Puisne Mortgage - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition puisne-mortgage

Definition :

Puisne mortgage. In the legal phraseology which was used before 1926 meant a mortgage sub-sequent to the mortgage of a legal estate, but for the purposes of the Land Charges Act, 1925, s. 10 (1) (Class C.), it is enacted that 'puisne mortgage' means any legal mortgage (including the first) of a legal estate not being a mortgage protected by a deposit of documents relating to the legal estate affected and (if the whole of the land affected is within the jurisdiction of a local deeds registry) not registered there. These mortgages, if created after 1925, must be registered at the Land Charges Registry, Red Lion Square, or they will lose priority; see, further, MORTGAGE CHARGE. Mortgages created before 1926 may be registered before transfer. This amounts to notice, but even this notice will not prevent tacking on further advances by a prior mortgagee if that mortgagee has not seen the register at the date of the first advance or has no other actual or direct notice. See TACKING.

Under the transitional provisions of the Law of Property Act, 1925, 1st Sch., Part VII. (6) and Part III. (5), puisne mortgages not protected by a deposit of documents or registered as a land charge became mortgages of a legal estate, but as against a purchaser in good faith without notice, the mortgages are to remaina equitable interest. Registration as a land charge is not compulsory but advisable, as it amounts to notice. See NOTICE; LAND CHARGES; MORTGAGE.