Spanish bank eviction policy - repossession insanity

[Janet]

Santa Cruz Ayuntamiento has become the first in Spain to sign an anti-eviction protocol, a document that the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, introduced by saying that reprisals will be taken against banks which fail to answer the Ayuntamiento on the matter of social housing for those who have their property repossessed and who are now being evicted.  The mayor said that the municipality will not work with any bank that does not even dignify the Ayuntamiento with the courtesy of a reply on a matter as delicate as this, and that the Ayuntamiento will not put with a single further case of such injustice.

Bankia is the first bank to fall foul of this new protocol as a result of its decision to evict Carmen Omaña, a single mother without work and whose unemployment benefit has expired. Instead of dealing with the municipality to solve the problem of a home for her and children, the bank ignored the Ayuntamiento's communications, going to Court for a fifth time to evict the woman from her property in Los Gladiolos in the capital. She has now been dispossessed of her home and has gone on hunger strike, setting up a tent outside the Bankia branch in Santa Cruz. All she is asking for is that Bankia should write off her debt: she is in negative equity and the bank has already taken her property back.

Mayor Bermúdez said that it was unacceptable that the banks should ignore local authorities when they have been rescued with public money, and that the Ayuntamiento was working at an agreement with the Colegio de Abogados which would advise people affected with negotiations with banks to achieve agreement for a dación en pago, or application for social rentals, or mortgage payment holidays for those on low incomes. There will be many more cases like that of Carmen Omaña, Santa Cruz municipality itself is facing some 5,000 cases, and it is, to me, outrageous that the Spanish Government can turn the clock back on women's rights by altering abortion legislation while arguing that they cannot overturn this draconian legislation on the grounds that .... they cannot alter legislation ... JA

[Guanche]

Could it be the Ayuntamiento now runs the risk of not having a bank? What happens if the banks take reprisals against the Ayuntamiento? Because I cannot see the banks backing down to anyone. And with the Madrid government not giving a hoot? Still good PR for Santa Cruz.

[Janet]

Three other people have joined Carmen Omaña in her hunger strike while camping outside the bank. They are the spokesperson for the Plataforma de Afectados por las Hipotecas de Tenerife, Inma Évora, and two other members of the group, Zebenzui Pérez y Alejandro Remiro, both immersed over the past year in repossession and eviction procedures. JA

[Guanche]

There's four tents outside the bank now. The front wall of the bank is plastered in notices against the bank. There is a petition to sign, which the wife and I duly signed, for what it's worth. There was quite a crowd but notably no police presence. The general chat amongst the crowd was to take all your money out of the banks soon as you are paid just leaving money for the bills. I have heard this else where but don't know how big the practice is. I am sure it would have some negative effect on the banks if the practice grew, maybe even forcing them to change there policy of not giving a rats arse about the Spanish people.

[Nova]

That wouldn't work, Guanche.  If you just leave enough in your account to cover your bills, you will eventually be surprised by a higher bill or maintenance commission that you hadn't planned for, then your account goes overdrawn and the bank starts hitting you with charges.  The more people who do that, the more the banks make in charges, it's more costly for the customers and I don't think it would help present to the courts the image of a financially responsible person who has fallen on hard times.  Rather it would demonstrate somebody who stacks up debt with little regard for their contractual obligations.  That last part is just my opinion, but it certainly isn't a game I'd like to play 

It will be interesting to see the outcome of Doña Carmen's protest 

[Guanche]

Agreed Nova, I wouldn't be bothered doing it myself. The bank wouldn't even notice if I did take my money out there isn't much in there to start with lol

But there must be some genuine people who, absolutely through no fault of there own find themselves in this sorry state. People must try to improve their lot, house ownership is one way to gain some security. So a family 2 kids both parents working  should be barred from buying a house just in case there is a massive world wide financial crisis some time in the next twenty five years because they might loose their jobs and won't be able to pay their mortgage? That would mean that everyone I know would never have bought a house.

I am not sure what happens in the Uk in cases like this.

[Janet]

The principal difference is that in the UK, once a property is repossessed, that's it. The debt is cleared. In Spain, it isn't. A bank can repossess and still come after you for the difference between what it sold for and what was owed (and what was owed is a figure in the escritura comprising value plus penalties, sometimes amounting to double the mortgage amount) ...

[Guanche]

The principal difference is that in the UK, once a property is repossessed, that's it. The debt is cleared. In Spain, it isn't. A bank can repossess and still come after you for the difference between what it sold for and what was owed (and what was owed is a figure in the escritura comprising value plus penalties, sometimes amounting to double the mortgage amount) ...

Plus some social housing, and benefits (not talking about benefit cheats here) and local authorities that have an obligation to house the homeless, not always in a manner the homeless may be accustom to but never the less a roof.
Does any one know how long one has to default on a mortgage before it's repossessed in the UK?

[poker]

They should make a tax on empty property , properties that are permanently 'shuttered', and not holiday homes or those that are rented out to third parties.
With that money help these that have lost their houses.
Also prices of property and rents would come douwn as it should with in a country with lots of troubble.

[Janet]

Bermúdez means business! 1.5 million Euros has been withdrawn from the bank today by the Ayuntamiento, the total balance in its current accounts with Bankia. The Council said that 90% of its banking is done with BBVA, Caixabank and Santander, but Bankia has lost what business it did have with the local authority. JA