To be fair, your original comment: "was told he could delay a payment"; namely, "a payment". One. The limit for danger with any credit is 3 monthly payments. Technically a single missed/delayed payment can affect your credit bureau, though many credit providers are nice enough not to report 30 and 60 day faults.

Anyone who thinks they can get away with 3 months of not paying back any kind of credit product, let alone a mortgage, is going to be in trouble. If your friend skipped 3 mortgage payments in a row, I'm surprised they won the case in court. They must have had concrete proof that a bank employee truly misinformed about what it means to miss multiple payments in a single year, let alone 3+ consecutive payments.