Homeowner whose mortgage is paid up to date to be repossessed by bank
Homeowner whose mortgage is paid up to date to be repossessed by bank
A WOMAN who is fully up to date with her mortgage payments has received a repossession order from her lender.
According to the national pressure group PAH – Plataforma de Afectados de la Hipoteca ('Mortgage Victims' Association'), the homeowner – who is separated from her husband and has two children – bought the apartment in Mallorca 10 years ago and has a mortgage of 40,000 euros left on it.
She originally owed 70,000 euros and, upon losing her job and her husband failing to pay maintenance for their children, went to Barclays Bank to renegotiate her payments, which comprised two loans.
Barclays agreed to a 100-euro discount and the homeowner agreed to increase her monthly payments once she started work again.
This was in October 2011, but last week Barclays told her they were going to repossess and auction her apartment off because of a 3,000-euro debt with the Social Security for the company she used to run.
The PAH has launched a nationwide protest against what they call an 'abusive' clause in her loan agreement, given that it should be the Social Security which embargoed the house rather than the bank.
Unless the courts resolve the situation, the apartment will be auctioned on June 13 and the owner and her two children left out on the street.
Members of the PAH say this latest case makes it clear that the government needs to 'resolve the total defencelessness' of the ordinary person against banks and loan companies 'once and for all' – and not just when homeowners have been unable to pay their mortgage due to not finding a job, but 'even when they are up to date with their payments'.
