In a Jamaican sale financed by a mortgage, the seller does not get the bank’s money on the day the agreement is signed. Instead the buyer’s lender issues a letter of undertaking, usually to the seller’s attorney, promising to pay a stated sum once certain steps are complete. Typically these are the registration of the transfer into the buyer’s name and of the lender’s mortgage on the title, or the lodging of those documents at the National Land Agency.
The undertaking lets the transaction move forward safely for both sides. The seller’s attorney can hand over the signed transfer and duplicate certificate of title, knowing payment is secured by a regulated institution, while the lender knows it will not part with money until its security is in place. Where the seller has an existing mortgage, the seller’s lender may give its own undertaking to discharge that mortgage on receipt of the payoff sum.
Delays at the Titles Office can stretch the time between undertaking and payment, so sellers should factor this into plans to buy elsewhere. The wording, amount, beneficiary and conditions matter; attorneys on both sides check them carefully. Undertakings by attorneys themselves play a similar role in England and other common-law systems.
Related terms: Mortgage Commitment Letter, Closing (Real Estate Transaction), Real Estate Attorney, Transfer of Title, Discharge of Mortgage, National Land Agency (NLA).
Accurate as at October 2026.
