Mortgage Forms in United States

Practical Information

Note: Some of this information was last updated in 1982

More about mortgages in the Encyclopedia here. The forms of mortgages most commonly used are the form that might be termed the conventional mortgage and the form variously called a trust deed, deed of trust, trust indenture, or trust mortgage.

A conventional mortgage is essentially a deed from the borrower to the lender, which contains a provision, known as the defeasance clause, that the mortgage shall be void on payment of the debt.

The additional provisions, which appear in fine print in the printed form, vary with the state.

A deed of trust conveys the land to a third party instead of directly to the I lender. The third party holds the prop

erty in trust for the lender until the debt is paid in accordance with the terms of the trust deed. Traditionally, in the District of Columbia and the following states, the deed of trust was more commonly used than the conventional mortgage: Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. In the other states, a deed of trust is seldom used.

Some states have short statutory forms of mortgages, which save space when recorded. The brief statutory forms are amplified by statute and therefore are not used outside the state of origin. Many careful conveyancers feel that the short statutory form does not protect the mortgagee sufficiently.

(Revised by Ann De Vries)

What is Mortgage Forms?

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