Discharging your home loan

A home loan (mortgage) discharge occurs when the lender’s security interest (ie Macquarie’s registered mortgage) is removed from the title of the property secured against your home loan.

Your home loan accounts will be closed as part of the discharge process.

There are three main reasons to discharge your home loan:

1. selling your property
2. repaying your home loan in full
3. refinancing your home loan with another lender.

If you are seeking to merge your home loan account splits without discharging, see Closing an account for more information.

If you have more than one property securing your home loan and you want to release or sell one, leaving at least one of your loan accounts open, a partial discharge will occur. To complete the partial discharge process, we typically need up to 28 days’ notice.

If you are refinancing your home loan with another lender, call us on 1800 007 722 (+61 2 8245 4383), and select option 2, then option 2 again, between 8:30am - 5pm (Sydney time) Monday to Friday to start the process.

If you have sold your property, or if you want to repay your home loan in full, complete the discharge authority form. 

All parties to the loan will need to sign before you return it to us by email.  Wet ink signatures are required on the form and electronic signatures won’t be accepted.

It is important to ensure all sections of this form are completed and the information provided is accurate to avoid delays with processing your request. This form cannot be used for refinances. We may need to contact you to verify information provided relating to your discharge request.

If you’re selling a property in Victoria and want to arrange a Section 27 (S27), your solicitor or conveyancer can email the request to clientservices@mortgageinfo.com.au with the completed Discharge Authority form. We’ll send the required information to your solicitor or conveyancer. This is applicable to Victorian property settlements only, and only where early release of deposit funds has been requested.

1. We’ll instruct our solicitor, LegalStream within 3 business days of finalising your request to act on our behalf for the discharge. If you’re refinancing to another institution, your new lender will be in contact with them. Otherwise, LegalStream will get in contact with your authorised representative.

2. Preparing for discharge: Some important things for you and your authorised representative to remember when preparing for your discharge:

• Scheduling the discharge: Your solicitor will arrange for the discharge to be booked in with LegalStream. They can book this in via PEXA with LegalStream or contact LegalStream directly.  
• Repaying your home loan: If you are paying out your home loan in full with no sale or refinance, LegalStream will be in contact with you. They will provide you with a payout figure and payment instructions to be made on the day of the discharge.
• Account restrictions: If you need access to your available redraw, make sure you withdraw any funds required before we apply restrictions to your home loan.  You’ll be unable to access any available redraw from this time.
  • For loans with a BSB starting with 182, these restrictions will be applied on the day of discharge.  You’ll be unable to access any available funds in your loan account and we’ll stop debiting any loan repayments.
  • For loans with a BSB starting with 183, these restrictions will be applied four (4) business days prior to the discharge date and will also apply to your offset account. Once this restriction has been put in place, you won’t be able to access available funds in redraw and we’ll stop debiting any loan repayments.
• Postponing discharge date: If the discharge date changes, your authorised representative will need to speak with LegalStream. This will mean a new payout figure may need to be calculated. It’s important to note you’ll have to meet any contractual repayment obligations which fall due during this time.
• Cancelling the discharge: If you would like to cancel the discharge, your authorised representative can notify LegalStream. If your accounts have been restricted, please call us on 1800 007 722 (+61 2 8245 4383), 8am to 7pm (Sydney time) Monday to Friday, to help reinstate your access again.
• Updating your authorised representative: If you need to change your authorised representative at any point in the process, email mortgages@macquarie.com with the following details:
  • Representative’s name
  • Their company (if applicable)
  • Their phone number; and
  • Their email address.

3. Calculate payout figure: A payout figure is the total amount needed to pay out your loan.  We’ll send your payout figure to LegalStream to pass on to your authorised representative.

4. Discharge day: On the day of discharge, LegalStream and your authorised representative will arrange for your loan to be paid out and sign any documents.  Funds may take up to 48 hours to be received into your home loan account. Any surplus funds can be transferred to any account remaining open with us or an external bank account. If we don’t have any account details on file, we will be in contact with you.

5. Close your home loan accounts: After we’ve received confirmation of your successful discharge, we’ll close your loan account and remove it from your online banking. Please ensure you download any previous statements you may need before this occurs.

6. Your final statement will be sent to you:

• If you have a home loan account with a BSB starting with 182, your statement will be sent to you via your preferred method of either email or post. If you receive your statements via email, your final statement will be sent to you within 2 business days
• If you have a home loan account with a BSB starting with 183, your statement will be posted out to you. This will generally take two to six weeks to be received.

7. Updated property title: required updates to your property title will be submitted on the day of discharge and timeframe will vary depending on how the settlement occurred:

• PEXA – usually within 3 business days
• Non-PEXA – up to 10 weeks depending on state

Your solicitor will notify you of the updates made to your title.

If you are repaying your home loan, you will receive notification from LegalStream. If the title deeds for your property are ‘paper’, they will arrange for these to be sent to you.

After you’ve notified us of your discharge, you can get updates on the progress of your discharge via the contacts outlined below.

• Refinancing to another lender: you will need to contact the bank you’re refinancing to, to check the status of your settlement. They will schedule the discharge in with LegalStream when they are ready
• Sale: you will need to contact your solicitor or authorised representative to check the status of the settlement. They will engage and schedule the settlement in with all parties involved.
• Repaying your loan: please contact our solicitor, LegalStream on 02 9223 7919

Here are some tips to ensure your discharge occurs without delays:

• Notify us of your intention to discharge as soon as possible.
• When completing the Discharge Authority form, please ensure all required sections are completed and all borrowers sign with ‘pen to paper’. Electronic signatures will not be accepted, and this will delay the progress of your discharge.
• If you are refinancing to another lender, you will need to contact us.
• Ensure your authorised representative has invited LegalStream via PEXA and notified them of the discharge date.
• If you need to access funds, please ensure this is done in advance of restrictions being placed on your account/s. This is generally done four business days prior to your discharge date. Your authorised representative or refinancing lender will notify you of the scheduled discharge date.
• If you are repaying your home loan, please ensure funds required for the payout are transferred on the day of discharge to the account provided by LegalStream. If funds are not paid on the discharge date, a new payout figure will need to be provided to you.
• Paying your balance to zero will not automatically close your home loan facility and release the title. You can choose to leave your facility open, however if you choose to discharge, you will need to contact us.
• If your refinancing lender is seeking a settlement through FASTRefi, please note that you will still need to contact and notify us of your discharge request. 

The payout figure, explained below, is the amount required to payout your home loan facility. At discharge, you may have other fees and charges that need to be paid which can increase the total amount of funds needed for your discharge.

Please note, any transfers made into the home loan account once the payout figure is calculated will not go towards reducing your payout figure and will need to be returned. We will transfer the funds to your direct debit account. If you don’t have one on file, we will be in contact with you.

If you have a variable loan account, the payout figure is calculated two days before your discharge date.

For fixed loans, to determine the break costs, the payout figure is calculated the day before your discharge date.

Your payout figure is calculated by adding the below together: 

You’ll also need to consider what happens to your offset account/s currently linked to your home loan before you discharge.
 

Home loan account with a BSB starting with 182

Four business days prior to your discharge date, any offset account/s linked to your loan will usually be converted to transaction account/s and you’ll no longer receive any offset interest benefit on your home loan from your offset account/s. You’ll still be able to access your account online as normal and your account number and any debit card/s will remain the same.

If you want to use the money in your offset to reduce your payout figure, you’ll need to transfer the funds into your home loan before your home loan account is restricted.

If your discharge is cancelled, or postponed for more than 4 business days, we’ll convert the account back to an offset.

If your offset is converted to a transaction account, you can add a tax file number (TFN) or tax file number exemption on Macquarie Online Banking.

To add a TFN or TFN exemption:

1. Log into Macquarie Online Banking
2. Hover over your Macquarie Transaction Account, Macquarie Savings Account or Macquarie Cash Management Account with a BSB of 182-182
3. Select I want to
4. Select Provide tax details (or Manage tax details if you have already provided your tax details) in the menu drop-down
5. Follow the instructions to add your TFN or TFN exemption to your eligible accounts.
6. Please note, if you are a joint account holder, you can only update your own individual tax details.

If both account holders wish to update their tax details, each of you must log in with your own Macquarie ID and provide your own TFN or exemption.

It usually takes 2-3 business days for the accounts you select to be updated with your tax details. You will receive a notification in your bell icon when your account details have been updated.

If you would like to convert your transaction account back to an offset and link to another home loan account, please contact us on 1800 007 722 (+61 28245 4383), 8am to 7pm (Sydney time) Monday to Friday.
 

Home loan account with a BSB starting with 183

Four business days prior to settlement, we’ll restrict access to the funds available in the account so we can calculate your payout figure. Any available funds in your offset account at that time will be used to reduce your payout figure. When your home loan is discharged, your offset account will be closed at the same time.

For example, if you have $50,000 in your offset account and $450,000 balance on your home loan, not including any other costs associated with the discharge, your total payout figure would be reduced by $50,000 as we have used the funds in the offset account to reduce the final payout figure. (All figures are approximate only.)

If you don’t want to use the money in your offset to reduce your final payout figure, you’ll need to transfer the funds before access is restricted.