European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) orders full and total refund of Spanish mortgage floor clauses

THE European Court of Justice has declared that the decision of the Spanish Supreme Court Ruling held on May 9 2013 was limited, and the terms and conditions and indeed the use of the ruling were unfair. Not only did the ruling provide incomplete and insufficient protection for consumers, it limited the amount that clients could claim back when trying to recover the money paid in relation to overpaid mortgages.

Basically, that meant that those affected by the ground floor rate clause could only reclaim any overpaid money after May 9 2013, irrespective of whether they had paid more before this date.

This new ruling is a total U-Turn and will mean that banks will now have to pay back – to the last euro – all of the money paid by the clients from the date that overpayment took place, rather than from the May 9 2013.

This decision applies to the whole of the European Union and especially in Spain, finally ending a long legal battle.

This new ruling represents a clear victory for customers and consumers against banks. According to the Bank of Spain report, the banks will have to return close to €7.5 billion to all the customers that have been affected.

This decision is legally binding – meaning that it affects both the pending cases and any future proceedings that have not yet been reviewed.

However, about final judgments, this issue is still controversial.

Our team of legal experts will negotiate with the bank on your behalf and can even sue the bank to save you money on each monthly installment because the interest you pay is probably greater than the official interest stated by the European Bank Central.

We firmly believe that most of the ‘threshold clauses’ that reflect mortgage contracts are unfair and customers of banks are at a disadvantage and penalized for their lack of knowledge in financial matters.

At Pellicer & Heredia we can allow those affected by the mortgage clause to check your deeds to make sure whether there is a mortgage floor rate. If so, you could then ask the Bank to reimburse the money that is being taken because of that abusive clause.