The so-called abusive mortgages have placed many banks in the legal arena that for years have used these practices to overcharge their clients for the costs of mortgage loans.
From Hinojosa Abogados we bring you today to some relevant information about them in order to identify if you could find yourself in any of these cases and, if so, we advise you to ask for the relevant legal advice to proceed to appeal against it.
Abusive mortgages: the small print that drags you into overpaying.
The mortgages have a series of clauses, of sections, in many occasions plagued with technicalities and paragraphs written in such a way that it is quite complicated to understand the content.
All this is done in many occasions with the only purpose of «boring» and overwhelming the client who, in need of concluding the process and being able to have the money to carry out his real estate purchase, takes for valid everything that in the document is stipulated without understanding practically nothing of it or very little.
In this way, abusive clauses have been included on numerous occasions, which the courts, in several sentences, have ended up recognizing as frauds and determining that the client would be able to recover the money unduly charged by the bank.
For a clause not to be considered abusive it must be duly explained to the client, with clear and simple terminology, legible handwriting, and have the consent of the parties.
Some of the clauses considered and recognized by our courts as abusive are:
1.-Floor clause: the bank determines a minimum interest rate that our mortgage will have despite the fact that the Euribor falls below this interest rate.
2.-Early maturity clause: the banks determined that just by failing to pay a monthly mortgage payment, they could initiate the process of seizure of the property. Rulings of 2019 establish that this is an abusive practice and determine that this process will be activated once 12 installments of non-payment have elapsed.
3.-Mortgage formalization expenses clause: traditionally, the banking entities assigned to the client the obligation to pay the notary’s fees, agency, registry, appraisal and taxes. There are rulings that already oblige banks to assume the costs of registration, agency, appraisal and 50% of the notary fees.
Before these or other clauses that a client believes may be abusive in their mortgage, from Hinojosa Abogados we recommend consulting legal experts who can determine whether it is so and in that case initiate the relevant process of claiming its reimbursement.
When it is detected that we are facing a case of abusive mortgages, a judicial claim can be initiated which, if it is decided in favor of the client, would oblige the bank to refund the amount unduly charged as well as the elimination of such clauses from the final wording of the mortgage.