Annual Mortgage Planning Calendar and Review Checklist for Homeowners

Owning a home comes with money tasks spread through the year: prepayment room that resets on your mortgage anniversary, property tax instalments, tax deadlines, and a renewal every few years. This page has two parts: a month-by-month calendar, and a checklist for one annual mortgage review. Adjust both to your own mortgage anniversary (when your term started) and your municipality’s property tax schedule. The mortgage renewal and management hub covers each task in more depth.

Month-by-month calendar

January

• Set the year’s mortgage goals: a prepayment target, savings goals and any planned improvements.
• Check when your prepayment privileges reset. At many lenders they reset on your mortgage anniversary rather than on January 1; see prepayment privileges.
• Start collecting tax slips (T4s, RRSP receipts, rental income records).
• Check your FHSA and RRSP room for the new year, if you are still saving for a home or for retirement.
• Note the Bank of Canada’s decision dates. The Bank of Canada announces its policy rate decisions on eight fixed dates a year. Its decisions move variable rates; see how Bank of Canada rate decisions work and the interest rate forecast.

February

• RRSP deadline. Contributions deducted on last year’s return are due by March 2, 60 days after the year ends.
• Home Buyers’ Plan repayment. If you withdrew from your RRSP under the HBP, the repayment for last year can be made during that year or in the first 60 days after it ends, and the minimum each year is 1/15 of the amount withdrawn. The Home Buyers’ Plan guide covers when repayments start and what happens if you miss one.
• Review your home insurance after any renovations.
• Late-winter home check: ice dams, frozen pipes and snow load on the roof.

March

• If you plan to buy, sell or refinance this year, get preapproved or start gathering refinance documents before the spring market.
• On a variable rate, check where the prime rate is and how your payment has changed.
• Property tax bills. Many municipalities send the annual or first-instalment bill around now.
• File your tax return early. Lenders often ask for your Notice of Assessment at renewal or for a new application.
• Claim any first-time home buyer credits you qualify for, and report rental income from a suite or rental property.

April

• Tax deadline. Returns are due April 30. If you or your spouse or common-law partner are self-employed, your return is due by June 15 of the year after the tax year. Any balance owing is still due by April 30 of the year after the tax year.
• Read your mortgage statement: balance, payments made and interest paid; how to read a mortgage statement explains each line.
• Spring maintenance: roof, gutters, foundation, windows.
• Plan summer projects. If they need financing, compare a home renovation loan with a HELOC.
• Check any new property assessment for accuracy.

May

• Mid-year prepayment check: are you on track to use the prepayment room you planned?
• If your mortgage matures in the fall, start comparing renewal offers about four months before maturity; the mortgage renewal guide has the timeline.
• Property tax instalment may be due.

June

• Mid-year mortgage review: look at your amortization schedule and how much faster higher payments would clear the balance (the amortization calculator shows it).
• Self-employed filing deadline (June 15).
• Watch the Bank of Canada decision and bond yields, which move fixed rates.

July

• Use windfalls. A bonus or tax refund can go to a lump-sum prepayment, within your privileges.
• Consider a payment increase if your contract allows one; paying off your mortgage early covers the options.
• Check your home’s value. Your equity affects refinancing and HELOC options; the home value estimator explains how to estimate it.

August

• If your mortgage matures between December and February, start shopping for your renewal now.
• Adjust the budget if fall expenses go up.

September

• Last-quarter planning: how much prepayment room is left before your anniversary date?
• FHSA contributions for this year are made by December 31, if you are saving for a home.
• Fall maintenance: gutters, furnace, windows and doors, insulation.

October

• Use prepayment room before it resets, if your anniversary falls in the next few months; unused room usually doesn’t carry over.
• Review your mortgage strategy: is your term and rate type still the right fit? Fixed vs variable covers the trade-off.
• Property tax: a final instalment may be due.

November

• If your mortgage matures between March and May, start getting renewal quotes.
• Review your total housing costs: mortgage, property tax, insurance, utilities and maintenance; see monthly carrying costs.

December

• Year-end lump sum if your prepayment room resets in December or January.
• Note your year-end position: principal paid, interest paid and the remaining balance.
• FHSA contributions for the year are due December 31; RRSP contributions can wait until March 1, 2027.
• Year-end review: net worth, insurance and next year’s budget, and what happens to your mortgage if you die if your estate plan needs updating.

Key dates to track

The annual mortgage review checklist

Once a year, ideally on your mortgage anniversary or at year-end, run through these checks.

1. Rate check

Compare your rate with current mortgage rates. If rates have fallen well below yours, compare the options: wait for renewal, renew early with your lender, blend and extend, or break the mortgage and pay the penalty. The break-even calculation shows whether a lower rate pays back the cost of breaking.

2. Prepayment check

Closed mortgages often let you prepay part of the balance each year without a penalty, as a lump sum, a higher regular payment or both, and the room usually resets each anniversary. Your contract sets the limits; prepayment privileges compares how lenders set them, and the extra payment calculator shows what a prepayment saves. Whether extra money does more on the mortgage or invested is on should I pay off my mortgage or invest?

3. Equity check

Equity is the home’s estimated value minus the mortgage balance. It decides how much you could borrow against the home with a HELOC or refinance. Under the Bank Act, a bank's loan to buy, renovate or improve a home, or a refinance of such a loan, together with any mortgage ranking equal to or ahead of it, can't exceed 80% of the home's value.

4. Amortization check

Compare the remaining amortization on your statement with your target payoff date. It can drift later than you expect if you renewed or refinanced into a new, longer amortization. If it now runs past your target, higher payments or prepayments bring it back; extending your amortization explains the opposite trade-off.

5. Payment frequency check

An accelerated biweekly or weekly schedule pays off the mortgage faster than monthly payments, because it adds the equivalent of about one extra monthly payment a year; a regular (non-accelerated) biweekly schedule does not. The payment frequency guide compares every option.

6. Insurance check

7. Renewal planning

If your term ends within the next year, plan the renewal. If your mortgage is with a federally regulated lender, such as a bank, the lender must send you a renewal statement at least 21 days before your term ends, or tell you by then that it won't renew; the statement shows the balance, interest rate, payment frequency, term and any fees, and says the rate offered won't go up before the renewal date. The mortgage renewal guide has the timeline, and switching lenders at renewal covers moving to another lender.

8. Tax check

9. Property tax check

Review your assessed value and appeal if it looks wrong, check for provincial homeowner grants or credits and seniors’ deferral programs, and allow for any increase your municipality has announced. If your lender pays the tax for you, see paying property tax through your mortgage.

10. Emergency check

Could you keep paying the mortgage for a few months if your income stopped? How much emergency fund and emergency fund vs mortgage paydown cover the cushion, and what happens if you miss a mortgage payment covers the options if it runs out.

Review summary template

When to get help