Discharge forms
Discharge forms,lender by lender
The form each lender wants, where to send it, how long they take and what it costs.
A discharge authority is the form that tells your lender to release its mortgage over your property. You need one to sell, to refinance to another lender, or to close out a loan you’ve paid off. Seven of the sixteen lenders below publish a processing time and five publish a fee. Allow three weeks end to end. Checked against the lenders’ own pages, not copied from somewhere else.
- Lenders covered
- 16
- Publish a time
- 7 of 16
- Publish a fee
- 5 of 16
- Last checked
- 8 September 2026
Pick your lender
Where a lender doesn’t publish a figure, we say so rather than borrowing one from a comparison site.
What sixteen lenders have in common
Most of them won’t tell you what this costs or how long it takes. Five publish a fee. Seven publish a timeframe. And four — Ubank, BOQ, Suncorp and AMP — don’t publish the form at all: you have to ring and ask, which is a retention call as much as a process step.
That’s worth knowing before you start. Budget for a phone call and a fee you can’t look up, and read your loan contract for the number rather than trusting a figure you found online.
The part people get wrong
The discharge form is not the last step of a refinance. It’s one of the first. Two lenders have to settle on the same day, and nothing can be booked until your current lender has processed the release. Lodge it when your new loan is formally approved, and the rest of the timeline has room to work.
Leave it until the week before and you’ll be the reason settlement moves — which, if you’re selling, can mean penalty interest under the contract.
Selling and refinancing run differently
Selling
- The loan is paid out of the sale proceeds
- Your conveyancer runs the settlement
- Lodge the form once the contract is unconditional
- Tell your conveyancer the date you sent it
Refinancing
- Two lenders settle simultaneously
- The incoming lender drives it
- Your existing lender sets the pace
- Nothing books until the discharge is processed
Common questions
What is a mortgage discharge authority?
It's the form that tells your lender to release its mortgage over your property. You need one whether you're selling, refinancing to another lender, or paying the loan off entirely. Lenders use different names for it — discharge authority, discharge and variation authority, release form, property and security request — but it does the same job.
How long does a mortgage discharge take in Australia?
ANZ and NAB both ask for at least 10 business days from receiving your signed form, and the longest published figure is 21 business days. The other nine lenders we checked don't publish a timeframe at all. Allow three weeks end to end, because the form is only the first step — your conveyancer and, if you're refinancing, the incoming lender still have to book settlement around it.
What does it cost to discharge a mortgage?
Of the sixteen lenders we checked, only five publish a figure — St.George $350, Bank of Melbourne $350, BankSA $350, ME $350 and AMP $490. Everyone else sets it in your loan contract, so check your letter of offer or the fees and charges booklet from settlement. Two costs sit alongside it: a land titles registration fee, and break costs if you're still inside a fixed term. Break costs are the one that can run into thousands.
What does it mean when a mortgage is discharged?
The lender's mortgage has been removed from the property's title, so the lender no longer has a claim over it. It happens in two steps: you lodge the lender's discharge authority, then the lender (or your conveyancer, at settlement) registers the discharge with the state land titles office. Paying the loan to zero is not the same thing. A paid-out loan with the mortgage still registered is common, and it only surfaces when you next sell, refinance or borrow.
Should I discharge my mortgage after paying it off?
Yes, and promptly. Nothing removes the mortgage from your title until you ask. Until then a sale or a new loan has to wait for your old lender's processing time, and some lenders keep charging account or package fees on a loan that is paid out but not closed. The lender pages below have each bank's form and where to send it.
When should I lodge the discharge form?
If you're selling, once the contract goes unconditional. If you're refinancing, as soon as your new loan is formally approved — not after, because settlement can't be booked until your current lender has processed the form.
Every figure on these pages comes from the lender’s own discharge page, with the date it was checked shown on each one. Where a lender doesn’t publish something — most of them don’t publish a fee — we say so rather than repeating a number from elsewhere.
Refinancing? Check the new rate covers the costs
Discharge fees, break costs and registration fees all come off the saving. Worth knowing the real number before you lodge anything.
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