Spanish Mortgage Fraud

[Jiveboy]

Hi,


I am a UK citizen, resident in London who has had a mortgage in Spain for 15 years. We have for the last few years seen the EU Commission and European Court of Justice completely ignore the legal plight of millions of citizens contesting against mortgages with a "Clausula Suelo" clause.

Here are more details:

In 2013 the European Court of Justice and Spanish Supreme Court both ruled that the mortgages that Spanish banks had imposed on property owners were illegal. There is a % flooring that meant with reduced interest rates customers were still paying inflated rates when they should have been much reduced reflecting true euribor rates. Millions of European customers had expected as a result of this ruling that like with PPI in this country all the banks would have to settle in light of monies taken illegally over the period - but banks are ignoring any legal responsibilities to compensate?

Here are some examples of information:
The ruling:

http://spanishbankrefunds.com/wp-con.../sentencia.pdf
Link to Euronews:

Spanish banks lose mortgage interest rate case - economy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvXVFY9qY6s&app=desktop
Other payments to compensate

http://spanishbankrefunds.com/spanis...-floor-clause/






I want to get justice for everyone affected not just me. Can you please help us all who have been discriminated against and should all reclaim our compensation from the banks. The EU Commission have replied with attached letter and say they "monitor" but do not act or enforce the Banks to act responsibly. Which means the Banks simply ignore customers because they will not be receiving the fines imposed as when they take on the likes of Facebook and Google for breaches of data etc When it comes to helping European citizens they don't care they use some arbitrary wording that says "can't help" on this. But they seem to able to help where they want to!


I appreciate your help here in advance & can provide any further details and look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Paul Munro

[Sickofbullies]

I have spent the last 4 years fighting just this. The case went to court 3 times. I won my case. Which the lawyer calculated at €28,000. The bank and courts decided I was owed just €3500 (overestimated by the lawyer) lawyers fees 2,600. Was it worth it for €900. NO DEFINITELY NOT. with hindsight it would have been far easier and less stressful to simply negotiate with the bank. Then perhaps I could have kept the proceeds and not given the majority to the lawyer.

[Amethyst]

I had to look up the clause, basically a minimum interest rate floor.

A Floor Clause, also known as ‘Clausula Suelo’ or ‘Suelo Hipotecario’, is simply a clause that has been inserted into variable rate mortgage agreements in Spain during the last 20 years that affects the interest rate payable on the mortgage. For most Spanish variables rate mortgages, the interest rate payable is calculated by reference rate to Euro Interbank Offered Rate. If interest reference increases, then the interest on the mortgage also increases, likewise, if EURIBOR decreases, then interest payments will fall. However, the insertion of the floor clause into the mortgage agreement means that mortgage holders do not fully benefit from the fall in EURIBOR as there will be a minimum rate of interest payable on the mortgage (also known as a "suelo". The level of the floor will depend in the bank providing the mortgage and when the mortgage was taken out, but it is typical see floors of 3- 4%.

This clause has been deemed by both the Spanish and European courts to be illegal, and unfair and constitute ‘abusive’ practice.

It is estimated that there are more than 3.5 million mortgages affected.

Royal-Decree Law 1/2017 of 20 January, about urgent measures to protect consumers in Floor clause matters.
The Spanish Government passed a new legislation on 20 January to set a pre-judicial process to claim for the overpaid amounts.

According to the Royal-Decree Law, the affected customers can lodge a complaint to the bank to claim for the overpaid amounts due to the floor clause. Once the client has submitted the claim, the bank has up to three months to accept the complaint and return the overpaid amount. If the bank rejects the claim, the client can bring actions to the court to claim for the overpaid amounts. This process is not mandatory for the customers and its can take actions to the court directly.


Only 37.5% of the affected customers have reached an agreement to the bank throughout this system.

However, according to the General Council of the Judiciary, 98.3% of judicial sentences about floor clauses are in favour of the client. Additionally, there are some regions where all judicial resolutions has been ruled in favour of the client, among those Malaga, Murcia, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Barcelona.

[Jiveboy]

Thanks for replies. Its no surprise to me that another affected person has had limited success - though I'm sorry to hear this. The Banks are simply ignoring customers and the Spanish legal route is either so complicated to put people off or requires us, the affected Customers, to pay unreasonable amounts to pursue them. The banks simply reply - No we're not liable! I've tried my bank with no success. And yet they've been proved to have acted illegally under both Spanish and EU Law. I have written to my MEP and then to the Commissioners at EU to expect them to want to enforce the actions by banks so all customers are treated equally and fairly. But they choose not to. There must be some actions that can be taken to utilise the numbers affected - reported to be in millions - because individually we are powerless. And the total value of overpayments is in the billions. Yet, the EU doesn't want to act at all - like they do when taking on Google or Amazon etc - but its banks acting under their Authority. I'm both baffled by the in-action and angry that they and any EU Regulators ignore the plight of people who've lost lots of money through these Mortgages.

[Sickofbullies]

Thanks for replies. Its no surprise to me that another affected person has had limited success - though I'm sorry to hear this. The Banks are simply ignoring customers and the Spanish legal route is either so complicated to put people off or requires us, the affected Customers, to pay unreasonable amounts to pursue them. The banks simply reply - No we're not liable! I've tried my bank with no success. And yet they've been proved to have acted illegally under both Spanish and EU Law. I have written to my MEP and then to the Commissioners at EU to expect them to want to enforce the actions by banks so all customers are treated equally and fairly. But they choose not to. There must be some actions that can be taken to utilise the numbers affected - reported to be in millions - because individually we are powerless. And the total value of overpayments is in the billions. Yet, the EU doesn't want to act at all - like they do when taking on Google or Amazon etc - but its banks acting under their Authority. I'm both baffled by the in-action and angry that they and any EU Regulators ignore the plight of people who've lost lots of money through these Mortgages.

Take them to Court-but be ready for a long wait.