The release of mortgage is a notarial act that formalizes the cancellation of a mortgage registered on a property. It incurs specific fees, distinct from those of the mortgage loan itself, and applies to any borrower who sells their property or repays their loan before the end of the period covered by the mortgage registration.
Real estate security contribution and cancellation: the administrative mechanism
Before discussing overall costs, a technical point deserves to be made. The real estate security contribution is a tax collected by the land publicity service upon each cancellation of a mortgage registration. Its rate is now standardized across the entire territory, eliminating cost discrepancies between departments for this specific component of the fees.
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This standardization often goes unnoticed in notarial quotes, as the contribution is buried among other items. However, it represents a fixed and unavoidable part of the total. In practice, the notary submits the cancellation request to the land publicity service, which updates the property file. As long as this cancellation is not effective, the mortgage remains technically registered, even if the loan is paid off.
To better understand the release fees on Claravox, it is important to distinguish this contribution from the notary’s fees and registration duties, each of which follows its own calculation rules.
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Composition of mortgage release fees: what the bill covers
The release bill aggregates several items that the notary breaks down in their statement. Confusing them means losing all ability to verify.
- Notary fees: they are regulated and proportional to the initial amount of the loan secured by the mortgage. The notary does not freely set this rate; they apply a national scale with decreasing brackets.
- Registration duties: collected by the public treasury, they are added to the fees and represent a fixed percentage of the registered amount.
- Real estate security contribution: the tax described above, owed to the land publicity service for the effective cancellation.
- Various administrative fees: copies of documents, correspondence fees, expenses incurred by the notary’s office for dealings with administrations.
The total generally amounts to a few tenths of a percent of the initial loan capital. For a significant mortgage loan, the sum can represent several hundred euros, or even more depending on the secured amount.
Amiable or judicial release: two procedures, two cost logics
The amiable release occurs when the bank (the creditor) agrees to lift the mortgage. The notary drafts the deed, the bank gives its formal approval, and the cancellation proceeds with the land publicity service. Almost all releases fall under this scenario.
The judicial release becomes necessary when the creditor refuses to give their approval, for example, in the case of a dispute over the remaining balance due or disagreement on repayment conditions. The borrower must then go to court, which adds lawyer fees, court fees, and significantly extends timelines. This route remains rare, but it transforms an administrative formality into a contentious procedure whose cost can far exceed that of the classic release.
One point to remember: the judicial release does not guarantee a faster result. The timeline depends on the court’s backlog and the complexity of the case.
Avoiding release fees: the automatic expiration of the registration
The mortgage registration does not last forever. It automatically expires one year after the last payment of the loan it secures. If the loan is fully repaid and the owner does not need to sell within this timeframe, no release is necessary and no fees are incurred.
This automatic expiration represents the most direct savings for a borrower. The cancellation occurs without the notary’s intervention, without a deed, and without tax. The land publicity service updates the file by itself.
The reverse scenario, which triggers fees, occurs in two main cases:
- The sale of the property before the expiration of the registration period. The buyer and their notary require a property free of any mortgage. The release is then a prerequisite for signing the sales deed.
- The refinancing of a mortgage by another bank. The new lending institution requests the cancellation of the existing mortgage before registering its own guarantee.
Bank guarantee: the alternative that eliminates the problem
More and more banking institutions are offering guarantees as security for mortgage loans, replacing the mortgage. The principle: a guarantee organization stands as a guarantor to the bank. In the event of resale or early repayment, there is no mortgage registration to cancel, no release to request, and no associated notary fees.
The initial cost of the guarantee may be comparable to that of the mortgage, but the absence of release fees at the end makes this option financially advantageous over the total duration of the loan, especially for borrowers considering a resale before the loan term. Some guarantee organizations even refund part of the commission paid initially if the loan is repaid without incident.
This choice of security is made at the time of taking out the mortgage loan. Once the mortgage is registered, it is too late to switch to a guarantee without going through the release process.
The choice between mortgage and guarantee should be made during the loan negotiation, not at the time of resale. Release fees are not a foregone conclusion: they stem from a type of security that the borrower can, in most cases, avoid in advance. For those already committed with a mortgage, waiting for the automatic expiration remains the only way to escape the bill.