🔒 Decoding Property Mortgages: Historical Context to Modern Practice

Law Sessions With Jennifer Housen’s Podcast

Subscriber-only episode

Mortgages represent one of the more accessible topics in land law, despite fundamental misconceptions about how they legally operate and the historical changes in property ownership they've undergone.
• Mortgages are not given by banks—borrowers give mortgages to banks as security for loans
• The mortgagee (lender/bank) receives the security while the mortgagor (borrower/homeowner) provides it
• Key terms include charge (rights conferred to the lender), redemption (right to repay), and equity of redemption (totality of mortgagor's equitable rights)
• Before 1925, legal ownership transferred entirely to lenders during mortgage periods
• The Law of Property Act 1925 transformed mortgages, allowing borrowers to maintain legal ownership
• Two primary commercial types exist: acquisition mortgages (for initial purchases) and non-acquisition mortgages (using existing property as security)
• Equity historically intervened to protect borrowers from unfair lender practices
In our next session, we'll continue examining the current position of mortgages since the 1925 reforms.
💡⚖️ Let’s learn the law together—one session at a time!

Chapters

1. Decoding Property Mortgages: Historical Context to Modern Practice (00:00:00)

2. Introduction to Mortgage Law (00:00:33)

3. Key Definitions and Terminology (00:02:04)

4. Types of Mortgages Explained (00:04:58)

5. Historical Mortgage Creation before 1925 (00:07:30)

6. Modern Mortgage Law after 1925 (00:10:53)

7. Changes in Ownership and Charge Structure (00:13:38)