How to discharge a mortgage in Australia

What a discharge of mortgage actually is

When you borrow to buy property, you sign two things. The loan contract is the debt: the amount, the rate, the repayments. The mortgage is the security for that debt, and it is registered against your property at the state land registry. Anyone who searches the title can see it. A discharge of mortgage is the dealing that removes that registration, so the title comes back clear.

While the mortgage is registered, you cannot sell the property or move the loan to another lender without the bank's involvement. That is the whole point of it, from the bank's side. Discharge is how the bank's claim is formally ended once the debt is repaid or replaced.

The three times you need one

Three events trigger a discharge, and the process differs a little for each.

• You have paid the loan out. You want a clean title and no open facility with the bank. You start this one yourself, and nobody else will start it for you.
• You are refinancing. The new lender needs first claim on the property, so the old mortgage is discharged and the new one is registered at the same settlement. The incoming lender and your broker drive the timetable.
• You are selling. The buyer must receive a clear title. Your discharge happens at settlement and the payout comes straight out of the sale money.

Refinancing is the most common trigger simply because of volume. Mortgage brokers settled a record 81.0 per cent of new residential home loans in the March 2026 quarter, according to the MFAA, and a good share of that is people moving an existing loan. Every one of those moves needs a discharge at the back end. If a broker is running yours, it helps to know how brokers find and handle clients in the first place.

The discharge authority form

Every lender has a form for this, usually called a discharge authority or a release authority. It is normally a few pages on the lender's website, and you can complete it before anything else is arranged. The form asks which property, which loan accounts, whether you want a full or partial discharge, and where the paperwork should go. If you are refinancing or selling, your conveyancer or new lender will usually ask you to sign it early, because it starts the clock.

The form belongs to your lender, not to a site like this one. Seek Mortgages is an independent publication. We do not sell loans or process discharges, so the version that matters is the one on your bank's website.

Why banks take two to four weeks

Banks commonly quote two to four weeks to action a discharge, and in busy periods it can run longer. Treat that range as typical rather than official, because no rule sets it. The delay has a few causes. Discharge requests go to a separate team, not your branch. The bank has to calculate a final payout figure, with interest to the day of settlement and any break cost on a fixed rate. A retention team may ring first to talk you out of leaving. And a departing customer is nobody's priority. So lodge the form as early as you can. It costs nothing to have it sitting in the queue.

The process from start to finish

1. Get the discharge authority in

   Download the discharge authority from the bank's website or ask for it, then complete it and send it back the way the form specifies.

2. Let the bank do its checks

   The discharge team confirms the payout figure, with interest to settlement day and any fixed rate break cost.

3. Settle

   On the day itself, the payout is made and the discharge is lodged with the land registry in the same electronic sitting.

4. Check the title

   Afterwards, a quick title search should show the mortgage gone, and the confirmation is worth keeping with your records.

What it costs

Two charges apply in most cases, plus a third that catches fixed rate borrowers.

The bank's discharge or settlement fee is typically a few hundred dollars, and most lenders sit somewhere between $150 and $400. Treat that as a typical range, not a quoted one. Moneysmart lists this fee among the costs to check when you close a loan, and your own contract or fee schedule has the exact figure.

The land registry charges a lodgement fee to record the discharge. In New South Wales it is $182.73 including GST for the 2026/27 year. Each state and territory registry sets its own fee, so the number varies around the country.

If part of your loan is fixed, a break cost can apply on early payout. It is not a discharge fee, but it lands in the same payout figure and it can dwarf the other two combined. Ask for it in writing before you commit to a settlement date.

PEXA and electronic settlement

Most discharges now settle electronically through PEXA, an online platform where the banks, the land registry and the conveyancers meet in a shared workspace. The payout money moves and the discharge registers in the same sitting, so there is no gap between paying the bank and clearing the title. PEXA says its network helps over 20,000 families a week settle their homes. In New South Wales, electronic lodgement has been compulsory since October 2021.

Why the bank holds the title until discharge

Older borrowers remember the bank keeping the paper certificate of title in a vault until the loan was repaid. That world is mostly gone. New South Wales cancelled paper certificates on 11 October 2021, and the electronic register is now the record of who owns what. The control has not gone anywhere, though. While a mortgage is registered, the lender holds the right to deal with the title, which is why nothing moves without its sign off. Discharge is the moment that control comes back to you.

A zero balance does not discharge the mortgage

Here is the trap in full. You make the last repayment, the balance shows zero, and you assume the job is done. It is not. The mortgage stays registered until a discharge is lodged, and banks leave the loan facility open by default, partly so you can redraw. People find the old registration years later, in the middle of a sale, and lose days or weeks getting a long closed loan formally discharged. Sometimes the bank that wrote it has since merged with another one, which slows things further.

Some owners leave the mortgage on the title on purpose. A registered mortgage makes title fraud harder, and borrowing against the property later can be simpler with the facility still open. That is a fair choice, but it should be a choice. If you are unsure which way to go, that is a question for your conveyancer or another licensed professional rather than a general guide.

Where to read next

If your discharge is part of a refinance, it helps to know what the sharpest borrowers qualify for, which is covered in our guide to prime home loans. And if the mortgage on your title belongs to a private lender rather than a bank, the discharge works the same way, though the paperwork is often less polished.

Common questions