[tonyinspain]

A friend of mine has just been to collect papers to appear in court to have his sole home repossesed
He had small arrears and has been paying his mortgage every month and extra off the arrears
He does not speak spanish or read spanish fluently
Whats the process ?
And as this is his only home he will after return with his family to the uk
Can he apply online for council housing in the uk
Any advice would be helpful

 

[KlaasMaster]

There is hope.

As a newbie I can't post links (yet) but if you type "spanish law on repossessions" into google there are a couple of sites which give good advice on this matter. Personally I would advise your friend to get a Spanish speaking friend/advisor to talk to the bank as quickly as possible. The bank does not want to have the property on its books and would much prefer to reach a new loan agreement with your friend. However these things have to be done before the bank is obliged (by law) to regard the loan as a liability instead of as an asset. Move as fast as you can.

 

[tonyinspain]

Thnx. Klassmaster i have checked google and from what i can make out there is not alot you can do
Unlike the uk you can atleast negotiate here its everyone on the street including the family its distressing really to think that people have lost their incomes due to a crisis the banks have caused and all they want to do here is add to the problem by repossesing peoples homes
Thks again

 

[xicoalc]

Someone posted a way round this the other day… rent the house for 100 years to someone for a euro a month and aprently the bank cant take it! Although if papers have already been served then maybe that doesnt apply.

I think that to apply for a council house in the UK or housing benefit you would need to be there. Some benefits in the UK are restricted for a period after you have been out of the country, best thing to do about this is contact UK CAB by phone and ask them.

What I dont understand is that is he only had small arrears and has been payinghis regular payment plus something off the arrears then why are they reposessing? The banks here are up s*** creek. They have literally full books of houses they cant sell after reposession. I have a friend who was in a similar situation. She told me that she had fallen into arrears a couple of years ago after her marriage broke down here in Spain… hers were serious arrears (many months) and at the time they were talking of reposession aparently. She eventually began to get her life sorted and make the normal payments which bought her some time… she now pays a small payment off the arrears each month also (but she said it will take a couple of years to clear them). The bank seem happy and she said that they have agreed not to take further action providing she repays her normal monthly payment and something extra each month.

I would say that its never too late to talk to the bank. Tell your friend to make an appointment to see the manager, if he is paying regular amounts now then I am sure they would discuss some kind of restructure or ways to help him keep his home.

Furthermore, I assume that Spain has similar procedures to the UK in as much as in order to reposess they need to go through a court. If this is the case then if your friend appears at the court (with a Spanish speaker,preferably a lawyer because im no expert and obviously your friend isn't ) and pleads his case to the judge then even if the bank are not willing to cooperate, maybe the judge will lend a sympathitic ear and not allow a foreclosure.

Either way, I say speak to the bank, but also get legal advice.

 

[mrypg9]

It all depends on the area of the UK he wants to return to and whether he has children.
The term 'council housing' isn't used much today, social housing is the preferred term. That is because for most of the last thirty or more years local authorities haven't built housing themselves. They have a strategic role but the bricks and mortar part is now largely in the hands of housing associations or trusts.

I was a Director of a Housing Association in the late 1990s. Our waiting list was lengthy then and I can imagine it has at least trebled since then.

Whilst being sorry for your friend's plight there is imo no way in which he would be swiftly rehoused in any area of the U.K. When you think about it objectively, why should he jump the queue over locals who may have been waiting for years? It seems the solution to his problem must lie here in Spain. If he is paying off his arrears why on earth can the lender not accept that as the best deal on offer at a time when the value of property has fallen by up to 60% in some areas??

 

[4tunate]

I read on forums that Spanish people who have rented houses owned by other nationalities cannot be evicted to the street for non-payment of rent under some sort of 'dignified living' law. If this is his only home then why should he be made homeless? Or is it that banks operate under a different law to everyone else? Is it maybe that people who pay - or do not pay - rent are protected more than people who are trying to buy their home and are facing difficulty and cannot afford the repayments? Why should owing money to a bank be any different to owing money to a landlord? Or maybe I got it wrong!

 

[philly]

The UK are obliged to rehouse even in hotel if he returns to the uk and is homeless - this is fact

 

[tonyinspain]

Thanxs everyone
I have read on google that to talk to the bank even if they are happy and agree to hold off its not legal unless its notarised and he mad a payment on wednesday just gone recieved the writ on thursday and has 20 days to contest it in court so i really dont know where to go from here i think going to see the bank and ask if he paid the arrears would that stop it some how i dont think so funny old world

 

[MaidenScotland]

The UK are obliged to rehouse even in hotel if he returns to the uk and is homeless - this is fact

I don't think that applies to single persons.. families with children yes.

 

[tonyinspain]

He has a wife and child here so its not just him its his family as well that will be evicted

 

[mrypg9]

The UK are obliged to rehouse even in hotel if he returns to the uk and is homeless - this is fact

Not so. That applies only to families with children.

When you think about it, that is right. There are many reasons why people become homeless. Most local authorities break down housing need into categories regarding the reason for eviction: marital breakdown, finance problem and so on. There is usually a category for the 'intentionally homeless', referring to people who may have left their place of residence for purely personal reasons..

 

[jojo]

The UK are obliged to rehouse even in hotel if he returns to the uk and is homeless - this is fact

In a previous life, I was in the position of being made homeless with two small children and the council told me that if I lost my home they would take the children into care initially if necessary, but couldnt house us all. The reason they said this was because my mother had a property she rented out and altho it had tenants with a long term contract, it was deamed that I actually did have somewhere to go???!!

jo xxx

 

[Gavin123]

In a previous life, I was in the position of being made homeless with two small children and the council told me that if I lost my home they would take the children into care initially if necessary, but couldnt house us all. The reason they said this was because my mother had a property she rented out and altho it had tenants with a long term contract, it was deamed that I actually did have somewhere to go???!!

jo xxx

That's crazy!!! How did you get through it?

 

[jojo]

That's crazy!!! How did you get through it?

hhhmm, well we moved into a private rental house with a friend - who I later married lol. But we werent even "an item" at the time


Jo xxx

 

[mrypg9]

The fact is that there is currently in the UK a massive shortage of social housing. Fewer social housing units were built under the Blair/Brown Governments than under the Thatcher/Major Governments.

So pressure on the local authorities who are responsible for strategic overview and maintaining housing waiting lists is immense.

In many areas, families with children will be given temporary shelter in B&B type accommodation, especially in seaside areas where there is obviously plenty of that type available. Other authorities have hostels for the homeless. Some take children into care.
I can say from personal experience of visiting such places that they are mostly dire.

When a family has served its time in the B&B , hostel, whatever, they may be offered a place in a social housing unit. This will usually be in a grotty, run down area where no-one would choose to live.

Personally, I think that what has happened with social housing is a scandal. The villain of the piece is without doubt the Thatcher 'Right To Buy' legislation. People bought their council houses, built with public money, at a give-away price then sold, made a huge profit and moved on, leaving behind the old, the infirm, the poor and the clueless. Council estates that had previously been the preserve of decent, law-abiding communities of varying income levels became rubbish-strewn, graffiti-scrawled, crime ridden deserts.

I saw this with my own eyes in the town where I lived and was politically active. Later, as Housing Association Director, I went on a spending spree buying up many of those houses at knock-down prices as the erstwhile proud 'homeowners' had lost their jobs as a consequence of the Tory policies and the ensuing mass unemployment.

Imo this was perhaps the greatest of all the political crimes of that era...the wilful destruction of once-thriving, settled, law-abiding communities in the name of 'freedom of choice'.

Fact is, for most sensible people, freedom of choice (which of course exists only as a slogan, not in the real world) is not as important as the neo-libs presume. Sensible people value much more highly security and social cohesion which requires settled, stable communities.