Guide to - Mortgage discharge

If you are lucky enough to have paid off your mortgage, then your mortgage lender will usually offer you the option of them retaining your deeds in storage, or allowing a discharge of the security ( mortgage deed) registered against them in the Land Register of Scotland. There is no urgent need to do this, but most clients in our experience like the thought of their home deeds being freed from the bondage of the bank or building society.

In order to achieve this you need a solicitor to be involved. Once we have taken all the details from you, we order down your deeds, either through the lender’s website or by letter, including the mortgage security. We draw a discharge , which is a deed that cancels the security out, and send it to the lender to sign or seal. Once we have that back, it goes to the Land Register of Scotland with an application to register the discharge, and that application is processed at the Register. The current registration charge is £30.

Once that process is complete, your title is free and clear. We then offer a free storage service, as most clients prefer that their deeds are kept in a secure and professional facility, rather than perhaps being lost over time at home. However, even if lost, the fact that the title and the discharge are registered means that copies or substitutes are available which are just as effective as the real thing.

As with all other work we provide a written quotation of fees and outlays, and issue our terms and conditions at the outset of the work.