El blog de Maria

raymond welbourn28 said:
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ 9:44 AM

Hello, I would like to thank you for your helpful tips in eye on spain and your efforts in providing this information. ray-pc

Maria said:
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ 12:57 PM

Thanks Raymond

Mark FR Wilkins said:
Saturday, November 19, 2011 @ 8:56 AM

Hi Maria,

Your comments are very useful and contribute to property owners understanding of the position they may find themselves in.

You'll be aware that a Dación en Pago process is, currently, unlikely to succeed unless the mortgage lender/bank feels that there is sufficient equity in the property to make their re-acquisition of the legal title "worth something". They will, of course, have to sell the property to recover the mortgage debt.

The last thing the banks need at the moment is more property for sale. They tried to reinvent themselves as Estate Agent and that process hasn't really worked.

Tomorrow (20.11) sees Spain going to the Polls in the General Election. The PP leader has made it clear, if he is elected, that the Banks and Cajas need to undertake a comprehensive overhaul of their property debt exposure and explore a series of different solutions. So far Mr Rajoy's comments relate to failed developers and overpriced land but my feeling is in time the Bank Of Spain will incentivise the banks and Cajas to enable them to realistically value properties in their Balance Sheets and reduce the overall inflated values. This should mean that they can start to agree to discount their expectations of full mortgage debt recovery enabling properties to be sold at much more "market realistic" prices.

We are handling a number of these matters and I would really like to hear from property owners who are currently in difficulty with their mortgage lenders as I believe we should all be starting to look for workable solutions.

Regards, Mark

cayin said:
Saturday, November 19, 2011 @ 9:48 AM

looks like if you have enough equity they will take your home but if you don't they will find a solution like interest only or half and half so that you keep your home until there is enough equity for them to take it! sorry I sound pessimistic but my friends are in their 70's and have been totally Mis sold to and taken advantage of. They are now in the position of having 2 huge mortgages with only a Uk state pension coming in. does anyone want to take their case on for a no win no fee basis

Steve Gould said:
Saturday, November 19, 2011 @ 10:35 AM

My house auction was suspended. The bank won't tell me why and the branch manager even refused to accept a Burofax addressed to him. I've got no money to mount any legal challenge so I can do nothing. My feeling is that the Spanish banking system confers no rights to clients in my position and a serious raft of legislation is required to bring the whole thing into the 21st century.

Mandy said:
Saturday, November 19, 2011 @ 10:40 AM

Yes, the banks in Spain are amazing... seeing my situation is not good financially - I applied to my bank Banesto to have interest only for 1 or 2 years.... the interest is 1/3rd and the capital I am paying 2/3ds ... amounting to a total of Euro 1260.00 - this makes the capital 800.00 +, and the interest Euro 420.00
The answer that came back was "" due to my weak financial position - they could not at this time grant interest only"' so they would rather see me default then I guess? and yes, there is equity in the house!
In all logic - WHY on earth would I apply for interest only if I DIDNT have a weak financial position???
Perhaps someone has an answer out there?

Brian J Deller said:
Saturday, November 19, 2011 @ 7:23 PM

It is time for the owners to have their own demonstrations against the bankers who are protected from their own folly in recent years by injections/back-up promises of tax payer's cash (a stealth tax?) to stop their businesses failing. Yes, a bank is a business. Buyers have also been silly in believing the sales hype used by developers and estate agents where, e.g. buying a home "off-plan" can be financed by rental income and consequently paying far more that the property is worth, thus inflating the market.
Now re-possessed homes can be kept by the banks who list them as assets on their balance sheets while they have the backing of tax-cash to ensure they can survive until the market recovers and they can then sell them again at the inflated prices. Meanwhile the original buyers are out of pocket and often still have large balances to pay off. As history shows, a recipe for anarchy and increased crime rates by frustrated people who have lost their life-savings etc. The only good is that estate agents are now also suffering for their sins with slow or non-existent sales and high overheads to cover, many going bout of business, but they were also caught up in the buying frenzy but did little to control, it with national professional actions.

Maria said:
Sunday, November 20, 2011 @ 1:46 PM

Yes, it seems the new government wil make Banls lower estate prices and therefore the market will come again to life and dations will be easier to perform.

In our experience, dation offers made by specialists ( lawyers) make Banks think through and lose aggresiveness.

Robert said:
Friday, December 9, 2011 @ 12:48 PM

Maria

What happens if you just stop paying the principle and just leave enough in the account to cover the interest on the loan so that at least that is being covered for the bank.

Also my property has been rented for 2 years to a Spanish resident, will the bank evict her if they proceed with legal proceedings

Maria said:
Friday, December 9, 2011 @ 1:01 PM

It is better to start a dation process where these rights can be expressed in a more extended way.
The tenant can stay there till end of dealine ( and exercise the five years extension id he has rights for this).
If the rental agreement is registered in the Land Registry before the registration of the mortgage, this is protected during all the time the contract establishes.

All these are minimums that can be bettered by the lender whish is enforcing the mortgage rights