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Roughly a million Canadian mortgages come up for renewal this year and most of them will be signed in the week they are due, on the first terms offered. It is the one point in a mortgage where you have leverage and no deadline pressure — if you start early enough to use it.
Stephen Green, Mortgage BrokerWaterloo Region · serving all of Ontario
Nearly 30 years in Canadian financial services
General information about mortgage renewal in Ontario. Everything is subject to full qualification, lender approval and final terms.
A renewal is the one moment in a mortgage where you have leverage and no pressure. Almost nobody uses it, because the letter arrives looking like a formality.
Most lenders will hold an offer for you from roughly four months before your term ends. This is the earliest useful moment and the one worth putting in your calendar.
Moving to a different lender takes time — an application, documents, a solicitor. Starting here is tight. Starting later usually means you sign what you were sent.
A federally regulated lender has to send you a renewal statement at least 21 days before the term ends, setting out what happens next. It is a legal minimum, not a planning tool.
Do nothing and most mortgages roll into a new term automatically, or onto the lender’s open terms, which are the most expensive thing they offer. Silence is a decision.
These are not the same amount of work, and the difference catches people out.
| Staying with your lender | Moving to another lender | |
|---|---|---|
| Do you re-qualify? | No. A straight renewal does not put you back through the stress test. | Yes. It is a new application, and the stress test applies. |
| Paperwork | A signature. | Income, identification, the property, a solicitor or title company. |
| Cost to you | Normally none. | Legal and appraisal, often covered by the new lender on a straight switch. |
| How long | Days. | Two to four weeks, which is the whole argument for starting early. |
| Who it suits | Anyone whose circumstances have changed for the worse, or who is comfortable with the offer. | Anyone whose file is stronger than it was, or whose lender is not competitive on it. |
A renewal is a chance to fix the structure, not just the number. Most people never get asked any of this.
A new job, a business, a separation, a child, a parent moving in. The mortgage that fitted five years ago was built for a household that may not exist any more.
Five years is a default, not a recommendation. If you might sell, move or come into money inside the term, the length you choose matters more than anything else on the page.
Prepayment allowances, whether it is portable, what breaking it would cost. These differ enormously between lenders and nobody reads them until the day they need them.
About four months out. Most lenders will hold an offer for you from roughly 120 days before your term ends, and moving to a different lender takes two to four weeks of paperwork. Starting in the final fortnight usually means signing what you were sent.
Not if you stay with your current lender. A straight renewal does not put you back through the stress test. Moving to a different lender is a new application, so it does — which is why staying can be the right answer even when the numbers look better elsewhere.
Most mortgages renew automatically into a new term, or roll onto the lender's open terms, which are the most expensive thing they offer. Your lender must send you a renewal statement at least 21 days before the term ends if they are federally regulated, but that is a legal minimum, not enough time to plan with.
There is legal work and usually an appraisal. On a straight switch — same balance, same amortization, no new money — the new lender often covers both. If you are also borrowing more it becomes a refinance, and the costs work differently.
It is what they are willing to do to keep you without being asked, which is a reasonable business position and not the same thing. Whether it is competitive for your particular file is a question worth answering rather than assuming, in either direction.
Sometimes, and it is worth asking. Early renewal inside the window is usually straightforward. Well before it, you are breaking the mortgage, which brings a penalty into the arithmetic and changes the question entirely.
Then a straight renewal with your existing lender may be the strongest option you have, because it avoids re-qualifying. Raise it early rather than late — there is more that can be done four months out than four days out.
No documents needed, and no credit check to have it. Tell us roughly when your term ends and we will tell you what your options look like and when to move.