Friday, November 9, 2012

Spain needs more protection against home eviction, says European court

"The advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Thursday criticized Spain‘s mortgage legislation, following the eviction of hundreds of thousands of people over unpaid mortgages.

Spanish legal norms regulating such evictions are incompatible with European norms, Juliane Kokott said in response to a query from a Spanish court.

The Spanish system does not sufficiently protect the consumer against possible abusive clauses in mortgage contracts, because it allows evictions to take place before the defaulter can claim damages, Kokott said.

Kokott was commenting on a 2011 lawsuit which is being handled by a Barcelona court. The plaintiff, Mohamed Aziz, sued CatalunyaCaixa bank for evicting him over an unpaid mortgage.

The advocate general urged the Spanish judiciary to reassess the
[laws]regulating evictions.

About 350,000 people have lost their homes over unpaid mortgages in crisis-hit Spain, where more than a quarter of the workforce is unemployed.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy‘s conservative People‘s Party (PP) and the opposition Socialists on Wednesday announced an agreement to take urgent measures to help the most vulnerable mortgage defaulters. Further details were not immediately given
."

Source here.

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