Mortgage

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A mortgage (Law French for "dead pledge") is a device used to create a lien on real estate by contract. It is used as a method by which individuals or businesses can buy residential or commercial property without paying the full value upfront. The borrower (also called the mortgagor) uses a mortgage to pledge real property to the lender (also called the mortgagee) as security against the debt (also called hypothecation) for the rest of the value of the property. In legal terms, the creation of a mortgage gives the legal title of the land to the mortgagee and an equitable title (called "equity of redemption") to the mortgagor. The legal title, however, only exists as a security for a debt and does not convey any title or powers associated real property.

The mortgage instrument contains two parts:

  • the mortgage, which is the pledge
  • the note, which is the actual evidence of the debt and promise to repay (sometimes called a promissory note).

To protect the lender, a mortgage is recorded in the public records creating a lien (when there are multiple liens, order of recording determines priority). Since mortgage debt is often the largest debt owed by the debtor, banks and other mortgage lenders run title searches of the real property to make certain that the lien of the mortgage is prior to anyone else's claim. Tax liens, in some cases, will come ahead of mortgages. For this reason, if a borrower has delinquent property taxes, the bank will often pay them to prevent the lienholder from foreclosing and wiping out the mortgage.


Wikipedia article (the free online encyclopedia) reproduced under the terms of the GNU (General Public License) Free Documentation License.

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