Lien Release v. Lien Transfer

A Lien Release is most often needed to deal with any existing lien listed in Schedule C of your Title Commitment.  Typically, a Lien Transfer is needed only when a lender is buying an existing loan from another lender (and often such inter-lender transactions do not even close through a title company).  Sometimes, however, a new lender requests a Lien Transfer in connection with a refinance.  In that case, the new lender prepares a new deed of trust, but the lender includes an addendum to the new deed of trust that calls for a transfer of the previous lien (because the lender wants the benefit of the filing priority of the older deed of trust as well).  Assuming that the title is otherwise clean, this is probably overkill by the lender (i.e. the filing priority of previous deed of trust is irrelevant because the new lender is obtaining title insurance on its new deed of trust), but it can be done; however, it is only effective under Texas law if the terms of the new loan are not materially different than the terms of the previous loan (e.g. if neither the term is extended or the loan amount is increased).