Assignment of Deed of Trust by Individual Mortgage Holder
Assignments Generally:
Lenders, or holders of mortgages or deeds of trust, often assign mortgages or deeds of trust
to other lenders, or third parties. When this is done the assignee
(person who received the assignment) steps into the place of the original
lender or assignor. To effectuate an assignment, the general rule
is that the assignment must be in proper written format and recorded to
provide notice of the assignment.
Satisfactions Generally:
Once a mortgage or deed of trust is paid, the holder of the mortgage is required to satisfy
the mortgage or deed of trust of record to show that the mortgage or deed
of trust is no longer a lien on the property. The general rule is that
the satisfaction must be in proper written format and recorded to provide
notice of the satisfaction. If the lender fails to record a satisfaction
within set time limits, the lender may be responsible for damages set by
statute for failure to timely cancel the lien. Depending on your state,
a satisfaction may be called a Satisfaction, Cancellation, or Reconveyance.
Some states still recognize marginal satisfaction but this is slowly being
phased out. A marginal satisfaction is where the holder of the mortgage
physically goes to the recording office and enters a satisfaction on the
face of the the recorded mortgage, which is attested by the clerk.
Washington Law
Execution of Assignment or Satisfaction:
Whenever the amount due on any mortgage is paid, the mortgagee or the mortgagee's
legal representatives or assigns shall, at the request of any person interested
in the property mortgaged, execute an instrument in writing referring to
the mortgage by the volume and page of the record or otherwise sufficiently
describing it and acknowledging satisfaction in full thereof. Said instrument
shall be duly acknowledged. An Assignment must be executed by the
mortgage holder.
Assignment:
An assignment must be in writing and recorded.
Demand to Satisfy:
Whenever the amount due on any mortgage is paid, the mortgagee shall, within sixty days
of receipt of the request of any person interested in the property mortgaged,
execute an instrument referring to the mortgage by the volume and page
of the record and acknowledging satisfaction in full thereof.
Recording Satisfaction:
An instrument acknowledging satisfaction shall be, upon request, recorded in the county wherein the
property is situated. The Trustee shall record the reconveyance
of the property to the person entitled thereto upon receipt of the written
request.
Penalty:
If the mortgagee fails to acknowledge
satisfaction of the mortgage sixty days from the date of such request or
demand, the mortgagee shall forfeit and pay to the mortgagor damages and
a reasonable attorneys' fee.
Acknowledgment:
An assignment or satisfaction must contain a proper Washington acknowledgment, or other acknowledgment
approved by Statute.
Washington Statutes
RCW 61.24.020 - Deeds subject to all mortgage laws--Foreclosure--Recording
and indexing--Trustee and beneficiary, separate entities, exception.
Except as provided in this chapter, a deed
of trust is subject to all laws relating to mortgages on real property.
A deed conveying real property to a trustee in trust to secure the performance
of an obligation of the grantor or another to the beneficiary may be foreclosed
by trustee's sale. The county auditor shall record the deed as a mortgage
and shall index the name of the grantor as mortgagor and the names of the
trustee and beneficiary as mortgagee. No person, corporation or association
may be both trustee and beneficiary under the same deed of trust:
PROVIDED, That any agency of the United States government may be both trustee
and beneficiary under the same deed of trust. A deed of trust conveying
real property that is used principally for agricultural purposes may be
foreclosed as a mortgage. Pursuant to *RCW 62A.9-501(4), when a deed of
trust encumbers both real and personal property, the trustee is authorized
to sell all or any portion of the grantor's interest in that real and personal
property at a trustee's sale.
RCW 61.24.110 - Reconveyance by trustee.
The trustee shall reconvey all or any part of the property encumbered
by the deed of trust to the person entitled thereto on written request
of the beneficiary, or upon satisfaction of the obligation secured and
written request for reconveyance made by the beneficiary or the person entitled
thereto.
RCW 61.16.010 - Assignments, how made--Satisfaction by assignee.
Any person to whom any real estate mortgage is
given, or the assignee of any such mortgage, may, by an instrument in
writing, signed and acknowledged in the manner provided by law entitling
mortgages to be recorded, assign the same to the person therein named
as assignee, and any person to whom any such mortgage has been so assigned,
may, after the assignment has been recorded in the office of the auditor
of the county wherein such mortgage is of record, acknowledge satisfaction
of the mortgage, and discharge the same of record.
RCW 61.16.020 - Mortgages, how satisfied of record.
Whenever the amount due on any mortgage is paid, the mortgagee
or the mortgagee's legal representatives or assigns shall, at the request
of any person interested in the property mortgaged, execute an instrument
in writing referring to the mortgage by the volume and page of the record
or otherwise sufficiently describing it and acknowledging satisfaction
in full thereof. Said instrument shall be duly acknowledged, and upon
request shall be recorded in the county wherein the mortgaged property
is situated. Every instrument of writing heretofore recorded and purporting
to be a satisfaction of mortgage, which sufficiently describes the mortgage
which it purports to satisfy so that the same may be readily identified,
and which has been duly acknowledged before an officer authorized by law
to take acknowledgments or oaths, is hereby declared legal and valid, and
a certified copy of the record thereof is hereby constituted prima facie
evidence of such satisfaction.
RCW 61.16.030 - Failure to acknowledge satisfaction of mortgage--Damages--Order.
If the mortgagee fails to acknowledge satisfaction of the mortgage
as provided in RCW 61.16.020 sixty days from the date of such request
or demand, the mortgagee shall forfeit and pay to the mortgagor damages
and a reasonable attorneys' fee, to be recovered in any court having
competent jurisdiction, and said court, when convinced that said mortgage
has been fully satisfied, shall issue an order in writing, directing the
auditor to immediately record the order.
