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If your servicer counts 10 months of earlier LA wildfire mortgage forbearance, AB 1847 leaves at most 14 months under its new 24-month total cap. A proposed 12-month planning span at $2,500 a month represents $30,000 of payments postponed, still owed later. Governor Newsom signed the bill on 15 September 2026; the expanded rules take effect 1 January 2027. Enter the months your servicer has already counted and the monthly payment on your statement. This planner shows cap arithmetic, not approval or a guaranteed repayment plan.
The 24-month cap counts earlier relief
AB 1847 amends California Civil Code section 3273.23 for mortgages directly affected by the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades wildfire disaster and related straight-line winds. It raises the maximum forbearance period from 12 to 24 months, and explicitly includes any period of forbearance for that disaster that a servicer already provided before the new rules. If a borrower has 10 months counted, their remaining cap room is 14 months, not a fresh 24. Enter the servicer-confirmed total of prior months, including earlier AB 238 or lender-provided wildfire relief. The tool subtracts that number from 24, then compares it with your requested planning span. It does not know how your servicer will count partial or interrupted periods. The chaptered text of AB 1847 controls the rule; ask the servicer for its exact dates in writing.
Months in the planner are not 90-day approvals
The statute offers an initial forbearance period of up to 90 days, followed by extensions that a borrower requests in 90-day increments. Those are decision points with their own notices and possible investor review. The 24-month ceiling is a separate calendar-month limit. This planner deliberately does not label 90 days as three months or 24 months as 720 days; calendar months have different lengths. Its months field is a rough cap conversation based on the figure your servicer counts. The actual granted period, start and end dates, and time remaining must come from the servicer's record. It must notify the borrower of an approval decision within 21 days under the amended text, with a possible agreed extension for specified documentation and investor review.
The payment figure is deferred debt
The calculator multiplies the proposed months inside the 24-month cap by your current monthly mortgage payment. For a $2,500 payment and 12 modeled months, the result is $30,000 of near-term cash flow paused. It is not a grant, principal reduction, or forgiveness; the payments remain owed. AB 1847 requires the servicer to disclose that repayment obligation. A borrower who was current on the loan when forbearance began cannot be required to repay everything as a lump sum. The servicer must offer an end-of-loan deferral or comparable option unless its investor contract or servicing guidelines prohibit that offer. Ask which investor provision applies to your loan before planning a particular exit. The Governor's 15 September signing notice confirms the larger relief window and investor-qualified deferral.
The law has a narrow disaster and property test
AB 1847 is for a borrower whose timely mortgage payments are prevented by financial hardship caused directly by the specified January 2025 LA wildfire disaster. The amended request also requires an affirmation that the property securing the loan is uninhabitable because of that disaster. The request deadline is the earlier of six months after termination of the relevant state emergency or 7 January 2029. Neither the 24-month arithmetic nor a damaged home by itself proves that a request will be approved. Investor, guarantor, insurer or holder rules can affect a servicer's decision, but a denial invoking such a rule must identify and quote the specific contractual or guideline provision in writing. A statewide future-fire framework appears in a different bill, AB 1842; this planner does not apply it to a different California wildfire.
What changes after the first 12 months
A request that would take total forbearance beyond 12 months can lead to extra documentation, but AB 1847 makes that conditional: the servicer must have a written request from the investor, guarantor, insurer or loan holder for material reasonably necessary to decide the longer period. The permitted material relates to hardship, habitability, or efforts to restore the property's habitability. Ask the servicer for a copy of that written request if it seeks documents. The law also requires advance notice before an existing forbearance period ends, describing required forms and deadlines for an extension. This matters to anyone with prior months already on the clock: gather repair, insurance and temporary-housing records early, yet do not assume every extension automatically requires a new file or is approved.
What the numbers actually mean for you
Ten used months leave Elena fourteen on the statute's clock
Elena's first call is about a record, not a new application. She has already used wildfire-related forbearance after the Eaton Fire. AB 1847's amended section 3273.23(f) directs that earlier periods count toward the expanded 24-month total. Her servicer tells her it counts 10 months. That leaves 14 months of cap room on the simple month ledger. A person with the old 12-month maximum already used may still have up to 12 months of room under the new total, but only after the law takes effect and only subject to its request and investor provisions.
Elena models 12 more months. Her ledger now reads 10 already counted, 12 proposed inside the cap, and two not yet used. If she enters 18 proposed months, only 14 fit and four sit beyond the statutory maximum. The answer is a conversation starter for her servicer; the exact expiry date depends on the earlier granted intervals and the new periods actually approved. A 90-day period is not silently converted to three calendar months because January, February and March do not contain the same number of days.
This law is narrow. It amends relief tied to the January 2025 LA wildfire emergency, including the Eaton and Palisades fires and straight-line winds. The borrower must affirm continuing financial hardship directly caused by that disaster and that the mortgaged property is uninhabitable because of it. Someone affected by a different California fire should ask for the rule that applies to that disaster instead of using Elena's AB 1847 ledger.
A payment holiday moves the bill to a later date
Elena's monthly mortgage statement says $2,500. Multiplying by three modeled months gives $7,500, six gives $15,000, and 12 gives $30,000 of scheduled payments that could be paused if those periods are approved. These are deliberately labelled illustrative cash-flow totals. Escrow amounts, variable rates or payment changes could make the actual forborne amount different. The law does not award Elena $30,000, pay her servicer on her behalf, or wipe out the principal.
Section 3273.24 requires disclosure that paused mortgage payments must be repaid. If Elena was current when she entered forbearance, the servicer cannot require a lump-sum catch-up payment. The amended law also generally requires an offer to defer repayment of the forborne amount to the end of the loan term, through loan deferral or a comparable loss-mitigation option. There is a real exception: an applicable investor contract or servicing guideline may prohibit that option. Until the servicer identifies the loan holder's terms and gives Elena an exit plan, the amount and date of repayment should remain open in her budget.
The tool's financial question is therefore narrow and useful: how much near-term cash might remain available while she pays temporary housing and repairs? It is a different question from how much she ultimately saves. In a forbearance plan, the answer to the second question may be zero and can even depend on interest or loan-term consequences. Elena should request a written breakdown of accrued amounts and the repayment route before agreeing to an extension.
The first grant and later requests have separate gates
The amended statute starts with up to 90 days of mortgage payment forbearance. A borrower then requests extensions in 90-day increments. Reaching a 24-month ceiling never substitutes for those requests or promises approval. A servicer may deny a request under qualifying investor provisions, but a denial that relies on them has to state and quote the specific investor guideline or contract term in writing. A borrower who receives a vague refusal can ask for the promised citation before treating it as the end of the matter.
For an extension taking total forbearance above 12 months, the law allows additional documents in a limited situation. The investor, guarantor, insurer or holder must have asked for the material in writing, and it must be reasonably necessary to decide the longer request. It can concern the financial hardship, whether the property remains habitable, or efforts to remedy the damage. The borrower may request a copy of the investor's written demand. The rule does not make every repair receipt a universal prerequisite at month 13, and it does not erase the underlying need to affirm hardship and uninhabitability.
Before an existing forbearance period ends, the servicer must tell the borrower what documents or forms it requires to consider an extension and the relevant deadlines. That advance notice matters when Elena is living elsewhere and receiving insurance and rebuilding mail at more than one address. She should keep the first approval notice, each extension notice and the investor explanation together so both the 24-month count and the payment exit can be checked against the same record.
The January 2027 effective date separates law from current relief
Governor Newsom signed AB 1847 on 15 September 2026, and the final chaptered text was published the next day. California's ordinary rule makes a regular-session statute without an urgency or later effective-date clause take effect on 1 January of the following year. The final AB 1847 text has no urgency clause. That means the expanded 24-month provisions are a 2027 planning rule as of this page's September review, not an assurance that a servicer must grant the extra 12 months immediately in September 2026.
Existing AB 238 relief and any voluntary servicer arrangements can still matter before the new start date. Do not abandon an active arrangement while waiting. Ask the servicer which provision governs the period you have now and what it will count after 1 January. The amended request deadline is the earlier of six months after the relevant state emergency is terminated or 7 January 2029. The emergency began in January 2025. That deadline governs requests; it does not promise that an eligible borrower will receive the full 24 months.
California also signed AB 1842 for a broader future-disaster framework. That separate bill has different scope and should not be blended into Elena's LA-specific AB 1847 calculation. The number that belongs in the widget is the mortgage payment and the earlier forbearance your servicer attributes to this one disaster. Keep the dates and the bill numbers separate when reading news stories about the September signing package.
AB 1847 cap room and illustrative paused payments
P is the number of earlier wildfire-forbearance months your servicer has counted, Q is an additional month span you want to discuss with the servicer, and M is your current monthly mortgage payment. The expression gives C, an illustration of mortgage payments you may be able to pause within AB 1847's 24-month total cap. It is a cash-flow planning number, not money forgiven or an approved forbearance schedule.
California Civil Code section 3273.23, amended by AB 1847 and chaptered on 15 September 2026, includes earlier forbearance for the same January 2025 LA wildfire disaster in the total. The law separately uses an initial period of up to 90 days and borrower-requested extensions in 90-day increments. Calendar months and 90-day blocks have different endpoints; the tool never turns one into the other. Ask the servicer to confirm the actual counted months and dates before using the planner to choose a request.
Calculation Steps:
- Confirm that the loan and hardship relate directly to the specified January 2025 LA wildfire disaster and that the mortgaged property remains uninhabitable. This tool does not decide those legal facts.
- Ask your servicer for the period of earlier disaster-related forbearance it counts toward AB 1847, including relief granted before the 2027 expansion. Enter the months it gives you.
- Enter the additional month span you want to plan around. This is an estimate for discussion, not a request for one lump 12- or 24-month approval; the statute uses up-to-90-day initial and extension periods.
- Enter the monthly mortgage payment shown on your current statement. If escrow or other parts of the scheduled payment change, the eventual postponed balance may differ.
- The planner subtracts earlier counted months from 24, shows which proposed months fit inside the remaining cap, and separates any requested months beyond it.
- It multiplies only the within-cap month span by the entered payment. Read that result as postponed cash flow that remains owed, then ask your servicer for the actual approval, dates, documentation request and exit option.
Worked example
Elena lives in Altadena and is still unable to occupy the home securing her mortgage after the January 2025 Eaton Fire. For this example, her servicer confirms 10 months of earlier wildfire-related forbearance have already been counted. Her current scheduled mortgage payment is $2,500 per month. Elena wants to plan how a further 12 months would affect cash flow after AB 1847 takes effect.
The arithmetic leaves 24 minus 10, or 14 months of total cap room. A 12-month planning span fits inside that arithmetic, leaving two months unused. At $2,500 per month, 12 modeled payments total $30,000. That is an illustration of payments Elena might postpone if the servicer approves enough requested periods. It is still $30,000 of debt to resolve later, subject to her actual mortgage terms.
If Elena instead types 18 additional months, only 14 fit within the 24-month cap; four lie beyond it. The widget shows at most $35,000 of modeled payments inside the cap at her stated rate. It does not imply that a 14-month grant arrives all at once. The servicer considers the initial period and later 90-day requests, and may need investor approval or specific documents once the total would exceed 12 months.
Elena asks for the servicer's written record of her prior period, the next period's exact end date and how the paused $2,500 monthly payments will be resolved. The answer may be an end-of-loan deferral, a comparable option or another investor-permitted path. AB 1847 protects against an obligatory lump sum if she was current on entering forbearance, but the bill does not erase what she owes.
Input definitions
Review the glossary of terms used in the calculation model below. Click on highlighted links to read more in-depth definitions in our financial glossary:
| Parameter | Definition & Context |
|---|---|
| Earlier months counted by servicer | Servicer-confirmed months already used for the same January 2025 wildfire disaster. Section 3273.23(f) counts periods given before the expanded law. Use the servicer's figure instead of converting 90-day blocks yourself. |
| Additional planning months | A proposed span for cap arithmetic. Approval requires an initial up-to-90-day period and requested 90-day extensions; a month input is not an application or statutory approval period. |
| Scheduled mortgage payment | The current monthly amount from your statement, used only to illustrate near-term cash flow paused. The amount is postponed and remains payable later. |
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