Switching mortgage lender in Mexico: subrogation rights

Two different substitutions

The law uses subrogación for two situations:

• Of the creditor (article 15): you stay the borrower and change the lender.
• Of the debtor (articles 13 and 14): the buyer of a home takes over the seller’s loan, or buyers take over a share of a developer’s construction loan.

Changing lender: the procedure in article 15

When a secured loan “se pague anticipadamente mediante la contratación de uno nuevo con otra Entidad”, the new lender is subrogated by law in the old lender’s rights and “se mantendrá inalterada la garantía original y su prelación”, precisely to avoid a new guarantee and its costs. When the new lender is a bank, a regulated non-bank lender linked to a bank, Infonavit, Fovissste or the armed forces’ social security institute, the substitution does not have to be formalised in a public deed. It is enough to follow this procedure:

1. Payoff statement. Within 15 calendar days of your request, the current lender issues a document showing the total debt calculated to the date you intend to settle, with a detailed breakdown of its components.
2. Clarification. If you disagree with the amount, you may submit a request for clarification. The lender must confirm the amount or issue a corrected statement within 10 calendar days. The request may be filed in writing at the branch holding the loan or at the institution’s specialised unit, and the institution must acknowledge receipt.
3. Payment. When the payoff is made, the lender must be told it is made for the purposes of article 15, so the guarantee stays in place. After payment, the old lender has no right to claim anything else under that loan.
4. Registration. To bind third parties, the payoff statement, the proof of full payment and the document recording the substitution (public, or private and ratified before a fedatario público) are entered in the electronic folio of the Registro Público de Comercio, “de manera directa, inmediata, automatizada y sin costo alguno”. The new lender then asks that the annotation be carried to the property’s folio in the Registro Público de la Propiedad.

A lender that fails to issue the statement faces damages and a fine of 10,000 to 15,000 days of the general minimum wage, imposed by CONDUSEF. Under the 2016 constitutional decree such references read as UMA; at the 2026 daily value of MX$117.31 the range is MX$1,173,100 to MX$1,759,650 (calculation by Payotte, valid from 1 February 2026).

The cap on the early-repayment fee

Article 16 provides that the commission set for early payment in a creditor subrogation, for loans at a variable rate, “no podrá ser superior al uno por ciento del monto remanente del crédito que falte por amortizar”. I found no equivalent figure for fixed-rate loans in the law; for those, your contract and the binding offer say what applies.

Moving the loan when you buy: debtor subrogation

Under article 13, when a home is sold that still carries a secured loan not fully amortised, the buyer “se podrá subrogar en los derechos y obligaciones del Deudor, sin necesidad de que se constituya una nueva garantía”. The condition is that the buyer submits a credit application to the lender and meets the requirements of article 6, including the lender’s checks of identity, creditworthiness and appraisal. Article 14 offers the same for buyers in a development financed by a developer’s loan: the credit is individualised for the part acquired.

Where the offer comes in

The binding offer must include the lender’s express acceptance that it will accept early payment from another lender and the debtor’s substitution (article 6, section V). Look for that clause when you collect offers; see the binding offer guide. Article 19 also allows the federal Ministry of Economy to sign coordination agreements with states and municipalities to remove registry costs and notary tariffs in such transactions; I did not find which states have signed one, so check locally.

Exceptions

Article 17 exempts from articles 13, 14 and 15 the credits that Infonavit, Fovissste and the Fondo para las Habitaciones Populares or other public bodies grant, finance or guarantee. Article 15 adds that these institutions can be the new lender but not the lender replaced. Credits granted under collective labour agreements are excluded from the law altogether. Loans backed by the SHF follow article 15 only if the new lender takes over the original SHF terms.

Which professional to consult

The new lender runs the procedure; a real estate lawyer or a notary can check the documents. See mortgage lenders, real estate lawyers and notaries.