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HANDING IN THE KEYS

The Poor Man’s Solution

Mike Walsh

Handing in the keys by hard pressed homeowners unable to meet their mortgage payments can lead to collateral damage that worsens the problem.  The banks, the biggest unwilling estate agents in the UK and Spain are not happy. Repossession proceedings are time consuming and expensive. The procedure can take up to three years and there is the additional haemorrhage of lost interest and legal fees.

The legal procedure known as a Dación en Pago may be a better option for the defaulter who may otherwise face years of legal wrangling and even bankruptcy: The outstanding mortgage is still an obligation as are the additional costs in the event of default.

Put simply it means surrendering the keys to the bank by formal declaration before a notary. In return the bank agrees to cancel the balance owing and release the mortgage holder from further liability.

A CLEAN SHEET

The credit consequences of the cancelled debt do not transfer. If the defaulter returns to their own country they can start off with a clean sheet.

The Dación en Pago is established by Article 1.175 of the Spanish Civil Code (SCC) and the transfer, unless otherwise agreed, is limited to the value of the mortgage which corresponds to the value of the property. In other words if the outstanding mortgage is 100,000€ but its value is only 80,000€ there will be a shortfall of 20,000€.

GET OUT OF PRISON?

There are three important requirements for the Dación en Pago to be acceptable: The borrower should not have already defaulted. The lender should not have already commenced repossession proceedings. Thirdly, the property should not be in negative equity exceeding (as a rule of the thumb) 20 per cent if it is to be considered.

There is no obligation on the bank to accept the Dación en Pago solution but there is equally good reason for their doing so. As commonsense suggests these procedures must be conducted by legally qualified professionals.

Turn your house into income

SPANIARDS AIR VIEWS ON CORRUPTION

The El Mundo daily newspaper has been running a series of surveys of its readers to find out what they think of various aspects of national life at the end of the first 30 years of democracy. Some of the results have been very damning, but it’s doubtful that the politicians will take much notice of them. Contrary to popular belief, the Spaniards are not indifferent to corruption in high places and know exactly where to place the blame: Socialist politicians, local builders of all political parties and local councils of all political hues. More than 27% said the current Socialist government was more corrupt than the first one under Felipe Gonzalez (24%). Only 14% said the Partido Popular government headed by José María Aznar was corrupt. More than 62% said the politicians were the most corrupt, followed by the judiciary (14.4%) and the media (9%). As for politicians, the most corrupt were those in local government. On the economic front, nearly 60% thought the construction was the most corrupt, followed by the banks (18%). Nearly 80% want to Constitution changed in order to put limits on the nationalist parties while at a local level, the party that gets the most votes should form the local council, doing away with alliances between minority parties. And two thirds of those question said they did not believe that the whole truth about the 2004 Madrid bombings had been told.

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NEVER SHOP AT NIKE STORE ON LINE

Letter from one of our readers:

I have worked in customer service for over 12 years of my life.
I new I had seen it all but its different working in customer service than being a customer that requires service.
My experience at the NIKE store on line gave me a new meaning of customer service.
At my former employers we were always told to go above and beyond to help the customer and as well make sure we rectify a situation especially if we can see that it is our fault.
Obviously NIKE does not operate on the same code of ethics.
Its bad enough that this is the same company that was underpaying overseas employees that were children
but to also give bad customer service after rebuilding your name is really not the smartest thing to do.
My experience with NIKE has been the worst experience involving customer service in my life.
I went to NIKE’s website NIKE.COM and ordered a pair of shoes as a gift for a close friend of mine but I put in the wrong size.
Read Whole story here:

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SIGN OF THE TIMES

When Andalucia’s regional television channel, Canal Sur, recently advertised 112 jobs in different departments, it received an astonishing 18,700 replies. A third of the openings are for receptionist-telephonists, gofers and administrative clerks while another third are distributed among production, the newsroom and scriptwriters. The rest are for technicians, cameramen, and maintenance people. Job interviews began last week at the Congress Centre in Seville.

DOZEN GOOD DOWNPOURS NEEDED

A spokesman for the Cuenca Mediterranea Andaluza (Mediterranean Water Board) said last week that Malaga needs another dozen downpours like the recent ones ten days ago or six weeks of steady rain to end the drought that has been affecting the province for the past four years. Antonio Rodriguez Leal said the province would need 40% more rain above the annual average of 560 litres per square metre, that is, 800 litres per m2 to fill the reservoirs, which are still too low.

CARTAMA TO GET ITV CENTRE

Residents of the Guadalhorce Valley will be able to have their vehicles ITV-tested closer to home in (hopefully) the not-too-distant future. Cartama Town Hall has just approved the construction of a new industrial estate half-way between Cartama town and Estacion de Cartama, which will include an official ITV test centre. The Town Hall spokesman who announced the project last week did not say when work would begin on the project.

SKI RESORT TO OPEN EARLY

A spokesman for Cetursa, the company which manages the Sierra Nevada ski resort, has said the slopes could be open to the public as early as November 15th or the 22nd this year if the current low temperatures continue. The resort usually opens in December, snowfall permitting.

UPROAR OVER BANDERAS HOUSE

The owners of houses in the Los Monteros urbanisation in Marbella have said they will formally accuse the Town Council of peddling political favours if Antonio Banderas’ house there is legalised. The film star’s beach front house was on the list of those to be demolished for building irregularities but will be regularised under the provisionally approved General Urban Plan (PGOU). Apparently Banderas has agreed to pay an unspecified amount in compensation and to relinquish some thousand square metres of garden. The other residents claim that the star – a known supporter of the Socialist regional and national governments – is being given special treatment because of his political affiliation.

BRITON KILLED IN CAR CRASH

A 24-year-old British man, identified only by the initials L.W., died in a car crash involving three vehicles on the A7 near the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos, direction Torremolinos, at 2.20am last Sunday morning. Six people were injured in the accident, three of them seriously. Two of them had to be freed from the wreckage by firemen. Police said one car had hit the central reservation before ploughing into two other cars.

ROCA USED MOTHER FOR TAX REASONS

Juan Antonio Roca, the alleged brain behind the Malaya and Saqueo 1 corruption cases in Marbella, denied in court last week denied that he had used his own companies to divert public money from the Marbella Town Hall between the years 1991 and 1995. He suggested that someone in the Town Hall had taken advantage of his accounts. When asked why his companies and other assets were in his mother’s name, the former municipal urban planning adviser Roca said he had always used her name “for tax reasons”. Another man charged in the Saqueo case, former legal adviser Jose Luis Sierra, told the court: “Nobody even breathed in Marbella without the express order of Gil”, referring to the late Mayor Jesus Gil y Gil. He added: “If anyone did anything without his permission, even if it was the logical thing to do, they would be looking for a job the next day.”

MUÑOZ DROPS JUICY TV DEAL

Former Marbella Mayor JuliAn Muñoz, who was recently granted an open prison regime after being found guilty of real estate irregularities, thought he was onto a good thing when he did a deal to sell his story to the Tele5 TV channel for €350,000. Presenter Ana Rosa Quintana even came down from Madrid last week to record the exclusive in Marbella only to have it cancelled at the last minute after the judge hearing the cases against Munoz instructed the prosecutor to look into the matter for tax purposes.

FINES BRING LITTER BUGS TO HEEL

After a 15-month campaign costing 150,000 to persuade the residents of Marbella to keep their streets clean, the Town Hall has taken off the kid gloves and started fining litterbugs, god owners who do not clean up after their pets and people who leave their rubbish in the street outside the allotted hours of 9-11 pm. Since a plain-clothes policeman and a team of “tecnicos (experts)” began patrolling the streets on September 15th, they have handed out 84 fines ranging for €25 (for dog owners) to €600 for hotels and stores, for a total amount of more than €32,000. The biggest fine – €2,400 – is reserved for the owners of dogs belonging to dangerous breeds who do not wear muzzles when walking them in public. A Town Hall spokesman said dog owners are now becoming “more aware” since the fines started.

CRIME STOPPERS SEEK MOST WANTED IN COSTA BLANCA

British police have launched another Operation Captura to track down criminals on the run on the Costa Blanca. In El Campello on the Costa Blanca, Crimestoppers are already putting up posters and handing out beer mats in a second drive to track down unwanted criminals thought to be hiding in Spain. A Crimestoppers’ spokesperson said: “We were blown away by the response to the first Operation Captura two years ago. The expats here really don’t want to have these people living among them and the beauty with Crimestoppers is that it’s totally anonymous so no one will ever know the tip-off came from them.” Of the 30 criminals featured in the first Operation Captura two years ago, 13 are now back in custody, including convicted killer James Hurley, who had been on the run for over a decade. Among the 10 faces on the new list are convicted paedophile Andrew Alderman, 49; drug dealer suspect Adam Hart, 29, on the run after escaping from police; Dean Rice, 47, wanted for kidnap and false imprisonment, and Anthony Kearney, 43, who is accused of extortion, perverting the course of justice and fraud. The full list can be found on the Crimestoppers website, with photographs of each of the wanted criminals and freephone numbers that can be called from both the UK and Spain. The list is prepared by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and those on it are subject to European Arrest Warrants. Introduced in 2004, these drastically reduce paperwork and make extradition a matter of weeks, not years. Bill Hughes, director of Soca, has a strong message for those on the run abroad: “These criminals seem to gravitate to warmer climes and think they can sit back and relax and enjoy their money. That’s not the case. We are determined to seize their assets and bring them back to face trial, or be returned to prison, in the proper way.” Information received will be forwarded to Spanish police, who will make the actual arrests. But Soca admits that criminals are already getting the message that Spain is no longer the sunshine sanctuary it once was. They are now turning their attention to other destinations, such as Dubai, to try to evade the ever-lengthening long arm of the law.

IRISH AMBASSADOR MEETS AMYS MOTHER

During a visit to Malaga last week, Irish Ambassador Peter Gunning Ms Audrey Fitzpatrick, the mother of Amy Fitzpatrick, who was last seen near her home in Calahonda on January 1st this year. The Irish Embassy has offered assistance in the case and there has been regular contact and cooperation between the Irish and Spanish authorities since Amy’s disappearance. Representatives of the Guardia Civil briefed the Ambassador, Ms. Audrey Fitzpatrick and her partner Mr Dave Mahon of everything done so far by the Spanish authorities solve the case.

BULL BREEDERS HIT BY CRISIS

The current economic crisis is making itself felt in all areas of life in Spain – including bullfighting. One of the country’s most famous breeders, Juan Pedro Domecq, told reporters last week that the number of bullfights per year will probably have to be reduced, because people will think twice before buying tickets. It’s good news for the anti-bullfighting campaigners but Sr Domecq said he and his fellow bull breeders were determined to keep the breed alive for the better times that he is sure lie ahead.

FAST HEARINGS NOT SO FAST

The so-called fast court hearings were introduced for crimes carrying jail sentences of under five years were introduced five years ago to reduce a back log of cases. That was the theory anyway. But in practice, these fast hearings can take up to three months instead of two weeks as was originally intended. One penal judge in Malaga said that more small courts and personnel were needed to make the scheme work. The average number of fast hearings a day is between 12 and 14 which does not keep up with the number of cases, which has doubled in the past year alone.

SHOPPING AROUND PAYS

A study by the Andalucian Consumers in Action Federation (Facua) has shown that people can save up to 70% in dentist fees if they shop around first. As an example, Facua used oral hygiene treatments, which some dentists do for as little as €35 while others charge €60. Having a tooth pulled out costs between €50 and €80, although the health centres provide this service free. The Facua report, based on a survey of 116 dental clinics in the eight Andalucian capitals, found differences of up to €300 in the prices of some dental treatments.