HOC loans allow you to refinance your first mortgage without penalty and at any time. HOC itself does not do refinancing. When you refinance, you pay off one mortgage and start a new one.

If your property is an MPDU there is a limit on how much you may refinance. You must abide by the MPDU covenants on your property. You are not allowed, per MPDU regulation, to hold more total debt on your MPDU than the value of your home. You must have the county calculate the value of your MPDU. If your property is not an MPDU but a market property and “under water,” i.e. you owe more than the value of your home, you will have difficulty refinancing as you will owe more than you will receive from the new lender as a new loan. That means you would have to take cash to settlement to refinance.