mortgagor
Mortgagor is the person who borrows money against a property, promising the house itself as security until the loan is fully paid off.
In plain English
Many people sign mortgage papers and calmly assume the bank now owns their house until the loan finishes. That small mistake sits in the back of the mind for years, and it makes people treat their own home like a rented flat, afraid to plant a tree or knock a wall.
Here is the correction. The person who borrows the money and pledges the property as security is called the mortgagor. That is you, if you took a loan from a bank or a mortgage institution to buy or build. The bank, the one lending the money, is the mortgagee. You are not a tenant in your own house. You are the owner who has given the lender a claim on the property until you finish paying.
Take a Lagos example. Adaeze gets a loan from a Nigerian mortgage bank to buy a three bedroom flat in Ogudu. She signs the mortgage agreement, and from that moment she is the mortgagor. The bank holds legal interest over the property as security, but Adaeze lives there, pays her service charge, and can even rent out a room if she wishes, subject to her loan terms.
In the United Kingdom, someone who takes out a mortgage with Halifax or Nationwide to buy a terraced house in Manchester is also a mortgagor. The title deed often stays noted with the lender's interest until the balance clears, but the buyer's name is on the property as owner.
A Nigerian in Toronto sending money home to help a sibling complete a mortgage payment in Abuja is not the mortgagor, the sibling whose name is on the loan agreement is. It helps to know exactly whose obligation you are supporting, because the property and the responsibility both sit with the person who signed.
Tunde borrows ₦18,000,000 from a mortgage bank to buy a duplex in Lekki. He is the mortgagor, the bank is the mortgagee, and the duplex stands as security until Tunde clears the balance over fifteen years.
Questions people ask
Is a mortgagor the owner of the property or does the bank own it?
You are the owner. The bank only holds a legal interest as security for the loan, not full ownership, and that interest disappears once the loan is repaid.
Can a mortgagor sell the property before finishing the loan?
Usually not without the lender's consent, since the property still secures the loan. Most agreements require the loan to be settled or transferred as part of any sale.
What happens if a mortgagor stops paying?
The mortgagee can begin recovery steps, which may include taking over and selling the property to recover the outstanding balance, so missed payments should be addressed early with the lender.
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