At maturity your mortgage is genuinely mobile. The term has run its course, and you can renew where you are or take the balance to a different lender. That much most people know.
What fewer people know is that one detail decides how simple that move is, and it was settled years ago on the day you signed. It is the way your lender registered the mortgage against your title — as a standard charge or as a collateral charge. Neither one is better than the other in the abstract. But knowing which one you have, a few months before your term is up, gives you a much clearer picture of what your renewal actually looks like.
The good news is that it takes about ten minutes to find out.
Two ways a mortgage goes on title
When you take out a mortgage in British Columbia, the lender registers a charge against your property at the Land Title Office. There are two common forms.
A standard charge does one job. As the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada describes it, “a standard charge only secures the mortgage. It doesn’t secure any other loans you may have with your lender, like a line of credit.” The lender registers the charge for the exact amount of your mortgage.
A collateral charge is broader. Again from FCAC: “with a collateral charge mortgage, you may secure multiple loans with your lender. This includes a mortgage and a line of credit.” And, importantly, “the lender may register a charge higher than the amount of your mortgage. This allows you to borrow additional funds on top of your original mortgage in the future.”
That last part is the whole point of a collateral charge, and it is a real benefit. If you later want to add a home equity line of credit or increase your borrowing, the registration is already there with room in it. FCAC puts the advantage plainly: “you avoid paying fees to discharge your mortgage and register a new one.” Readvanceable products — a mortgage and a HELOC packaged together under a lender’s own brand name — are almost always set up this way.
So a collateral charge buys you flexibility with your current lender. The trade-off is that the flexibility lives with that lender.
Where it shows up at renewal
If you renew with your existing lender, charge type makes no practical difference. You sign the new term and the registration stays as it is.
It shows up when you move. FCAC’s renewal guidance notes that switching can involve “setup fees with the new lender, which may include discharge, registration, transfer and/or assignment fees,” plus an appraisal where one is needed — and that the new lender may cover some or all of those costs. That is true of any switch.
With a collateral charge there is one extra step worth planning for. Because the charge can secure more than the mortgage, FCAC notes that if you want to move, you may need to repay or transfer all of the loans secured by that charge — which could include a line of credit or a car loan sitting behind it. If you have a HELOC balance under the same registration, that balance needs a home before the mortgage leaves.
There is a second wrinkle worth knowing about, and it is one I would rather you hear early than late. When OSFI removed the minimum qualifying rate from straight switches in November 2024, it defined a straight switch as an existing stand-alone uninsured mortgage, moving from one federally regulated institution to another, “with no increases in the remaining contractual mortgage amortization period or the loan amount.” The balance may rise by up to $3,000 to cover transaction costs, and equity take-out is not permitted. I wrote about that change in more detail in renewing in 2026.
Read those two things together and the planning point is obvious: if there is a line of credit bundled into your charge, it is worth deciding what happens to it well before your maturity date, rather than in the last three weeks.
How to check yours in BC
Two routes, and I would do both.
Ask your lender. Since 2014, Canada’s major banks have committed to providing clear information on how their collateral charge mortgages compare with conventional ones — specifically on transferring to a new lender, borrowing additional funds, and discharging the security. It is information they are set up to give you. Ask for it in writing.
Look at your own title. In BC your title is a public record, and you can order it yourself through an LTSA Explorer account. A title shows the registered owners, the legal description, the parcel identifier, and “the charges, liens and interests registered against the title.” You will need the nine-digit PID rather than a street address; you can find it on your property tax notice, through BC Assessment, or on ParcelMap BC.
The charge document itself — a Form B mortgage — records the principal amount registered. If that figure is noticeably larger than what you actually borrowed, you are very likely looking at a collateral charge.
The LTSA fee schedule, effective April 1, 2026, sets a title search at $11.06. For context on the other side of a switch, registering a charge is $83.82 and cancelling one is $33.53 — these are the government registration fees your lawyer or notary passes through, and they are frequently absorbed by an incoming lender competing for your business.
What to do with the answer
Start about six months out. Once you know your charge type, the conversation gets specific: what does the incoming lender cover on the switch, will they take an assignment of the existing security rather than registering fresh, and what is the plan for any line of credit riding along behind the mortgage. Those three questions turn charge type from a piece of paperwork into a decision you control.
Keep in mind too that a new lender runs its own approval and may use different criteria from your current one, so giving the process room matters more than rushing it.
I have access to 50+ lenders, and there is no cost to you on a conventional mortgage. If your term is up within the next year, send me your mortgage statement and I will tell you what is registered, what your options are, and what a move would actually involve. You can read more on my mortgage renewal page, or just get in touch and we will look at it together.