What do I have to do at the end of my mortgage?

Once we have made our final mortgage payment or repaid our mortgage early, even though we have paid off our debt, the mortgage remains on the Land Registry for twenty more years. The Land Registry should then automatically delete it.

The Land Registry plays an important role. It is a public institution and part of the Ministry of Justice. Among many other things, it registers changes in property ownership, any charges that may be involved, if there is an attachment or any other unusual circumstance regarding the property.

Registration of property ownership in the Land Registry is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended: the public deed provides evidence for third parties that the buyer has acquired the property from the seller.

Knowing how the Property Registry works in relation to mortgages, we have two options when we have completed repayment: doing nothing or removing the mortgage from the Land Registry.

Doing nothing: if we do not plan to sell the property for a long period, we can do nothing, knowing that the Land Registry will automatically remove the mortgage after twenty years.

If we decide to do nothing, our property will continue to be shown as having a mortgage charge, if we want to do anything with it.

Removing the mortgage from the Land Registry: we can cancel the mortgage it in two ways:

We can go to our financial institution

The financial institution is obliged to do this, usually using an agency for the purpose. This does have a cost and the process can take several weeks. Once completed, the financial institution provides the deed for the cancellation of the loan and the official copy from the Land Registry indicating that the property is free of charges. 

We can do it ourselves

This is the cheapest option, although we still have to pay the notary and Land Registry fees.

We can remove the mortgage ourselves as follows:

• Request a zero debt certificate from your financial institution. This document shows that the mortgage loan has been repaid in full and is provided by the entity from which we got our mortgage.
• Take the zero debt certificate to a notary and request a repayment deed. The deed must be signed by a representative of the financial institution. The notary is responsible for administering the cancellation of the mortgage with the financial institution.
• Go to the Tax Agency office for your autonomous community and complete the Stamp Duty form (form 600). This can also be done electronically. This procedure is free.
• Once the representative of the financial institution has signed the cancellation deed issued by the notary, we can collect it and pay the fee.
• Once we have the cancellation deed, the stamped form 600, the receipt for having submitted it and the zero debt certificate, we can go to the Land Registry for the property's post code. The cancellation deed provides evidence for entry in the Register and Stamp Duty form 600 provides evidence for removing the charge from the mortgage registry entry.
• Finally, it is a good idea to request an official copy from the Property Registry to confirm that all the procedures have been carried out properly. This document allows us to verify and demonstrate that there is no longer a mortgage on the property.

This official copy can be requested in person from the Land Registry or using the internet.