Refinancing

THE PROCESS

MORTGAGE REFINANCING — THE PROCESS

YOU ARE TAKING OUT A NEW MORTGAGE ON YOUR EXISTING HOME AND YOU NEED A LAWYER TO HANDLE THE PAPERWORK. HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?
STEP 1

INITIAL CONTACT & COMMUNICATION


  • You sign a loan commitment with your mortgage broker or bank representative
  • The lender sends us their mortgage instructions
  • We make contact with you by phone, email or meeting to confirm our engagement.
  • We send you a letter detailing the process, costs, information to be exchanged, etc.

STEP 2

LAWYER’S SEARCHES AND TITLE INSURANCE


  • We obtain a summary of your title to the property to confirm the ownership and any outstanding charges, liens or claims against the property.  This is not a full title search, nor is one required since you already own the property.
  • We order title insurance for the new lender.  If you obtained title insurance at the time of your purchase, your existing owner’s policy is still effective for you; it just doesn’t cover the new lender.
  • For condos, we also need to obtain a status certificate from the condominium corporation to ensure the condo fees are up to date and the condominium corporation is in good financial shape (for the benefit of the lender).  This can take up to 10 days to obtain so the refinancing can not always be completed in just a few days.

STEP 3

DOCUMENT PREPARATION AND COORDINATION


  • We prepare the mortgage documents in accordance with the new lender’s instructions
  • We arrange for the new lender to send us the mortgage funds on the day of closing
  • We obtain discharge/payout statements from the old lender and other statements from you for any other debts needing to be paid out
  • We obtain confirmation of house insurance from your insurance agent showing the new lender on the insurance policy

STEP 4

PRE-CLOSING MEETING


  • We contact you in advance to schedule a meeting and advise what items you need to bring with you for the meeting
  • We meet with you (in person or via video) on or before closing:
    • Photocopy your ID (a legal requirement)
    • Review a detailed breakdown of the money coming in and going out of our trust account and your net proceeds
    • Review, explanation and signing of mortgage documents
    • Explanation of the closing process and when you can expect to receive your net proceeds

STEP 5

CLOSING AND REPORTING


  • We receive the new mortgage proceeds from the lender
  • We register the new mortgage against the title to your property in the Land Registry system
  • We contact you immediately to advise you that the transaction has closed and we then deposit your net proceeds into your bank account
  • We pay out the old mortgage and any other debts to be paid out.
  • We send our final reports to you, the lender and the title insurance company (a few weeks after closing)
  • We follow up with the old lender if necessary to confirm that they have removed the old mortgage from the title to your property

BUYING A HOME IS ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST DECISIONS IN LIFE. LET US GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE PROCESS.