Your Mortgage : What Should Be Done After Mortgage Repaid

QUESTION: I will be paying off a 20-year mortgage this November. If this mortgage were with a conventional lender such as an S&L;, I would leave the burden of the necessary paper work up to the lender, but the mortgage is carried by the former owner.

What documents should he provide me as proof that the mortgage has been paid off, and should he notify the county tax assessor-collector to remove the mortgage from the property? I have the abstract and the deed to the property in my possession.

ANSWER: I don’t like to disillusion you, but having the mortgage held by a “conventional lender” wouldn’t necessarily make the handling of the paper work at a time like this one bit easier. With an individual holding the mortgage you can, at least, get his attention, which is not always the case with an institution.

State laws vary on the paper work (so you should check with a local lawyer or real estate person) but you can either get a “Reconveyance Deed,” or a “Release of Mortgage” from a stationer (or, for that matter, the original of the debt document itself with a simple “notice of payment in full” stamped on it) and have it filled out and executed by the mortgage holder, with a notary public at the ready.

It’s your responsibility, not the former owner’s, to see that the form is recorded with either the county clerk or the county recorder (this also varies). Since there’s apparently been no third party involved in this to handle any impounds of taxes and insurance I assume that you have been taking care of these yourself, and so no change in procedure seems called for.

Campbell, a retired Times staff writer, now is a Phoenix-based free-lance writer. Questions can be sent to Campbell at P.O. Box 80260, Phoenix, Ariz. 85060.