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Original poster

What actually happens when you pay off your mortgage?

149 replies

Mindgone · 30/08/2019 00:21

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.

OP posts:
MaybeitsMaybelline · 31/08/2019 05:56

I also got a letter from the land registry confirming the Nationwide no longer had a charge on the property.

It’s a nice feeling.

dancinginthekitchen · 31/08/2019 06:41

Our deeds were sent to us several years before we paid of our mortgage because they were no longer needed - they’d been scanned and were now electronically kept.
When we made the final payment absolutely nothing happened! ‘That’s ok’ we thought ‘it must take a while to send out the letter etc’ - but then C&G took the next direct debit! Several phone calls and many apologies later we finally had a letter, our overpayment back, and a small ‘good will’ gesture payment!
The whole thing was a bit of a let down but we did have a glass of fizz and huge smiles for a while

Dangerfloof · 31/08/2019 07:07

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
Wanted to add to this.
1 it's free
2 you can have up to 10 properties on the alert.
3 it sends emails every 6 months to let you know its active still
4 the first few times it did this I almost had a heart attack, I had recently paid off the mortgage and was expecting some kind of fraud attempt.

To OP I had a huge party, the original deeds were sent to me ( I already had a copy) not much from a 1980 build
The relief is immense.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General money
NorbertHerbertGruntfuttock · 31/08/2019 07:10

Thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter Yes it was interesting. There was loads of papers and chits relating to the house. The man that had it built immediately mortgaged it and then defaulted. It was taken off him by the bank and sold to another man who did something strange with the ownership. It's hard to tell but he had written a load of IOU's regarding it as I have those IOU's. I wondered if he had gambled it away at some point? I also suspect it was divided into two properties at one point. It's all facinating.

JapaneseBirdPainting · 31/08/2019 07:22

We paid off our mortgage then for a couple of months frittered the 'extra' money. i have just started puttinga side the same amount of the mortgage money into a separate account and hopefully we might do something a bit more worthwhile with it!

berlinbabylon · 31/08/2019 07:31

Ours was with Nationwide, I phoned them, asked them for the redemption figure, paid it online (also have a current account with NW so very easy) and then received letters from them and the Land Registry.

One thing though - I noticed on my last home insurance renewal they were still noted on my insurance policy as having an interest in the property so don't forget tell your insurers too.

HermioneWeasley · 31/08/2019 07:42

We keep a balance between f a few pounds so the bank store the deeds.

OneRingToRuleThemAll · 31/08/2019 07:45

I'll report back in ten years to let you know 😁

hibiscus71 · 31/08/2019 07:54

I really was expecting an online fanfair when I paid mine off.
Nope. Not a thing.
Just remember to start saving what you used to pay, took me 8 months to set that up!

RingtheBells · 31/08/2019 08:20

Ours was interest only so we had the balance to pay and iirc we could only pay up to £30k on one transaction so had to pay in 2 separate payments. We also got our old paper deeds sent to us which I found quite interesting, 1930s house. I think if you have an older house you do have to check it is registered online as a few aren’t, if it isn’t you have to keep the deeds very safe and probably see about it getting registered.

TraLaLaaaaa · 31/08/2019 08:26

TheRattleBag, what a great idea framing the deeds. Mine are from the 1930s and bits are also very pretty. I'm going to pinch your idea and look at getting a piece of them framed.

gingersausage · 31/08/2019 08:30

We were very disappointed too. We expected fireworks and a brass band at least 😉.

For something that seems so momentous and makes such a big difference to your life, there’s very little to show for the amount of money you hand over. We live in a house built in the 90s, so there isn’t even any fascinating paperwork; I’m well envious of people who have deeds dating back centuries.

We did spend the £6 for the download of the deeds and the title plan, just to have something with our names on.

cdtaylornats · 31/08/2019 08:33

I went into the bank to pay it off and the first words were "Who is you solicitor". It was so disappointing.

Still 2 years later I got a letter and a cheque for £3000 to say they'd been doing an internal audit and noticed I'd been overcharged.

Accountant222 · 31/08/2019 08:35

We contacted the building society for a settlement figure, they did try to talk us out of it though. We transferred the money and a bit later on got paperwork to confirm it was paid in full and the deeds.

Coquohvan · 31/08/2019 08:49

Its the best feeling. Paid ours off early over the phone, interest only the call handler was really excited for us.
Got our deeds through the post a few weeks later, really interesting to read, registered with LR for alerts as above.

We just move our mortgage payment every month to savings instead of the BS it fairly mounts up.

Now when we feel like getting away on holiday, we see what last minute deals are available and go, sometimes with a few days notice.

We are lucky to have done this and do really appreciate our good fortune.

HalloumiGus · 31/08/2019 09:01

We got paper deeds which are lodged with our solicitor.

Cookie229 · 31/08/2019 09:16

It's really boring I'm afraid. Depending on your mortgage you will get correspondence from your bank as the day approaches .If you have an endowment mortgage that may all need to be squared off for any outstanding balance.

After you have signed whatever forms need to be signed you will get a big envelope one day containing all of the deeds.

This is a really good day to go out and buy a big bottle of champagne!

Wauden · 31/08/2019 09:20

Local history records office or museum might like to have older deeds as they are good for tracing the history of an area.

HangryPants · 31/08/2019 09:29

I thought it'd have to be in person, so I went in to the Nationwide branch to ask about setting the process in motion. They looked me up and down and were quite disbelieving and treated me as stupid for not realising that the relevant counter closed early on a Saturday. I found it a pretty dispiriting experience.

So I got home, rung Nationwide and cleared it over the phone. The call handler congratulated me (I guess they have to be careful in case you're paying it off in sad circumstances).

All very low key.

I celebrated by sharing a bottle of £80 champagne with my boyfriend and spent the next few months feeling anxious about money as I'd blown my savings on paying off the mortgage.

CouldBeOuting · 31/08/2019 09:59

@CouldBeOuting but you don't own your own, you've only paid the interest so why would you get the deeds to it confused

We DO own it! We do now have the deeds! We paid the interest on the capital for 25 years then paid the capital amount in a lump sum (that’s what they originally lost). That’s how an interest only mortgage works... we invested in an endowment policy for 25 years and had enough to pay off the original loan and had plenty left over.

We 100% own our own home.

TheTeenageYears · 31/08/2019 10:02

If you do, go onto Land Registry and set up a property alert on your address. That way if there are any data breaches or your identity is hacked and someone tries to secure a loan against your house or even worse tries to sell it you will be notified. All the time you have a mortgage there is a bit more protection from this because any changes would have to be notified to the mortgage company as they are listed on the deeds so it acts as a first line or defence. Not trying to scare anyone - it's just the reality of the times we live in!

CouldBeOuting · 31/08/2019 10:05

*@CouldBeOuting.

Baffled by your experience
Why were you asked to pay the outstanding balance to a different account than the one you’d been paying in to?confused*

Allegedly because mortgage redemptions are handled by a different department. Financial ombudsman threw the book at them over it! They just didn’t want us to redeem the mortgage I suppose..... kept telling us it was impossible for our endowment policy to be worth enough etc. etc. (It was enough plus nearly half again!).

All done and dusted now ... this was six years ago...

lovemenorca · 31/08/2019 10:14

@CouldBeOuting

How bizarre! I wouldn’t have thought it was an objective thing. You owe X. What mortgage company?

BrokenLogs · 31/08/2019 10:25

@CouldBeOuting oh you're old skool interest only, the ones that had a plan to actually pay it off Wink

scaryteacher · 31/08/2019 10:29

I'll let you know in a month!!! Will be making the final payment in October, so will own the house outright, two years ahead of schedule.