Pain in Spain

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  • poppy10_2
    poppy10_2 Posts: 6,575 Forumite
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    esurian wrote: »
    Does anyone out there know what would happen if I simply give back the keys to my Spanish property to the Spanish bank (Bankia) who I have the mortgage with?
    This is your fault:

    Spain's Bankia seeks 19bn-euro bailout from government
    poppy10
  • DVardysShadow
    DVardysShadow Posts: 18,949 Forumite
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    poppy10 wrote: »
    This is your fault:

    Spain's Bankia seeks 19bn-euro bailout from government

    I agree. OP will be the straw that broke the camels back and caused the collapse of the Euro, the subsequent rise of extremist politics across Europe and 150 years of intermittent land wars.
    Hi, we’ve had to remove your signature. If you’re not sure why please read the forum rules or email the forum team if you’re still unsure - MSE ForumTeam
  • WellKnownSid
    WellKnownSid Posts: 1,394 Forumite
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    cclarke12 wrote: »
    I have hired RDT abogados who have offices in London to try and pursue this for me as I have got nowhere trying to sort this myself.

    Unless your big-shot London lawyers know your bank manager personally, you may not be successful. Spain works on a system called enchufe, you need to find a lawyer with the right connections in the bank, and possibly the right sized bribe that will get the bank manager down to the notary's office and your house off your hands PDQ.
  • ILW
    ILW Posts: 18,333 Forumite
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    cclarke12 wrote: »
    I am currently trying to get CAM bank to agree to a dacion en pago (handing back keys and debt being written off). I have hired RDT abogados who have offices in London to try and pursue this for me as I have got nowhere trying to sort this myself. CAM bank are quite frankly corrupt and have told endless lies and misled us over the years, but I was getting nowhere so felt no option but to appointment a lawyer on a fixed fee to try and see if they can make more progress. I don't know that we'll be successful but it is worth a go and they claim to have a lot of success. What is already clear is that bank are going to put up a real fight.

    Our place has been on the Market for 5 years but noone is buying at the moment, even at half the price of the original bank valuation. We were naive and have been told by several lawyers that at the time the bank managers were giving valuation people backhanders to over value properties so that non-resident mortgages went through and they got their commission.

    I assume it was bought as a holiday home. Why not just keep making the payments and use it as such? What has changed?
  • Gentoo365
    Gentoo365 Posts: 499 Forumite
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    In many cases it is not just the bank that will want you to be chased. It will be the holder of the bonds which are backed by your mortgage.

    It's not really the decision of Bankia to 'write it off'. It may be that their hands are tied.
  • cclarke12
    cclarke12 Posts: 231 Forumite
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    ILW wrote: »
    I assume it was bought as a holiday home. Why not just keep making the payments and use it as such? What has changed?

    No it wasn't bought as a holiday home. Affordability is an issue but the bigger issue is corruption and the constant lies from the CAM bank, which included them telling us and thousands of other (mainly Spanish) customers that we should put money into safe savings products which turned out to be anything but the case and we all lost our money when they were taken over. We and thousands of others are still fighting for our money. Aside from that they annually seem to find some mortgage-related fee to charge us for forgot to tell us about. There is just no accountabilty where Spanish banks are concerned. You live and you learn.
  • cclarke12
    cclarke12 Posts: 231 Forumite
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    WellKnownSid wrote: »
    Unless your big-shot London lawyers know your bank manager personally, you may not be successful. Spain works on a system called enchufe, you need to find a lawyer with the right connections in the bank, and possibly the right sized bribe that will get the bank manager down to the notary's office and your house off your hands PDQ.

    Big shot lawyers? Are they? Maybe you know more than me. They just have an office in London, and the lawyer dealing with it is based on Alicante and is dealing directly with the bank. It hasn't cost me much up front and the rest is only payable on success. It's a long shot but worth a go.

    I am not sure the principal enchufe does hold anymore. That's the issue. For years the bank managers, lawyers and valuation people were greasing palms to get deals through. The local bank mangers had huge powers around lending and were getting large commissions which is why the banking system has ended up in the state it has. The local branch managers can't sneeze now without clearing it with head office.
  • ILW
    ILW Posts: 18,333 Forumite
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    cclarke12 wrote: »
    No it wasn't bought as a holiday home. Affordability is an issue but the bigger issue is corruption and the constant lies from the CAM bank, which included them telling us and thousands of other (mainly Spanish) customers that we should put money into safe savings products which turned out to be anything but the case and we all lost our money when they were taken over. We and thousands of others are still fighting for our money. Aside from that they annually seem to find some mortgage-related fee to charge us for forgot to tell us about. There is just no accountabilty where Spanish banks are concerned. You live and you learn.

    If it was bought as some type of high return "investment", I guess different rules apply then. Good luck.
  • cclarke12
    cclarke12 Posts: 231 Forumite
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    ILW wrote: »
    If it was bought as some type of high return "investment", I guess different rules apply then. Good luck.

    The savings products missold by bank are a different issue, but just illustrative of bank in question misleading customers. It was bought as a home to live in but unfortunately things didn't work out as planned and we came back to UK. At supposedly 60% LTV mortgage (according to the valuation) we thought it was a safe bet to buy in Spain, with plenty of safety net in case of a slowing in property market, but it wasn't. Ultimately, it was our decision to buy and our responsibility to pay the mortgage, but affordability is now an issue and if by proving the bank have misled us over mortgage products etc. this gives us a way out, then quite frankly we'll take it.
  • FraudBuster
    FraudBuster Posts: 931 Forumite
    edited 27 May 2012 at 9:45PM
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    cclarke12 wrote: »
    No it wasn't bought as a holiday home. Affordability is an issue but the bigger issue is corruption and the constant lies from the CAM bank, which included them telling us and thousands of other (mainly Spanish) customers that we should put money into safe savings products which turned out to be anything but the case and we all lost our money when they were taken over. We and thousands of others are still fighting for our money. Aside from that they annually seem to find some mortgage-related fee to charge us for forgot to tell us about. There is just no accountabilty where Spanish banks are concerned. You live and you learn.


    You will find that UK and US Banks have also lied in recent years!
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