Pantbrev

A pantbrev is the proof that an inteckning, a mortgage claim, has been taken out on a fastighet (a property unit under Swedish law). The owner applies to Lantmäteriet for an inteckning for a set amount and receives a pantbrev in return, showing that the property is encumbered by exactly that amount. The pantbrev is not tied to a particular bank or a particular loan. It is a freely transferable security document that the owner then pledges to the bank that provides the loan.

The arrangement has three steps. First, Lantmäteriet registers an inteckning on the property under the rules in jordabalken chapter 6. Next, Lantmäteriet issues the pantbrev itself as proof of the inteckning. Finally, the owner hands the pantbrev to the creditor as security for the loan. The bank is registered as the charge holder with Lantmäteriet, but the pantbrev remains a transferable document that is released and can be pledged again once the loan is repaid.

A fastighet can have several inteckningar at the same time, and they rank by the time of registration: an inteckning registered in January ranks ahead of one registered in February if the property is sold by enforcement and the money does not cover all creditors. Banks therefore usually take pantbrev with a face value higher than the loan itself, so that the same pantbrev can cover future drawdowns and interest without having to apply for a new inteckning and pay new stämpelskatt each time. The principle is the same as the one behind Norwegian banks' use of pantedokumenter with a charge amount set higher than the loan.

Since the 1990s, most pantbrev have been issued as datapantbrev: electronic documents registered in pantbrevsregistret, created by lag (1994:448) om pantbrevsregister and operated by Lantmäteriet. The datapantbrev replaces the older, physical skriftligt pantbrev, which still exists in older cases and which the owner can convert to a datapantbrev free of charge. The advantage of the datapantbrev is that it cannot be lost. A lost skriftligt pantbrev requires a separate court process before a new one can be issued.

Taking out a new inteckning costs stämpelskatt: 2% of the amount, rounded down to the nearest thousand kronor, plus a fixed expeditionsavgift of 375 kr. This comes on top of the stämpelskatt on the purchase of the property itself. Because the pantbrev follows the property and not the individual owner, a buyer can take over the seller's existing pantbrev instead of applying for new ones. The buyer then pays stämpelskatt only on the difference between the total amount of the pantbrev and the borrowing need, not on the whole loan sum again. This is the main reason why Swedish property transactions almost always start by checking which pantbrev already sit on the property.

The closest Norwegian counterpart is the pantedokument, a charge registered in Grunnboken. The similarity stops quickly, though. A Norwegian pantedokument is issued to a specific creditor for a specific loan and is normally deleted when the loan is repaid. A Swedish pantbrev, by contrast, is detached from both the loan and the creditor: it is a reusable instrument that stays with the property and that the seller hands over, physically or electronically, to the next owner's bank. It has no Norwegian parallel. Norwegian law has no pantedokument intended to circulate on to the next owner.

From Placepoint's glossary: Pantbrev

More information: Lantmäteriet: Pantsystem, Lag (1994:448) om pantbrevsregister, Lantmäteriet: Ansök om inteckning

English: Mortgage deed (Swedish-specific security instrument tied to the property, not the loan or the lender).