Suicides and evictions.

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    • #57137
      logan
      Participant

      Under pressure from suicides, protests and now the EU courts of justice the Spanish government have finally created a ‘task force’ to investigate alternatives to the eviction of debtors who have defaulted on their mortgage payments. It’s been suggested debtors could pay social rent levels and remain in their homes.

      That seems like perfect sense to me since repossessed property is now littering the market and is not selling even at massively reduced prices.

      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/woman-jumps-to-her-death-from-bilbao-apartment-balcony-as-bailiffs-arrive-to-evict-her-8303420.html

      Quote from the independent article. The message may be finally seeping through.
      On Thursday the European Court of Justice’s advocate general, Juliane Kokott, handed down a non-binding legal opinion that criticised Spanish legal rules regarding evictions, saying they were incompatible with European norms, according to Spanish media reports.

      The ruling came in response to a query from a Spanish court on a 2011 lawsuit over an eviction due to an unpaid mortgage. Ms Kokott said the Spanish system did not sufficiently protect consumers against possible abusive clauses in mortgage contracts.

    • #113308
      Anonymous
      Participant

      Like with most politicians they may have good intentions but if you really want this to turn around you have to make the prices crash otherwise this will just be prolonged. This system just risks of penetrating through to others that have been paying up. There is absolutely no use in evicting people and then letting it be unsold because the banks just sits on them though. What needs to happen is real auctions with real prices. Better would be if all future buyers only risk to loose their housing and not have debts to go with it. This way banks would make good risk assesments.

    • #113311
      GarySFBCN
      Participant

      Like with most politicians they may have good intentions but if you really want this to turn around you have to make the prices crash otherwise this will just be prolonged.

      Turn around for whom? For industry or profiteers? Or for people?

      Regardless, this is a good start. What is needed is for politicians to understand a fiscal mess that was years in the making requires measures that are a soft landing for the poor and middle classes.

      As it is now, with Madrid moving to privatize healthcare, it is true that billions are going to bailout banks while hospitals are being shuttered, and that is grossly unjust. Watch for revolution to arrive if this idiocy continues.

      Finally, the US is a good example of privatized health care. It is ridiculous and we pay 17% of our GDP for healthcare, with mostly poorer results. And yet Spain seem to be on the path to make the same mistakes because of an idiotic ideal that private industry always does things better and cheaper. The banking industry should serve as an example that private industry is often no better than government, and sometimes worse.

    • #113314
      Anonymous
      Participant

      @GarySFBCN wrote:

      Like with most politicians they may have good intentions but if you really want this to turn around you have to make the prices crash otherwise this will just be prolonged.

      Turn around for whom? For industry or profiteers? Or for people?

      Regardless, this is a good start. What is needed is for politicians to understand a fiscal mess that was years in the making requires measures that are a soft landing for the poor and middle classes.

      As it is now, with Madrid moving to privatize healthcare, it is true that billions are going to bailout banks while hospitals are being shuttered, and that is grossly unjust. Watch for revolution to arrive if this idiocy continues.

      Finally, the US is a good example of privatized health care. It is ridiculous and we pay 17% of our GDP for healthcare, with mostly poorer results. And yet Spain seem to be on the path to make the same mistakes because of an idiotic ideal that private industry always does things better and cheaper. The banking industry should serve as an example that private industry is often no better than government, and sometimes worse.

      For individuals ofcourse because it’s the fairest way to deal with things. Every meassure taken will just result in new soft bailt outs of the banks in one form of the other. The last thing the banksters wants is to have the market deal with it because it means bankruptcy for them. Soft landing as you put it just means a prolonged agony for everyone and the situation will not be able to fix itself. The owners of the banks/fraudsters cheers for every ocassion when debt is transfered to the nation.

      They have no money so the only way to pay for things is to privatize it since otherwise it will just mean more debt. Worst case scenario is to privatize it and still pay for it by taxes. That is much worse and the result can be seen in my country. Either you privatise and pay for it by it’s users money it or you don’t. The way it’s done here is that the government sets a limit on how much for example an operation gets to cost. This leads to the consumer have no idea of what they are paying for and basicly don’t care. Every practice tries to give you as many check ups as possible with no focus on quality. Things that would cost 1000 euro in the end costs 10 000 euros because of this waste. If I get cancer or something I could have to wait a year or two for an operation because there are no market forces working. Indirectly you guys in the US are paying for our healh care in forms of inventions etc. That is not fair.

    • #113315
      logan
      Participant

      It cannot in any country be right or just that a lender who takes a risk and lends money on the security of a property and then legally takes back that property but continues to pursue the debtor for the amount lent.

      It means the debtor is in hock to the lender virtually the rest of their lives. I know of no other country in Europe that behaves in such a way. In Spain there is no such thing as personal bankruptcy. Debt is for life. It’s an absurd situation and one that requires urgent reform.

      Such laws are a hang over from the fascist times of Franco.

    • #113317
      Anonymous
      Participant

      Logan most european countries have it like Spain does it.

    • #113318
      logan
      Participant

      If you are interested this link explains the differing procedures in other countries. Many have reformed their laws.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy

    • #113319
      Chopera
      Participant

      As far as I’m concerned if a bank makes a loan and uses a property as collateral then if the loan is not repaid the bank can take back the property and that is the end of the matter. But with the current system it makes no difference to the banks. Either they chase the debtors until they are stripped of their possessions or they are forced to write off debt and get bailed out by the tax payer. Either way the banks will not go bust and the people who were meant to prevent this kind of thing will still get paid large amounts of money for their failures.

    • #113321
      Anonymous
      Participant
    • #113322
      GarySFBCN
      Participant

      What’s really frustrating is that banks will not negotiate the terms of their mortgages, even if it is in their best interest to do so. And the current laws encourages this.

      I’m not sure that you all are aware, but more than 50% of bankruptcies in the US are caused by medical bills.

    • #113323
      logan
      Participant

      I have heard an item on BBC Radio four this evening saying Spanish banks have all agreed today to stop evictions immediately and suspend them for two years in cases of extreme hardship..
      This is good news indeed if it’s true, the press will have the story soon.

      The government has also agreed to reform mortgage laws.

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/12/spanish-banks-evictions-suicides

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