We received another question from a viewer this week: “I paid off my mortgage, but I received a document in the mail, is this document important?”
Yes, this document is very important. If you paid off your mortgage or somebody else paid off your mortgage through a refinance or a sale, then the document that you receive needs to be recorded with that County’s Registry of Deeds.
When you grant a mortgage to a lender the mortgage gets recorded with the Registry of Deeds. Granting a mortgage places a lien on your property. This lien needs to be released once it is paid in full. These liens can be called mortgage discharges, releases of mortgage, or satisfaction of mortgage. While there are many different names for this document, it will always be notarized and often have a raised seal.
Say for example, you have a home equity line of credit. If you paid this off and your lender sends you one of these documents back they will alert you that the document needs to be recorded or if it is just a duplicate copy.
If you receive the original copy, you should bring it to the Registry of Deeds to have it recorded. You are always welcome to bring it to our office, so we can verify that it is accurate and help you record it.
If you would like more information about releases of mortgage, contact Stiles Law at (781) 319-1900.
Copyright © 2019 Stiles Law, All rights reserved. Stiles Law is a Massachusetts licensed law firm and all content is based on Massachusetts law. The information presented above is meant to be used for general informational purposes and it should not be construed as legal advice or legal opinion on any specific facts.