11 February 2010:

Hi,

I wondered if anyone can give me some tactical advice!

We have had an apartment in the Playa Golf development near La Zenia/Cabo Roig for a few years. We don't use it as much as we thought we would, and haven't had much joy renting it out, so were thinking of selling (probably a bit tough at the moment!) or walking away. We paid €135k for it, got a 100% mortgage from Banco Halifax which is tied to the Euribor, so is pretty cheap at the moment, and have paid off €35k, so there's €100k outstanding.

I have read a bit in this forum and elsewhere about a lender's supposed obligation to accept the keys back (dacion el pago), but what I haven't managed to understand is who actually values the property. If we did hand back the keys, presumably we would be running the risk of the bank saying that it's only worth €70k now, even though it was valued at €135k when we took out the loan, and then chasing us for the remaining €30k.

I have had a phone conversation with the bank about our options, without trying to sound too desperate (which we're not at the moment, but if interest rates went up again it would be harder), or telling them who I am, and they said that they could get a commercial firm to value it, but that they are not interested in taking back any property and that they would not be obliged to accept another organisation's valuation anyway.

What should we do, in what order, to even find out whether this is worth considering? I would be grateful for any thoughts.

Thanks, Michael 

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