Spanish bank eviction policy - repossession insanity

[Guanche]

We won't be going to town until tomorrow Janet. I'll get some photos and send them straight to you via e-mail.

[Janet]

well Guanche came up trumps! Thanks G   

Here are a couple of the camps, firstly outside BBVA and then outside Bankia.

[Perikles]

Here is a report about locksmiths in Pamplona. They are refusing to change locks on apartments which have been repossessed by banks.

[Guanche]

The camp outside the BBVA in Santa Cruz has grown to eight tents although the camp outside Bancia has gone, the placards and notices are still stuck to the walls and windows.
One minor story. Over the last couple of days we have spoken to four friends and a couple of the family. They are going to, or have withdrawn all their cash from the Caja Caneria and closed their accounts. They have opened accounts in either BBVA or Santander, one had it in her wardrobe! (Which I advised against) The wife is going to town tomorrow to do the same for her mother.

[Janet]

Thanks G, have updated my own news page. 

[Guanche]

The protest outside Bankia has started up again. There were three tents there this morning adding to the eight already outside the BBVA.

[Delderek]

OK I'm going to play Devils advocate here. But what do you expect lenders to do when borrowers don't pay.

People have money deposited in banks, which is not going to be very secure, if nobody pays back any loans.

The situation in the UK and most of the world is the same. If you borrow money for anything it has to be paid back.

[Janet]

San Miguel Ayuntamiento has now joined the fray, threatening the removal of municipal funds from those banks that evict those in mortgage arrears in San Miguel. The measure, presented by the mayor, was passed unanimously by the council. Mayor Valentín González said that with the explosion of the economic crisis and the increase in unemployment, it was essential to support families devastated by a situation in which they cannot afford even the most basic necessities. He called for the state to change the legal framework regulating the mortgage market to allow people who cannot pay their mortgages through no fault of their own not to be evicted from their homes. JA

[Perikles]

OK I'm going to play Devils advocate here. But what do you expect lenders to do when borrowers don't pay.

The trouble is that the banks are seen as unreasonable and dictatorial in an economic crisis which they themselves have caused. In principle, they are right in evicting borrowers who can't pay. But what if the borrower can't pay because he has lost his job, and the bank is responsible for the loss of job?

Let's take a hypothetical but very realistic case: bank gives a mortgage of €250,000 to someone in the building industry to buy a property at €300,000. Two years later, he is unemployed and his property is worth €200,000. So he's bankrupt, lost his €50,000 capital, they repossess. But it's their bloody fault that a) he lost his job and b) the property has slumped in value. Why not accept some responsibility for the disaster and, say, let him continue to live there with a nominal rent? Or be far more flexible in letting people hand the keys back in a dación en pago, again letting people rent instead of just chucking them out?

The banks need to be told that people are more than just so many kgs of meat. They don't know it yet.

[Guanche]

The thing is it's not just the banks, it's the whole system and of course the Spanish cultural mind set of 'No one gets anything for nothing' While that view is getting softer amongst the population, it still pervades the minds of those in power.
Not long ago there was a well known female politician taking part in a debate in Parliament about unemployment or unemployment benefit payments, can't remember. She was filmed making an out burst that the problems of the unemployed was their own fault! And this woman was fierce veins bulging red face the lot, she meant every word she said and looked like it, I saw the news item. She of course retracted when it was shown on TV. To late!

Right now, not more than 10 kilometres away from where I sit are a number of social houses. Owned by the local council. They sit empty and some in ruin. Why because the rent to buy tenants couldn't keep up with the payments. So they were thrown out by the council. The council didn't secure them correctly and they were used as drug dens or just plain vandalised. Now the council say they cannot afford to refurbish them. But instead of letting the homeless use them and refurbish them themselves the council say no ?????????

These are the same councils that are attacking the banks. There all as bad as each other.