Home Repossessions in Spain: A Legal Perspective

[worried lady]

We are having problems paying our mortgage, and are now 1 month in arrears due to a reduction in income. We do have a small business here, but
business is seasonal, and we rely a lot on people coming on holiday. We have contacted the bank, and they have been understanding, but for how long?
To complicate matters, we are renting our house in the UK to a family member, and it woud be awful if we were to lose this as well. I am at my wits end to know what to do, and my husband seems to be putting his head in the sand and pretending everything is ok. I would be grateful if you could give me some advice. It would be very much appreciated and might ease my anxiety. I have thought about going back to the UK alone, but do not want to be a burden on my family.

[Unregistered]

hi I bought a property in almeria 5 years ago and paid half and borrowed half on a spanish mortgage unfortunately I lost my job last year and have struggled to pay since. so I asked my bank manager if I could hand back the keys and he told me there is a problem with the paper work because of this thing going on between the local government and regional government (la junter) or something and he says it will be sorted out this year some time and he will take it (my apartment)back then. but until he has offered me interest only mortgage for 1 year, or repossession. I still can't afford interest only so is repossession the only way?

[Patricia]

Dear Sir,

Unfortunately, this situation is not infrequent. Your options are these:

1. Accept the one year interest mortgage offered by your bank or renegotiate a different arrangement
2. Negotiate repossession, which is entirely up to the bank to decide on the terms and conditions, as you mayhave read former informatin on this thread.

In the event that none of these options were possible for you and your current financial situation led to the non-payment of the mortgage fees, the bank could decide to start a court action against you.

Best Regards,

[Kathy]

Hi
I am in arrears but paying the full mortgage and some arrears. Have I got a defence when it comes to court? There is no month I paid nothing.
Thanks

[Kay]

Advise needed regarding property in Tenerife
This may be a tough one to answer it sure is a hard one to ask advice on but i cant think of anyone to turn to for this advise
Well here goes

I came back to the UK in 2009 to work due to circumstances beyond my control I had mortgage problems I did let the bank know that I was leaving and explained that i was going to work and asked for a few weeks to get sorted back in UK this was Ok I kept in contact via email they went through all the process of asking for copies of everything as they do I was at one point told that my bank account had been closed I was not given any information where I could pay any monies to. I have tried for two years now to get some response from the bank and they never reply I just don't know where to turn I have little money for big lawyers fees so any advise would be appreciated

I had my apartment trashed a few weeks after returning to the UK but have been unable to get across

I have since found out from a friend that when she was over in January they saw what looked like cleaners on my balcony it transpired that they thought that I had sold up and had just left a lot off stuff behind

My daughter who is 17 is over there at the moment and has just been to the apartment having had to get in through a window as a key had been broken in the lock to find that everything has gone my beds my clothes my fridge my washer my dryer every thing apart from 2 sets of drawers and a unit
I have like i said tried to communicate with the correct people but they have not bothered to communicate with me

WHAT DO YOU THINK I CAN DO ?

Sorry for the rambling but i am in a state of shock at the moment

[Marta]

Hi Kathy,

Unfortunately there is not defense to this. Banks normally begin the repossession procedures after 91 days of delay in repaying the full amount owed. This normally equates to the 4th unpaid mortgage receipt. However having said this, it is important to note that the bank will reserve their right to initiate repossession as soon as you are late by one day, for example.

[graham]

Hi"
last week i recived a letter from my bank
witch was all in spanish !
so could not understand. i have been asking them to take the keys back for quite some time now, as my partner dyed just over a year ago,
and since then i have struggled to keep up the mortgage, witch i now have not been able to pay since november last year,
all the bank kept saying was that i had to pay inhearatence for my late partners half of the apartment.witch i canot afford !
then the apartment would be all mine!
unless i did this i could not sell the apartment to get rid,
as i had a buyer wanting it,
but the bank would not let me sell it to them, witch would have paid off all the outstanding mortgage and left a little over ,
the letter was an offical one i had to signe for,
from the bank,
but i sent straight back and asked them to send it back in english so i could understand it !
but they have just not bothered to reply.they have constently not replyed to my letter and emails and phone calls regarding sorting this out,
so it looks now as though its going to repossesion i think, so how do i stand ?

[Marta]

Hi Kay,

I am sorry to hear about the difficulties you have been through.

With regards to the problem regarding the bank, this is indeed very strange. The only thing I can think of is that they would have already repossessed your property and closed your account. If you are not able to come to Spain in person, I would recommend engaging the services of a lawyer in order to find out what has happened to your bank account and property. This doesn't necessarily mean huge fees. Law firms tend to charge in accordance to the complexity of the matter. Please contact us and I will give you a quote.

It would also be convenient to request a land registry search in order to find out if you are still the title holder of this property. Your situation must be clarified as soon as possible as it could be that you are in debt with the bank and if this is the case, it could affect any assets you hold in the UK.

The so called 'cleaners' could have been people sent by the bank in order to seize all your assets.

[Patricia]

Dear Graham,

Welcome to the belegal forum.

The bank is failing to send you the letter in English as the official language in Spain is Spanish and they are not obliged to send you the Communications in English.

As your partner has passed away, the bank understands that the property has been left to you in the will. You do not mention if you have accepted the inheritance before the Notary already, and this is an important data. In order for the property to be legally yours in a 100%, the inheritance must have been accepted and the Inheritance taxes paid, otherwise you are unable to sell the property, as it is not considered yours. The bank is considering this, as they´d rather transfer the ownership to you so you have the opportunity to sell it and pay off the mortgage ( if possible, leaving still funds available for you ), otherwise they will go on for the repossession of the property.

Our advice is that, once the transfer of the estate has been formally processed and inheritance taxes have been paid, the exact amount due to the bank ( as there will be interests on default ) is checked in order to set a selling price that covers the mortgage plus expenses.

The legal assistance of a bilingual solicitor is crucial in this case, to provide with their legal advice all along the process, be in charge of the property sale and also translate the formal documentation, that will naturally be in Spanish language.

If you would like to obtain a quote from a solicitor, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@lawbird.com.

Kind regards,

[Fay]

We fell behind with mortgage payments but the bank said they would be ok with what we were paying into the account as long as it didn't reach 3 months arrears. We actually paid cash into our current account for the full amount to bring the mortgage payments up to date and asked for it to be transferred to the mortgage account (held at the same bank). Unfortunately, the money remained in our current account for several days for no apparent reason and it was only clear when we went to pay the following month's mortgage payment and was told we had to pay an additional €3000 for legal fees! We explained we'd already paid the mortgage up to date so why were legal proceedings even started? We were told to pay the extra €3000 or we would lose our home but we didn't have €3000.

It went to court last April but we weren't notified and still haven't had an eviction notice. Is there any way we can find out what is going on? Also, because the account was paid up to date and never fell 3 months behind is there anything we can do now because we still don't understand why they kept the money in our current account instead of paying it to the mortgage. Our bank statement proves this was the case.