The European Justice rules on the deadline to claim mortgage expenses. According to his criteria, the period begins at the same moment in which the client is aware of having signed an abusive clause, inaugurating a new time horizon unknown until this ruling.
The distribution of the mortgage formalization expenses It has been one of the great struggles that banking entities, consumers and even the Government itself have waged in recent years. In 2018, the Executive was forced to intervene to legislate to the detriment of banking, going so far as to state at that time that it regretted “the situation created by the Supreme Court”.
During the last weeks, the possibility had been considered that we were facing the last days to be able to carry out the pertinent claim, since different interpretations defined January 23, 2024 as the deadline, given the five-year statute of limitations stated the Civil Code.
Although different consumer protection organizations, such as the OCU, argued that this was not possible, as a result of the interruption of procedures which was forced to be carried out by the COVID 19 pandemic, whose exceptional situation forced the deadline to be extended for as long as the procedures were suspended, at least. Now him High Court of Justice of the European Union has gone a step further: guaranteeing consumer protection around this issue.
Justice, on behalf of consumers
On January 25, the Superior Court of Justice of the European Union, after having been consulted by a Spanish judge, ruled that There is no established deadline for that claim.. The explanation is because the period should start counting from the same moment in which consumers know that they have signed ora clause considered abusive. That is, when a signature sentence is produced.
At the same time, it also remembers that it is necessary to provide sufficient time for both preparation and subsequent recourse to take place to “enforce these rights”. Likewise, it is not possible to demand that citizens must be up to date with current events related to this issue, as if the professionals who dedicate themselves to it must be, so it is not possible to define a specific deadline.
Mortgages canceled before 2019
Since the ruling regarding mortgage expenses was signed, one of the most frequent doubts referred to whether it was possible to claim mortgage expenses for mortgages canceled before 2019.
Nevertheless, “this sentence doesn’t change things Regarding claims for mortgages canceled more than 5 years ago, it does not open new doors but it does not close them definitively either.”, explains the OCU. Therefore, the organization itself invites all those who have been affected by this situation to contact it to personally evaluate the request and proceed to carry out all the necessary procedures to ensure that our rights are respected.
In the event that you wish to carry out the claim independently, It is necessary to file the complaint with the complaints service of the entity with which the mortgage in question has been signed. If the expected results are not obtained, the claim must be raised to the Bank of Spain and, ultimately, there would still be judicial avenues to obtain the definitive response.
