What a great feeling it is to make your last mortgage payment. However, there is one final step that property owners sometimes overlook.
Once the debt is paid, you need to remove the Mortgage from your title deed – the bank won’t do it for you!
Once you have repaid the debt, your bank will post you a Form 3 – Release of Mortgage. This form has to be lodged with the titles office, and a lodgement fee has to be paid. Once the form has been registered, you receive a “Registration Confirmation Statement” confirming that there is no longer a mortgage over the property.
If you have repaid a mortgage loan in recent years and haven’t received the Release of Mortgage form from your bank – or you received the Release of Mortgage form and just filed it with your records, then you need to take action.
It’s easy to overlook the importance of this simple one page form. However, when you eventually sell the property (which could be many years later), any mortgage which is still registered has to be removed from the title before settlement can take place.
If you haven’t removed the mortgage, you risk delaying settlement or worse – the Buyer terminating the Contract.
Whether or not you are selling your property, it is a good idea to check that you have lodged the Release of Mortgage. We can do it all for you by dealing with your bank, obtaining the necessary form, lodging with the Titles Office, and finally sending you the Registration Confirmation Statement.