If a natural disaster has affected your income, you may be able to make a hardship application to change your regular loan payments with your bank or lender. This can only be for the amount needed to help you make your regular payments.
When you make an application, the bank or lender has to treat your request fairly and reasonably. They will discuss the options available, but they do not have to agree to your request.
You can make a hardship application if:
you have a personal loan, home mortgage, personal credit card or other consumer lending, and
you can’t make your repayments due to an unforeseen hardship, like job loss or damage caused by a natural disaster.
You can ask for your contract to be changed by either:
reducing how much you have to pay in each repayment period, or
pausing your repayments for a period of time (taking a “repayment holiday”).
These options can give you some breathing space in the short term, but they might increase the total amount owing on a loan, or how long it will take you to pay it off
You can decide which type of change you want to request in your application. The lender has to consider your application but they don’t have to agree to your request if they do not think you meet the requirements. If the lender doesn’t accept your request, they have to set out the reason for their decision in writing and include a clear summary of your rights to apply to the court to change your contract terms.