Information about property records can be found by contacting your local Secretary of State or county registrar of deeds. After paying the mortgage, the lender must also return the original promissory note to you. You can also contact the company that canceled your loan to find out if the lien has been released. Go to the county registrar's office or local court to find registered mortgages.
In states such as California, deeds, liens, mortgage documents, and various types of land documents are available for review at the registrar's office. Check with your tax advisor or other municipal office where you live for more information. You can also find information in court records that hasn't been updated on several websites. If you receive a document from the lender or county that is a “mortgage release” (or similar) and the document states that it has been registered by the county, that document is enough to know that the county shows that your mortgage lien is released.
But how can you tell if the document has been registered or filed? Usually, the document will have stickers, stamps, or ink marks with the registrar's office or filing office in the upper right corner of the document; sometimes they are placed somewhere else on the page, but it's usually quite visible and clear that a document has those marks. Each state has different laws, called “registration statutes,” regarding housing deeds and mortgage documents. Although requirements vary from state to state, each state requires formal registration of real property with a county office for it to be valid. This means that almost all properly registered properties will have a mortgage record in the public file (provided there have been mortgages).
Regardless of the registration law that applies in the jurisdiction, a mortgage already registered in the land registers puts all subsequent lenders on constructive notice of the superior's claim. Among the many documents executed in a closing, the promissory note may be the most important for the mortgage. The promissory note is a fundamental legal document in the mortgage process and has become more complicated over time as it has become more common for investors to buy and sell mortgages as securities.
