Mortgages Explained

Many of the things that people believe about mortgages that are actually false.  A popular term for one is a mortgage home loan although it should never be referred to as a loan because it isn't. A mortgage is a legal document between a mortgagor or the buyer and the mortgagee or the finance supplier and consists of a way for a person to purchase a property using it as security. In fact, in reality, this isn't the debt but the security required by the lender to protect their interests for the duration of the term.

A mortgage is used as a method by which individuals or businesses can purchase residential or commercial property without paying the full value upfront. The following information will give a more rounded understanding of how the whole process operates.

Unfortunately it is our own common use of word like Borrower and Lender that has mislead people into thinking a mortgage is a loan when they should be referred to as Mortgagor and Mortgagee respectively. The security is in fact a lien which means the mortgagee has legal possession of your property until the debt is repaid.


The mortgagee's money is then protected by this knowing the property is in fact security against its own debt. Records of this are normally kept in the public records section of the county courthouse or a similar establishment. This is now a recorded legal agreement and cannot be reversed until the full balance of the debt is cleared.


This act makes the purchase and the ownership of the house official and no-one can transfer this ownership until the debt is fully paid off. While the mortgagee has legal possession of the property, he does not own it or have the title to it, the legal owner is the mortgagor.


This means the only occasion that can arise whereby the mortgagee can legally sell your home is if you stop making payments and it needs to be sold to repay the finance used to purchase it. This is the dreaded process referred to as foreclosure but if the property is used as security, then the foreclosure must go through the court system.

This is a legally recognized process that must take place often referred to as 'judicial foreclosure'. Obviously there is much more to the subject than this, but these are the basic foundations upon which the mortgaging system has been constructed.

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