What is a discharge fee?

When you close off your home loan account with the lender due to no longer owing them any money this is called a 'home loan discharge'. There are a few reasons that you might discharge your home loan:

• Selling your home
• Refinancing your home loan
• Paying off the home loan in full
• Removing a guarantor from your mortgage

What is the process of a home loan discharge?

1. Inform your lender that you would like to discharge your mortgage
2. Fill in the Discharge Authority form provided by the lender and return them.
3. Next, your lender should prepare a Discharge Mortgage document. This document must be registered with the Land Titles office, your lender usually does this on your behalf.
4. You will pay off your loan on settlement date, whether it be via a final payment or refinancing to a new lender
5. Your home loan account will be closed

What is a discharge fee?

A discharge fee is charged by lenders, like an exit fee. This fee covers any legal and admin fees incurred by the lender when closing off your loan. This is amongst other fees payable to the Government. It is best to check with your lender how much the discharge fee is, as this figure will vary across different lenders.

However, because of our no fee promise, Unloan doesn’t charge any discharge fees. What’s more? We don’t charge annual, application, banking, account, transaction, or late fees! (Other third-party fees may apply. Government charges may apply. Your other lender may charge an exit fee when refinancing.)

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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.