Contractual Mortgage
A mortgage established by agreement between a property owner and a creditor — most commonly the bank granting a mortgage loan — and recorded in Section IV of the land and mortgage register to secure repayment.
Сфера дії: Польща.
Визначення
A contractual mortgage (hipoteka umowna) is the standard form of mortgage under the Act on Land and Mortgage Registers and Mortgage (6 July 1982), created when a property owner voluntarily agrees to secure a debt — overwhelmingly, a mortgage loan — with their property. The owner's declaration establishing the mortgage must generally be made in a form the bank accepts (in practice, most banks require it via a formal document rather than an ordinary private signature), after which the mortgage becomes legally effective only once entered in Section IV of the register — the entry itself, not the agreement, is what creates the mortgage.
The mortgage amount is typically set somewhat higher than the loan principal to also cover interest and enforcement costs in case of default, and it is expressed as a maximum sum the bank can claim against the property. Once the loan is fully repaid, the mortgage does not disappear automatically — the owner (or their new buyer) must apply to have it removed from the register.
Because a contractual mortgage binds the property rather than the borrower personally, a buyer purchasing a mortgaged property either pays off the existing loan as part of closing so the mortgage can be released, or — in some cases — takes over the loan and the mortgage together, subject to the bank's approval.
Приклади
A buyer takes out a mortgage loan to finance a purchase; as a condition of disbursing the funds, the bank requires a contractual mortgage to be entered in Section IV before it releases the money to the seller.
A seller who is still repaying their mortgage loan uses part of the buyer's purchase price to pay off the remaining balance at closing, after which the bank issues a consent for the mortgage entry to be removed from the register.
Як це впливає на купівлю та продаж
Buyers should never assume an existing contractual mortgage disappears just because the seller says the loan is "almost paid off" — until the register shows the entry removed, the mortgage still legally encumbers the property. Sellers benefit from starting the repayment and release paperwork with their bank as early as possible once a sale is agreed, since obtaining the bank's consent and having the register updated can take longer than either party expects.
