British homeowners in Spain can still apply for a Golden Visa and potentially avoid needing a fresh €500,000 – this is how

British homeowners in Spain can still apply for a Golden Visa and potentially avoid needing a fresh €500,000 – this is how

SPANISH prime minister Pedro Sanchez recently announced his intention to cancel the Golden Visa scheme.  The Socialist PSOE leader said the move would stop speculation of the property market. The programme grants any foreigner residency if they buy a home worth €500,000 or more.  The law was approved in 2012 in the middle of a recession following the real estate crash in 2010. Its main aim was to reactivate the Spanish property market and attract foreign investors to buy all the real estate portfolio left with the banks, especially in those days when prices were extremely low and economies were suffering across the EU. During its first years, the main […]

Thousands of British homeowners in Spain could be owed €40,000-plus compensation over ‘floor clause’ mortgage scandal – this is how to claim

Thousands of British homeowners in Spain could be owed €40,000-plus compensation over ‘floor clause’ mortgage scandal – this is how to claim

BRITISH homeowners are winning up to €48,500 in compensation after major banks in Spain were exposed for putting a hidden clause in their mortgages.   In the early 2000s a string of lenders secretly wrote in their contracts that their clients’ payable interest rate could not drop below 3.5% – in what is now known as a ‘floor clause’. But for 10 years, between 2011 and 2021, the interest rate in Spain sat between 0-1%. It means countless homeowners spent years paying hundreds of euros more per month than necessary. Fairway Lawyers, based in Marbella, has been at the forefront of winning back money for affected homeowners – and on a […]

Do you have a mortgage in Spain? Find out if you are owed money by your bank…

Do you have a mortgage in Spain? Find out if you are owed money by your bank…

‘Abusive’ IRPH floor clause mortgages in Spain: A Costa del Sol court ruling obliges the banks to return everything overcharged – before the national Supreme Court rules on the matter. A judgment of the Provincial Court of Malaga has declared the IRPH mortgage rate null for ‘lack of transparency’, replace it with Euribor and orders the banks to refund the difference between the cancelled rate and the new one plus interest. The recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) regarding the IRPH rate mortgages in Spain is so clear that many provincial courts and hearings have decided not to wait for the Supreme Court to […]

Door opened for a million mortgages in Spain on ‘abusive’ IRPH rate to be cancelled

Door opened for a million mortgages in Spain on ‘abusive’ IRPH rate to be cancelled

One of the top legal advisers in the European Union has said that about one million mortgages sold in Spain on a different type of rate to the standard Euribor can be subject to judicial review. The rate being questioned is known as the IRPH (mortgage loan reference index) and is an alternative offered to customers of banks when buying their property. It is a national average of the cost of mortgages over a period up to three years, meaning it is less variable than the standard Euribor. However, homeowners complain that while Euribor rates plummeted in recent years, the different way of calculating IRPH keeps their loans higher. Many […]

Top European court says homeowners in Spain can claim against banks if mortgage interest rates weren’t properly explained

Top European court says homeowners in Spain can claim against banks if mortgage interest rates weren’t properly explained

The European Court of Justice has given the green light to Spanish courts to rule against lenders if mortgages were sold using the ‘more complicated’ IRPH rate rather than the more usual Euribor. Around one million mortgage holders could benefit from the top court’s ruling as the IRPH rate (an average of market rates) didn’t drop as dramatically as the Euribor in recent years. The ECJ has upheld earlier judgements that say using the IRPH is only valid if the different way of calculating it is clearly explained in the contract. Spanish courts will now have to decide on a case by case basis if compensation is due from banks. FIND OUT […]

Door opened for a million ‘floor clause’ mortgages in Spain on ‘abusive’ IRPH rate to be cancelled

Door opened for a million ‘floor clause’ mortgages in Spain on ‘abusive’ IRPH rate to be cancelled

One of the top legal advisers in the European Union has said that about one million mortgages sold in Spain on a different type of rate to the standard Euribor can be subject to judicial review. The rate being questioned is known as the IRPH (mortgage loan reference index) and is an alternative offered to customers of banks when buying their property. It is a national average of the cost of mortgages over a period up to three years, meaning it is less variable than the standard Euribor. However, homeowners complain that while Euribor rates plummeted in recent years, the different way of calculating IRPH keeps their loans higher. Many […]

European Court wades into Spain’s mortgage crisis

European Court wades into Spain’s mortgage crisis

With a ruling that left both banks and consumers claiming victory, Europe’s highest court waded into a legal dispute in March over allegedly unfair home mortgage plans Spanish banks used during a housing boom that imploded with the 2008 financial crisis. The European Court of Justice found that clauses Spanish banks used in adjustable interest rate mortgages may have been abusive. But it stopped short of issuing a blanket rejection of the mortgages and told Spanish courts to examine them on a case-by-case basis to see if consumers clearly understood what they were signing up for. Some housing advocates called the ruling a win in their long-running campaign against banks […]