Mortgage of Property
The
following general information is intended
for the
mortgage of property which is currently owned by you.
Please contact our office for
further instructions after you
have
read it.
Timing
Processing
of the mortgage documents by the Land
Titles
Office creates delays in document registration from 2 - 4 weeks after
filing.
The mortgage will be filed
only
after you have attended our office and signed the documents. We
are able to prepare the mortgage and
supporting documents only after we have received the appropriate
"mortgage
instructions" from the Lender.
Funding
The
mortgage funds will be released upon
completion of
processing through Land Titles ( typically 2 - 4 weeks after you sign
and we
file it).
If you have an existing
mortgage you will continue to be responsible for payment of the
interest under
it until funds under the new mortgage are released.
When you attend at our
office, we will explain when you will
likely stop making payments under the old mortgage and begin payments
under the
new.
Interim Financing
If
you require funds sooner than the 2 - 4 week
period
referred to above, you can often arrange interim financing of the
mortgage
proceeds through your Lender.
This
amounts in effect, to a personal loan for part or all of the NET
mortgage
proceeds and results in funds being available immediately.
The disadvantages are that
not all Lenders
will provide this type of loan, the interest rate on the personal loan
will be
higher, and there will be an application or set-up fee to pay to the
Lender.
If
your only concern is to have funds available
in time to
pay out an existing mortgage on its due date, do not bother with
interim
financing.
It is not essential that
funds be available to pay the existing mortgage out on the due date. You
will simply continue to pay the interest
on it until paid, but of course you will not be paying interest under
the new
mortgage.
At most, you may be losing
the difference between the interest rate on the existing mortgage and
the new
mortgage if the existing rate is higher.
Home Insurance
If
you are switching Lenders, or presently have
clear
title, you will have to contact your insurance agent and arrange to
have the
policy amended to show loss payable to the new Lender.
Be sure to provide the agent
with the full
name and address of the Lender and ensure that the limit of coverage is
as high
as that required by the Lender (often the amount of the mortgage). Please
ask your insurance agent to forward a
certified copy of the insurance policy to our office.
This will be required prior
to mortgage funds being released.
Surveyor's Certificate
Often
referred to as a building location
certificate, this
document shows the location of buildings and other permanent structures
(i.e.:
house, garage, swimming pool, deck) on the subject property, including
distances between such improvements and the property lot lines.
Please
locate this document and bring it into
our office
when you come in to sign documents. The
Lender will generally require an "up to date" Surveyors Certificate,
so if any permanent structures have been added since the Surveyor's
Certificate
was done you may have to obtain a new one.
This will depend on the
amount of the mortgage and the equity in
your
home.
If
you already have a mortgage with the same
Lender, the
Lender probably has a copy of the Surveyor's Certificate on file, and
if we
acted for you previously with respect to this property, we probably
have a copy
on our old file.
Nevertheless, if you
have a copy available, please bring it in as it will save the Lender
and / or
our office from digging through old files to retrieve it.
If
no Surveyor's Certificate is available, we
can arrange
to have one ordered through a qualified land surveyor.
The present cost for most
residential homes is
$300.00 plus G.S.T..
Zoning Memorandum
Most of our comments regarding the Surveyor's Certificate also apply to the Zoning Memorandum. The major difference is that if none is available, the cost of obtaining a new one from the City of Winnipeg is only $35.00 plus G.S.T.. We will arrange it on your behalf.
Title Insurance
If your lender requires a current surveyor's building location certificate, but none is available, a policy of title insurance may be purchased instead at a cost savings compared to a survey. Ask us for more details.
Clear Title
If
you presently have "clear title" (i.e.. no
existing mortgages) you must bring in the ORIGINAL title when you
attend our
office.
Photocopies are not
sufficient.
Equity Deficiency
If
the new mortgage is less than the total
amount required
to pay out existing mortgages or liens, tax arrears, our fees and
disbursements, or any other item which must be paid from the mortgage
proceeds,
it will be necessary for you to make up the difference prior to the new
mortgage funds being released.
We will
carry out the necessary calculations and advise you of the deficiency
at the
time that Land Titles processing is complete and we are in a position
to
requisition the mortgage funds.
Mortgage Interest Rate
Commitment
Most
Lenders guarantee the interest rate for
only a
certain period of time (i.e. 60 days).
The funds under the new
mortgage must be released within that
time
period to guarantee the rate.
However,
the delays in Land Titles registrations may sometimes be such that the
mortgage
registration is not complete prior to the expiry of the guaranteed time
period.
When this occurs but rates
have
not increased, an extension of time can usually be obtained. However,
if rates have increased, certain
steps
can sometimes be taken to get the mortgage at the lower rate. One
such procedure is called "drawing
funds in trust".
Signing
The
registered title holders of the property
will have to
attend at our office to sign the mortgage documents.
Co-signers or "covenantors"
if any, will also have to
sign.
If you are married but title
is
in only one name, and you are or have both resided on the property, the
non-owning spouse will have to come in to sign a Homesteads Act
consent..
Final Report
Upon
completion of
all registrations and payment
of funds required, we will provide
a
detailed final report to you.
This will
include an accounting of all monies paid and received together with
supporting
documents.
You should expect to
received this final report 1 - 2 months after you sign documents.
Your Next Step
Thank
you for reading the foregoing.
At this time we would ask
that you telephone
our office to provide us with information we require and to receive
further
instructions.
From the desk of Timothy A.
Martin, Barrister
and
Solicitor