-January. They are FmHA forms 410-1, “Application for FmHA Services; 431-2, “Farm and Home Plan” including the balance sheet, and either Attachment Two, “Acknowledgement of Notice of Program Availability,” or Attachment Four, “Response to Notice Informing Me of FmHA’s Intent to Accelerate My Loan.”

Critics have said the government was giving farmers too little time with the 45-day limit to compile and submit a large amount of material. On Thursday, 11 senators suggested a two-week extension of the deadline. They said borrowers were faced with completing nine documents despite holiday season disruptions in the operations of banks and government agencies.

“There’s just no way we can legally stretch it,” Ausman said of the deadline. “We must hear from the farmer within that time.”

A failure to respond to the delinquency notice could trigger FmHA acceleration of loan collection.

Ausman said supporting documents will be accepted after the 45-day period upon approval of county FmHA officials. He said the documents should be provided as soon as possible. FmHA has 60 days to reply to requests for restructuring. The agency said it hopes to complete restructuring requests for many farmers in time for spring planting.