Mortgage expenses: how to recover them before the deadline

2023-10-02 23:13:26

The law firm, MOLINA LAW FIRM, is the fourth generation of a family saga of lawyers started in 1908 by Fernando Villamarinfirst dean of Vigo Bar Association. This multidisciplinary firm, in recent years, has specialized in consumer law, and especially in mortgage expense claims, creating a banking law department for this purpose.

In recent years, already following a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, The courts are imposing on banking entities to refund all mortgage expenses that consumers have had to assume until recently.

What expenses are claimed?

“Mortgage expenses are all incorporation expenses (i.e. notary, registration, appraisal and management)” Explain lawyer Pepe Molina, great-grandson of the firm’s founder. “These invoices are claimed with the legal interest. For example: if we claim a mortgage from the year 2000 we are talking about 23 years of interest, and the 600 euros you paid at that time may now become 1,200.”

Of that money, they explain to us, the Financial Entities must return all expenses to their clients of registration, management and appraisal, and 50% of the notary fee, paid at the time. “Besides, The courts of Vigo are annulling all these clauses and imposing on the bank the payment of the amounts that it improperly collected for its application, also condemning him to pay the procedural costs,” he states.

Any one from 1984 to 2019 is fine, it doesn’t matter if it’s canceled

“Above all, We want to reach those older people who have never reviewed their mortgage because they did not believe it was possible to claim anything, or because they have already paid it off for years, and they believe that they have no right to recover their money, but the reality is that they can. And it is very interesting that they know that they can still claim both for the “famous” floor clauses and for other abusive clauses usually contained in mortgage clauses: excessive default interest rate and early maturity, commission on debtor positions… .” Explain.

“Evidently – Pepe Molina tells us – the viability of the claim in each specific case is previously analyzed very carefully and thoroughly before filing, where appropriate, the claim. We minimize the risk to the maximum so that the client recovers their money with the corresponding interest”.

Are we in time to claim?

“Yeah. When a clause is void because it is abusive, it always is, and can always be claimed. However, regarding the restitution of amounts, we do have a period of five years to recover these amounts. Currently, the European Court has yet to resolve an issue raised by the Supreme Court to specify when we have this deadline. But if we take into account the most restrictive thesis and applying prudent criteria, the five-year period is counted from a ruling by the TS of January 23, 2019; therefore, The term could end next January 23, 2024.

Take advantage of these last few months to claim your mortgage. Assigned

Only for mortgages prior to June 2019

Pepe Molina highlights that one of the aspects that most attracts the client’s attention is thateven if the loan was cancelled, it would still be possible to claimprovided that the date of the contract is prior to 2019 since in March of this year the current Real Estate Credit Law was modified by applying the current criteria of the courts

“If you keep the deeds of your mortgage, the claim is possible”

““It is necessary for the client to keep the loan deed and the paid invoices.”. Therefore, in current mortgages the bank has already assumed the costs of the mortgage loan, with the exception of the payment of the appraisal invoice. “People have come to us to claim reimbursement of their mortgage expenses, which also had a floor clause and they did not know it. Many people think that once they have finished paying the loan, there is nothing they can do… In the office, we have managed to recover the expenses of a mortgage from 1986, canceled in 1995.”

Definitely, if you bought your home before 2019 and you had to pay all the expenses of the mortgage loan, you have time to claim and recover the amounts. You can do it, even if your mortgage has already been paid off or you have sold the property.