21 May 2012 12:15:

As Bob says sterling is stronger than it has been for some time so while any £'s raised in the UK would buy you more Euros to transfer you need to do your sums carefully and take into account what interest rate you are currently being charged against what you would be charged in the UK and the fact that monthly transfers from the UK to pay the mortgage in Spain will purchase more Euros - that said these are uncertain times and f/x markets more unpredictable according to who is going to publish the next bit of bad news.

As to the early redemption penalty - very very few lenders operate the facility for partial early repayment that Bob mentions and historically it was only something introduced in recent times so that element depends on a) who the lender is and b) when the mortgage was taken out so check your mortgage deed and ensure you are fully aware of the terms.

If they agree to waive any of the charges written into the Deed you should consider yourself very lucky.

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20 May 2012 14:17:

Hi Dean - as Claire says most lenders apply an ERC on their mortgages in Spain and subject to lender and when the mortgage was taken out this will range from 0.25% of outstanding balance upwards. If you consider the logic of the situation - in the UK if you were maintaining your monthly payments on a mortgage and owed your UK lender £200k and went to them and said "I will pay off my mortgage but only give you £175k".........what would you expect their answer would be? In the 0.0000000000000000001% chance they accepted your proposal how long would it be before others thought they would try the same ......... leading to massive losses for the bank that has loaned you the money. It would be no different in Spain.

In fact assuming you had financial problems and were unable to make the payments in the UK you have more chance of them accepting a lower figure to settle the debt than in Spain. However this would be after you had gone through various procedures ultimately ending in bankruptcy - assuming the lender hadnt decided to repossess in the meantime.

As Claire says nothing ventured nothing gained - and you have nothing to lose by asking but I am 99.999999999999% certain you will be met with a negative response.

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19 May 2012 15:05:

Hi Dean - I suspect the bank in Spain is unlikely to accept a lesser amount to settle the outstanding debt - and certainly not 50,000 light - you can certainly ask them but I cannot think of anything that would motivate them to do that

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13 May 2012 13:48:

Perhaps find another lawyer - it rather sounds as if this one is failing to act in your interests and its you paying the lawyer - not the bank estate agent or anyobody else. I would recommend contacting Maria de Castro on here as she will no doubt suggest what you should do to recover your 1000 Euros if it was taken without your authorisation and outside of contractual terms.

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09 Apr 2012 12:11:

As I said Alphamed I knew I would ruffle some feathers and you clearly have very different experiences to me - other than the fiasco where the waitress spilled the Cava (without any offer of replacement) I couldnt fault the service and the setting outside is nice as well. The food on the other hand on two occasions (and that is what I really go out to dinner for) fell a long way short of expectations considering the price - I am sure that few people would consider 23 or 24 Euros for rack of lamb that was difficult to cut with a steak knife value for money - let alone chewing the meat. I would agree with you that 20 Euros for a set menu is good value for money - the problem is that even for something as simple as fish and chips they charge a supplement where so many other places offering set menus incorporate a la carte dishes such as steak within their set menu price.

Horses for courses I guess and I am sure that you have been to places you wouldnt return to owing to bad experience and we all have to speak as we find.

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