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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Mortgage floor clauses in Spain: Key aspects of the Supreme Court ruling

Mortgage floor clauses in Spain: Key aspects of the Supreme Court ruling

Spain’s Supreme Court, in a Judgment of May 9, declared the nullity of the floor clauses in the mortgages of certain banking entities due to lack of transparency. What is a floor clause? When you go to a bank to apply for a mortgage loan, you tend to analyse what interest rate (fixed or variable) is the one that may be most convenient when paying the bank for the different instalments. In the fixed-rate, the same instalment will always be paid from month to month. In the variable rate, the instalments to be paid usually consist of the application of a reference index set by the European Central Bank (normally […]

Spanish mortgage victory leaves British couple with €15,000 in their pockets thanks to bank compensation payout

Spanish mortgage victory leaves British couple with €15,000 in their pockets thanks to bank compensation payout

Once upon a time a happy English couple (let’s call them the Smiths) who worked very hard in Birmingham all their lives dreamed of buying a property in Spain. One day they decided they had ‘had enough of rain, beer and fish and chips’ and decided to come to Spain to change it for sun, sangria and paella. But they were not 100% sure about it… it was, after all, a big move in their lives, but you only live once, so they booked their flights to Spain. They fell in love with Spain at first glance and their people and agreed to go ahead with the purchase of a […]