Bank failed to discharge my first mortgage, blocking my renewal with another Lender.

I am dealing with a massive headache trying to renew my mortgage with Pine, and it seems to be entirely due to BMO's incompetence.

The issue is I originally got a BMO mortgage in 2018, and in 2021, I refinanced and matured on August 1st, 2026.

Because I am moving to Pine, their solicitor pulled the title and discovered two active BMO mortgages registered on it, the 2018 one and the 2021 one. Apparently, BMO never actually discharged the 2018 mortgage from the title after the 2021 refinance.

Where Things Stand now is Pine is refusing to close until they get proof of the 2018 discharge. I provided them with the original discharge statements and ledgers from my refinance lawyer. However, because it still shows as active on the official title, Pine needs BMO to fix it.

To make matters worse, the real estate lawyer who handled my 2021 refinance has since shut down their practice, so I can't go back to them for help.

My renewal date was August 1st. Because of this delay, BMO automatically rolled me into a 1-year fixed rate at 5.45% on August 5th, instead of the 3.3% variable rate I was supposed to switch to with Pine.

I’ve been going back and forth with a personal banker Lender A who is currently in contact with First Canadian Title (FCT) to figure out how this even happened. But it has been two weeks, past renewal and my loan feels held hostage by BMO.

Has anything like this happened to anyone else? I want to escalate this immediately but I’m not sure who the best person or department to call is. Any advice on how to approach this? Thanks!