Paid off the loan? Check the mortgage is off your title

Order a current title search. Once the registry registers the discharge, the mortgage no longer appears on the current title. If it's still listed, with the lender's name and a dealing number, it hasn't been discharged yet. A dealing is any document registered against a title; the mortgage has one number, and the discharge gets another.

If the lender has lodged the discharge but the registry hasn't registered it yet, the title usually lists it as a pending or unregistered dealing. Victoria's Register Search Statement also lists activity from the last 125 days, so a recently registered discharge shows there.

• The discharge form hasn't been signed. Most lenders need a signed discharge authority from you before they act. A zero balance on its own doesn't trigger it.
• The lender is still processing it. Lenders commonly quote 10 to 21 business days after they receive a complete form, and some take longer. An incomplete form is a common cause of delay.
• The loan account is still open. A redraw, offset or line of credit can keep the mortgage in place even at a zero balance.
• It was paid off years ago but never discharged. This happens, especially with loans that weren't paid out as part of a sale. The lender, or the bank that took it over, can still discharge it.
• There's more than one mortgage. A second loan with a different lender needs its own discharge.

1. 1Check the title. Note the lender's name and the mortgage's dealing number.
2. 2Ask your lender for its discharge authority form, or confirm it has the one you sent. Ask what fees apply and when it expects to lodge the discharge.
3. 3If the lender named on the title has merged or been renamed, contact the bank that took it over. A conveyancer or solicitor can help with an old mortgage from a lender that no longer exists.
4. 4Once the lender confirms the discharge is registered, order another title search to see the mortgage gone.

Your name or names as owners, the land, and any easements or covenants. No mortgage. Easements and covenants stay, because they belong to the land, not the loan.

Plenty of people print that clean title and keep it, or frame it. It's the registry's own record that the house is yours outright.

The Title search answers the question: the mortgage is listed or it isn't. In NSW, VIC, SA, TAS, the ACT and the NT, the one-page summary says so in plain English. In Queensland and WA you get the official PDF, where mortgages are listed by lender name.

The Title + Full Report adds a mortgage-discharge check, every entry explained beside its original text, and a printable ownership summary for your records. It's available everywhere except WA, and Queensland for now.