Can I Refinance With a Writ on My Property?

Usually yes, but not with a bank. An alternative lender (B-lender/alt-A or private) can refinance against your equity specifically to pay the writ out, so it’s cleared at closing and you end up with clean title. The refinance is how the writ comes off.

So the writ isn’t a dead end for financing; it’s the reason for the financing. What decides whether it’s possible is your equity, your title position, and the time you have before enforcement. This guide walks through how it works, what you need, and how fast it can move. For the service, see our judgment & lien mortgage page. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm your situation with a lawyer.

A writ of seizure and sale is what a creditor files after winning a judgment. In Ontario it’s filed with the sheriff in the area where you own property and, once entered in the sheriff’s index, binds your land¹. If you refinance or sell, the writ normally has to be paid or otherwise dealt with before the deal can close.

A bank funds a mortgage only when it can register with a clean priority. A writ threatens the bank’s security, so its underwriting declines the deal, no matter how strong your income or payment history. That’s not a reflection on you; it’s a title problem, and title problems have title solutions.

The mechanism is clean and the money never passes through your hands. An alternative lender advances a new mortgage sized to cover your existing balance plus the writ payout plus costs. At funding, the money flows to your real estate lawyer in trust. The lawyer pays the creditor the amount owing, obtains the creditor’s direction to withdraw the writ, and confirms it’s removed from the sheriff’s index so it no longer affects your title.

When it’s done, you hold clean title and a single new mortgage in place of the judgment, the accruing post-judgment interest, and the enforcement threat. A private lender can typically advance with the writ still filed and have it paid out at closing, which is what makes private capital the usual tool when a sheriff’s sale is close.

Because this is equity-based, the key number is how much room is left after everything. For comparison, a federally regulated bank can’t refinance above 80% of your home’s value², and mortgage insurance isn’t available on refinances (apart from a narrow secondary-suite exception)³. As a rule of thumb, alternative lenders want the new mortgage (existing balance + writ payout + costs) to stay under about 80% of the property value at alt-A, or roughly 65–75% on private (illustrative; it varies by lender, property and location).

An illustrative example: a $700,000 home with a $400,000 first mortgage has roughly $55,000–$160,000 of room at those loan-to-value ceilings (65% to 80%), before costs. That is often enough to clear a writ and sometimes to consolidate other debt at the same time. If several writs or liens are registered, they can typically be bundled into one payout. The more equity you have, the cheaper and easier the solution.

Timing is the variable that most affects both your options and your cost. In Ontario, a creditor can’t take any step to sell land until four months after the writ is filed with the sheriff, no sale can be held until six months after filing, and the sale must be advertised, including in The Ontario Gazette, at least 30 days ahead⁴. So a scheduled sale usually means you have weeks, not months.

Private files can sometimes fund within days once an appraisal is done and the lawyer is instructed. The catch: the less time you give, the fewer (and costlier) your options. With runway you can use a cheaper alt-A refinance; against a hard deadline, fast private capital may be the only thing that closes. So the moment you learn a writ is filed, and certainly if a sale date is set, find out the exact date and the total owing, confirm your equity, and get a financing commitment moving. No honest broker can promise a specific timeline sight-unseen, but acting early is the single biggest thing in your control.

Clearing the writ is the first move, not the finish line. The plan is to refinance back to A-lender pricing once your file heals, often 12–24 months later (a planning target, not a guarantee). Paying the judgment doesn’t erase it from your credit history right away: credit bureaus usually keep judgments for 6 years, and TransUnion keeps them for 7 years in Ontario⁵. A paid judgment, clean title and on-time payments are what reopen bank pricing.

A good broker sets the refinance-trigger date at funding and monitors the file, so you move to prime pricing the moment you qualify. Mortgage Squad Advisors (FSRA #13737) arranges the writ payout and maps that exit. Read the judgment & lien mortgage page, the judgment vs writ vs lien guide, or get a confidential assessment, with no credit pull to begin.