I would agree that a Subordination would need the approval of the other lender.  But sometimes it is the same lender anyway.  You could have a lender that granted a 1st and a HELOC, and now they are refinancing the 1st mortgage with the same lender and want the HELOC to stay in second position.  The problem I have with the automatic provision is the recording offices will not be looking for that in a mortgage, so the mortgage to be subordinated would not get a marginal notation.  Or if the mortgage had one of those provisions in it and you didn't know about it, you could wind up with a document return for not including the extra marginal notation fee for the Subordination.  It seems to me to be another way around recording office fees and we can see what the recording officers are doing now with MERS.  It could turn out to be something else they will fight.