Did you know?

• Several municipalities throughout Canada are charging a fee for processing tax payments collected by financial institutions - this fee can be passed on to clients.
• For those clients that are transferring their mortgage to another financial institution and have previously included the property tax component in their mortgage payment, it is important to clarify how the property tax portion is processed on a payout statement. Any unused portion of their property taxes in a sundry account may be deducted from the mortgage balance rather than applied as a tax payment to the municipality. If this happens this can create unpleasant surprises of unpaid property tax bills for your clients and additional follow up for both you and your clients to sort this out.

In an effort to ensure a smooth transition to ING DIRECT for those clients that are currently paying their property taxes through another financial institution, we recommend the following quick and easy steps:

• Confirm at the start of the application process if your clients have included their property taxes in their mortgage payments with their current lender.
• If they do, this is your opportunity to ensure this transaction is carried out smoothly to completion. Advise your client to provide the existing financial institution in writing, instructions to stop the deduction of their property tax component and to forward the full proceeds in their tax account so they can pay their own property taxes.

In communicating this essential information to the client prior to the funding of their mortgage with ING DIRECT, together we can ensure the overall client experience is a positive one!

ING DIRECT Broker Team