What actually happens when you pay off your mortgage?

[Mindgone]

We had a conversation about this, and neither of us actually knows! What about the deeds of the house? Does the lender have them? Do you need to find a safe place for them? Do you need a solicitor to pay off your mortgage? Genuinely haven’t a clue, so any advice gratefully received.

Sadly, they don’t seem to have ‘deeds’ anymore. Just a confirmation you have title to the residence, with a plan of the land.
There is a difference. We have lived in our house for many years and have paid off the mortgage, and so yes, we have the real deeds. The deeds give a history of the land, and all previous owners, and what was paid for the house. Our house only dates from the 1930s, but it is still interesting.

Our house is 400 years old and the bloody mortgage company lost the deeds 😢 We just got a statement with a zero balance, it was a real anticlimax.

For some reason we were given the deeds from all the previous house sales when we completed the sale. Might download a set of sale to us when mortgage paid off.

You paint your front door red.

You get a scrappy handwritten receipt (really C&G most unimpressive!) and the Deeds to your property in the post. Ours came with a note saying they were historic as the property was now registered with the Land Registry.

I think in Scotland, there's some legal formalities regarding the Deeds (SIL has house in Scotland) but can't recall what this is.

We got a giant parcel o deeds including some really old documents.was really quite intersting.

You need to discharge your mortgage security. A solicitor will advise

You absolutely do not need to do this

If you purchased your house (or remortgaged to a new company) after 2012 then you won’t have paper deeds. But the bank actions the closure of your account and releases the charge, which just means they no longer have a claim over your property.

I’m currently working on improving this process for the bank I work for as it happens!

We bought our house in 2017. Definitely got paper deeds

Any one else a teeny bit disappointed in this thread?

I was hoping fireworks might go off from the roof in celebration of the momentous occasion!!

I think when our mortgage is paid off I might just do that .

I’ll let you know in 38 months time!

I’m hoping that what will happen, is that we will go on holiday somewhere less rainy than Scotland for once.

@Iliketeaagain, you might want to reconsider that - it would be a shame to burn them it down as soon as you own it!

@StealthPolarBear really? Maybe some banks print and send from the land reg. Interesting.

It wasn't printed. Or I'm sure some was but some was very old and hand written. I think the house was built in 18C

You walk round the house looking at all the walls and windows and floors and the roof saying 'that's mine, that's mine, that's mine' - well, you do if you're me!

🤔 hmmmmm. That’s interesting.

It's all a bit weird..

And then you go to renew insurance or something and tick the box that says "own house, no mortgage" and do a happy dance in your head.

And have much nicer holidays 😁😁😁

LTB

I just wanted to add that if you pay off the mortgage, it would be wise to seek Land Registry fraud protection. Mortgage free properties are vulnerable to criminal activity since there is no bank charge attached. I have Land Registry email alert set up against my properties so if anyone takes a legal interest, or attempts to apply a charge then I would be contacted. Also, you could think about adding a restriction to the record which would make sure a solicitor involved in a sale transaction is verifying they are dealing with the true owner. There is good advice on the Land Registry website about this.

You may think the chances of this happening are pretty low, but it nearly happened to us. A former tenant in a shared house tried to get a mortgage against a property we owned outright, and all sorts of loans and credit cards by posing as my spouse using fake ID. The banks fortunately identified the crimes, but we had to go through extensive checks for the next few years on any personal finance to prove it was us making the application.

That’s what I am hoping @WikkiTikkiWoo

@milveycrohn our house is 1930s and previous owners have built up a folder full of original deeds and a full history of everything to do with the house. Quite interesting as it stayed in the same family for 70 years, after it was built, (presumably) being transferred as an inheritance in the 60s.

I went into the bank, having just sold my first (London) flat, and asked to pay my mortgage. The cashier told me first the amount due that month, and when I said, I want to repay the entire outstanding amount, she beamed from ear to ear, called up the whole file and told me the amount. I wrote the cheque, and she credited it, then said, "That felt great to me; I bet it was even better for you!" The documentation was sent to our solicitor in the mail and slowly.

The rest went into my pension, because I am dull and sensible.

So should we not have the deeds if we haven’t paid off the mortgage yet? Tbh it’s only a couple of years until we do, so I won’t be chasing up any solicitors about it or anything

We paid our off about 15 years ago. iirc at that time there was some small charge (£1 I think) for the bank to store the deeds. Then they wrote to us saying the paper deeds were no longer needed as it was all electronic and they'd send the deeds to us - but never did! I'm presuming they got lost/disposed of.

Thanks for the advice about fraud Scooby.