When a consumer goes to a restaurant to order a pizza, he just pays for the pizza. If you order it from home, at most, there will be shipping costs. Or maybe a euro or two more for the extra cheese. There are no more procedures or clauses, no traps or cardboard. On the other hand, when a buyer decides to do it buy a house and, to do so, ask mutualYup must pay some formalization fees Of the same. Since they are large sums, they can involve a lot bulky concepts that raise doubts. Proof of this is that, in 2021, the Bank of Spain processed 34,330 loans from bank customers, 61% more than in 2020. Of these 34,330, more than 7,000 they were linked to the payment of the formalization costs of the loan.
notary fees, property registrationManagement fees, assessment and taxes… What does the bank correspond to – which one, after all, earns with the loan – and what does it correspond to the customer?
The borrower only has to pay the appraisal fees
Antonio López Arenas is responsible for the procedural and civil / commercial areas of the company Horizon Lawyersand explain to Global consumer which, from June 16, 2019when it came into effect Ley 5/2019the borrower (ie the beneficiary of the credit) “assumes only the evaluation costs“. These tend to amount, on average, to around 350 euros. In this way, the financial institutiondeals with management, notary and property registration costs“.
So, the key lies in the date: before or after June 2019. For loans that were signed before that time, López details, “jurisprudence has established that the bank should bear the costs of management, ownership registration and valuation” while the fees for the notary for the loan deed “are addressed both sides 50%“.
Documented legal acts
This creates a complex landscape in which some consumers can get lost. Another controversial charge is the Tax on documented legal acts (IAJD). “The Court of Cassation established that in 2018, after changing two criteria in a few weeks the obligee to pay was the borroweralthough the Royal decree-law 17/2018, of 8 Novemberchanged the rule so that from that moment the debtor was the lender”, Emphasizes López Arenas. In other words, to date, not even the mortgaged party is the one who pays the IAJD.
It’s a significant relief, because before, this tax was paid twice. Here’s how she explains it on his website. the roaming comparator: “Not only does the bank pay it when it grants the mortgage loan to its client, but it also has to be paid by the client as part of the fees payable for the purchase of the house that will be mortgaged. Until the new mortgage law was passed, it was a tax that the customer literally paid twice: one at the time of buying the house and another at the time of signing the mortgage“.
Recover € 5,000
the same opinion Almudena Velazquezthe legal director of the portal Reclamador.es. “What needs to be distinguished is regardless of whether the loans are subscribed or not starting from June 2019”, He explains to this medium. The comings and goings “have created confusion in the consumer”, and there are those who signed a loan a few months earlier and cannot claim, because it is not applicable to his case. This expert also points out that some rates “have generated much conflict”Until the European Court has ruled.
According to Reclamador.es, “the payment of these expenses should not have been exclusively charged to the customers, but the banks included an unfair clause which charges the client with the tax on documented legal documents, notary fees, registration fees, evaluation fees and agency fees “. This platform indicates that, with legal interest, the amount an affected person could recover exceeds 5,000 euros.
Banks steal other expenses
Now, if the law clearly states how much each actor involved pays, why has there been so much hype? Because, as López Arenas admits, sometimes these rates are disguised. “Banks operate with profitability criteria in granting loans. If the regulations require them to pay expenses they had not previously incurred, it is logical that they try to compensate for this loss of profitability increasing other concepts of remuneration in their favor ”, he argues. In the opinion of this lawyer, “it would be naive to think that banks are not trying to cover this loss of profitability “, so it is more appropriate for the beneficiaries of the loan” to know the content of the contract and, in case of doubt about the scope or possible unfairness of the clauses, that consult a lawyer“.
As to why they have increased so much right now, López Arenas explains that expense reports have started to be collected en masse starting in 2016. But banks “systematically ignore almost all out-of-court claims, even those submitted to the Bank of Spain. ”To force consumers to go to the judicial way. “The problem is that in many provinces (including Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Valencia) the courts specializing in unfair terms designated on 25 May 2017 with the agreement of the Permanent Commission of the CGPJ after the increase in the dispute for the basic clausesand that many of these courts, which are competent to settle mortgage cost claims, they were born already collapsed designating only one per province, ”explains López.
Going to the Bank of Spain guarantees nothing
This is why a procedure “can last four or even five years at first instance in some of these courts, which, added to the fact that the amounts to be claimed are less and less, makes the judicial process less attractive for clients and for law firms that do not handle such requests as class action, and is explained therefore that the volume of claims before the Bank of Spain increases alternatively, although banks do not always comply with the resolution of the Bank of Spain”, Explains Horizon’s lawyer.
For his part, Vázquez speaks of “monumental traffic jam“As a result of the fact that it was established, in 2017, that this type of appeal would be handled by a single court per province. “The rulings on what corresponds in each case are now known,” he details.
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