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 […]

British expats forced to leave Spain – ‘don’t feel confident’ with new Brexit rules

British expats forced to leave Spain – ‘don’t feel confident’ with new Brexit rules

By ESTHER MARSHALL – www.express.co.uk Diego Echavarria is an expert in Spanish residency law. He is the founding partner of Fairway Lawyers on the Costa del Sol and spoke to Express.co.uk about British expats in Spain. He told Express.co.uk that one of his clients was asked to leave Spain in 72 hours after she struggled to prove she had residency. He said: “I had a case where someone who is a citizen in Spain couldn’t justify it. They gave her 72 hours to leave the country. “She was able to prove that she had residency so she was fine but I don’t know what’s going to happen to other people […]

How to buy a home in Spain as a foreigner

How to buy a home in Spain as a foreigner

By www.thedeliciousday.com Diego Echavarría has practised real estate and immigration law in Malaga and throughout Andalucía for 20 years. I chatted with him via Zoom to learn the ins and outs of home buying in Spain for foreigners and why a real estate attorney is an absolute must. Here is a little of what he had to say… Why is a lawyer required when buying a home in Spain? Basically, you always need an attorney when you’re a foreign person investing in Spain. There are a lot of legal requirements and issues that most people do not know about. Lawyers check if the property has any debts and if the mortgages have […]

Expat buyers in Spain are scooping €50,000 and more after Fairway Lawyers crack compensation route in floor clause mortgages

Expat buyers in Spain are scooping €50,000 and more after Fairway Lawyers crack compensation route in floor clause mortgages

‘ABUSIVE’ MORTGAGE FLOOR CLAUSES SPAIN: Are you entitled to compensation plus interest – even if you have sold your property and paid off the mortgage? They had taken out the mortgage through Bankia in 2004. The villa in Mojacar, Almeria, was the home they had always dreamed of buying for their regular trips south for the weather. With its sizable garden and sea views, it was the perfect place to unwind during the hard winters of northern England. But the Thompsons, like so many buyers who took out mortgages in the happy days between 2002 and 2009, soon found out that their mortgage was not fairly setup. While initially the […]

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 […]