Everything you need to know about discharging your mortgage

We delve into what discharging your home loan means and how to do it.

What does it mean to discharge your mortgage?

A mortgage discharge is when a mortgage securing your home loan is removed from the title of your property once you’ve repaid your home loan in full.

What is a Discharge Authority form?

A discharge authority form is used to release the security (e.g. a property) provided by borrowers for home loans.

There are various reasons for requesting a mortgage discharge process. This includes when:

  • You sell a property
  • You refinance your home loan with another bank or financial institution
  • You’ve repaid your home loan
  • You’re substituting an existing security for a new one (e.g. selling an existing property and purchasing a new one, while keeping your existing loan)
  • You want to release a guarantor from your home loan account

Your current loan needs to be discharged at your state's Land Titles Office before we can settle your new home loan. To initiate the process, contact your current mortgage broker or lender and request a Discharge Authority form to complete. Please ensure that all borrowers on your current sign this mortgage discharge form.

Each lender may have their own Discharge Authority form, but here are two typical questions you may be asked:

  1. Who is your chosen settlement agent, conveyancer, or solicitor?
  2. What is the expected settlement date?

FMS is our settlement agent, and their details are:

Company: FMS/First Legal

Phone: 1300 360 757

Email: [email protected]

If you're refinancing, providing an expected settlement date may not be mandatory, hence, you could opt to leave that field empty. If you need to provide a date, you could consider specifying a date that is approximately two weeks from the day of filling in the mortgage document discharge form.

What happens after I complete the Discharge Authority form?

Please follow the instructions provided in your settlement document pack. You will need to send us:

  • The completed Discharge Authority form
  • New mortgage documents
  • Certificate of Currency (if relevant, please see ‘What is a Certificate of Currency’ to learn more)

You can either choose to:

  • Upload these documents by visiting app.unloan.com.au or
  • Send them back via the provided AusPost satchel

We recommend sending a duplicate of the Discharge Authority form to your current lender.

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This article is intended to provide general information only. It does not have regard to the financial situation or needs of any reader and must not be relied upon as financial product advice. Please consider seeking financial advice before making any decision based on this information.‍

Unloan is a division of Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Applications are subject to credit approval, satisfactory security and you must have a minimum 20% equity in the property. Minimum loan amount $10,000, maximum loan amount $10,000,000, and total borrowings per customer across all Unloan loans is $10,000,000. (For purchase loans a minimum 10% equity is required - however a Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) premium and higher interest rate apply. In some cases, depending on the property’s location or type, an LMI premium may also be required for LVR between 70.01% to 80%). For loans with Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) the minimum loan amount is $10,000, maximum loan amount is $3,000,000 and total borrowings per customer across all Unloan loans is limited to $3,000,000).

Unloan offers a 0.01% per annum discount on the Unloan Live-In rate or Unloan Invest rate upon settlement. On each anniversary of your loan’s settlement date (or the day prior to the anniversary of your loan’s settlement date if your loan settled on 29th February and it is a leap year) the margin discount will increase by a further 0.01% per annum up to a maximum discount of 0.30% per annum. Unloan may withdraw this discount at any time. The discount is applied for each loan you have with Unloan.

*At Unloan, we do not charge any annual, application, banking, account, transaction, late or exit fees. In certain circumstances you may be required to pay a Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) premium. Learn more about why this is applied and how it works. Government fees may also apply. Learn more about government fees here. Your current lender may charge an exit fee when refinancing.

This article is intended to provide general information only. It does not have regard to the financial situation or needs of any reader and must not be relied upon as financial product advice. Please consider seeking financial advice before making any decision based on this information.

Unloan is a division of Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Applications are subject to credit approval; satisfactory security and you must have a minimum 20% equity in the property. Minimum loan amount $10,000, maximum loan amount $10,000,000.

^ Unloan offers a 0.01% per annum discount on the Unloan Live-In rate or Unloan Invest rate upon settlement. On each anniversary of your loan’s settlement date (or the day prior to the anniversary of your loan’s settlement date if your loan settled on 29th February and it is a leap year) the margin discount will increase by a further 0.01% per annum up to a maximum discount of 0.30% per annum. This discount is applied to each loan that you have with Unloan. If you have multiple loans (e.g. one investor and one live-in loan), they will each have a discount calculated based on when you settled each loan. Unloan may withdraw this discount at any time.

There are no fees from Unloan. However, there are some mandatory Government costs depending on your state when switching your home loan. For convenience, Unloan adds this amount to the loan balance on settlement.

* Other third-party fees may apply. Government charges may apply. Your other lender may charge an exit fee when refinancing.

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Calculations are not a loan approval. Applications are subject to credit approval, satisfactory security and minimum deposit requirements. Full terms and conditions will be set out in our loan offer, if an offer is made.

^Rates shown are inclusive of a 0.01% p.a. discount off our reference rate. On each anniversary of your loan’s settlement date, you will receive an additional discount of 0.01% per annum, up to a maximum discount of 0.30% per annum. For purchase loans with a Loan to Value Ratio (LVR) between 80.01% - 90% LVR, a lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) premium and higher interest rate apply. In some cases depending on the property’s location or type, LMI may also be required for LVR between 70.01% and 80%.

*Comparison rate is calculated on a $150,000 secured loan over a 25 year term. WARNING: This comparison rate is true only for the examples given and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate.

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