Active vs. Discharged Consumer Proposal

When it comes to getting a mortgage, the single most important fact about your consumer proposal is whether it’s active (still being paid) or discharged (completed). The two stages open very different doors: different lenders, different down payments, different rates, and a different set of realistic options.

A note on the word: when you finish a proposal, your Licensed Insolvency Trustee issues a certificate of full performance and you are released from the debts it covered¹. Lenders and borrowers usually just call that “discharged”, and so does this guide.

This guide compares the two, plus the further stage most borrowers are really aiming for: a couple of years past completion with rebuilt credit, when A-lender pricing comes back into reach. Everything here is general and illustrative. Lenders and insurers set their own criteria and review every file, so treat these as the shape of the landscape, not a quote. For the service, see our mortgage after a consumer proposal page.

You can often still get a mortgage while your proposal is active, but through a narrower door. The lenders are a small set of specialty B-lenders and private lenders willing to work with an in-progress proposal, and they’ll want to see you’re current on your trustee payments and have re-established at least one reporting trade line. Staying current matters for its own sake too: a proposal paid monthly is deemed annulled if you miss three payments¹.

The trade-offs, illustratively: a higher down payment (commonly around 20–35%), a rate premium over A-lender pricing on a B-lender file or equity-based pricing on a private, and lighter but still-real documentation. A-lenders generally won’t participate during an active proposal; they typically want it completed and credit rebuilt first. So an active-proposal file is almost always a B-lender or private placement, used deliberately as a bridge.

Once your proposal is discharged, the picture improves quickly. The B-lender pool widens well beyond the handful of specialists, and refinancing, purchasing or setting up a HELOC all become more accessible. Down payments ease (commonly toward the 10–20% range at this stage, illustratively) and pricing, while still a premium to A, is more competitive with more lenders bidding.

What lenders look for now shifts from “are you servicing the proposal” to “are you rebuilding.” A discharge on its own doesn’t reset you to prime, and the proposal still shows on your credit report for up to 3 years after you finish it (or until 6 years after you signed it, if that comes first)². Completion is the start of the recovery window. The borrowers who move fastest are the ones who began re-establishing credit during the proposal, so they arrive at completion with clean trade lines already seasoning.

This is the stage most borrowers are really aiming for. With the proposal discharged, two or more trade lines reporting clean for 12+ months, low balances, and a stable income story, A-lender pricing becomes realistic, including insured purchases with a smaller down payment where the insurer approves. As one example, Sagen’s underwriting policy requires that a consumer proposal have been fulfilled for at least 2 years, plus at least 2 years of re-established credit³; other insurers and lenders set their own criteria. The usual insured minimum down payment (5% on the first $500,000, 10% on the portion above) still applies⁴.

The exact timing varies by lender and by whether the proposal has aged off your bureau (see how long after a proposal). Many A-lenders look for roughly two years of clean re-establishment after completion, but it’s a range set by each lender, not a universal rule. The goal by this point is to refinance off any B or private mortgage you took earlier and back onto prime pricing.

The pattern across the three stages:

• Lenders: specialty B + private → wider B → B and eventually A.
• Down payment*: ~20–35% → ~10–20% → as low as the insured minimum (with insurer approval).
• Rate*: highest premium → B-lender premium → toward A-lender pricing.
• What lenders want: current on payments → credit rebuilding → 2+ clean seasoned trade lines.

*Illustrative and lender/file-dependent, subject to lender review. Not guarantees.

The common thread is that any B-lender or private mortgage you take during or shortly after a proposal is a bridge, not a destination. The plan is to climb from wherever you enter (active, recently discharged, or further along) toward A-lender pricing as your credit re-establishes and the proposal ages.

Mortgage Squad Advisors (FSRA #13737) reads your file against the lenders most likely to approve it at your stage, discloses every fee up front, and maps the exit to prime. See the mortgage after a consumer proposal page, the credit rebuild guide, or get a confidential assessment — no credit pull to begin.