Mortgage

If you were to be asked to describe and give a definition for the word mortgage, would you be able to, because it is surprising how few people know what they really are. Some people have gotten into the habit of calling them mortgage home loans but that isn't right at all as they are not loans at all. BTW, I found a site about housing reforms in Spanish: reformas viviendas. The mortgagor is the person who owes money to the mortgagee (the person who finances the deal) using a legal contract called a mortgage. To safeguard the interests of the lender, this document provides a form of security in the event the debt cannot be repaid.

The mortgage has made it possible for people and companies to buy properties with only a small percentage of the purchase price as a deposit. Misunderstandings on how the system works also create problems but the main points are dealt with during the rest of this article. Being the financier, the mortgagee is the person who lends funds to the mortgagor or borrower. The property has a lien, which is the legal ownership of the property by the mortgagee until the agreement between the two parties has been fulfilled.

The property therefore becomes its own form of security for the finance that has been supplied to purchase the property. Records of this are normally kept in the public records section of the county courthouse or a similar establishment. Ownership of the property is then yours and cannot be transferred to anyone else until you have paid off the amount required to reverse the lien. Even if your property is mortgaged, you still own the property wholly and completely and nobody else, not even the mortgagee has title to the property.

The only right the mortgagee has over the property now is if payments are missed and the property needs to be sold so the mortgagee can recoup his funds. Should they need to reclaim these costs then the case will be held in court and the procedure called foreclosure will be started. This is a legally recognized process that must take place often referred to as 'judicial foreclosure'. This is only a short introduction as the subject is much more complex but this information should make this important issue much clearer.


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Dolores Calpito