Our Managing Partner, León Fernando del Canto, published an article in the journal of luxury property Prime Resi on the subject of the ECJ’s Advocate General’s opinion on floor clauses and how it could affect British citizens owning a holiday home in Spain.
According to León Fernando del Canto, the ECJ’s Advocate General’s opinion could mean British expats thinking about what to do with their properties because they would have to pay more taxes and the sterling could be depreciated as a consequence of Brexit.
Property owners that contracted mortgages affected by floor clauses paid more interest rates than they should have. The Advocate General, in his non-binding opinion, deems that the bank entities should refund their clients the overpaid amounts of mortgage due to floor clauses only from 2013.
León Fernando del Canto reckons this opinion is “unfair” because it avoids banks paying the entire amounts they owe and harms citizens: “it means losses for Spanish property owners”, although he states his wish that, taking into account that the Advocate General’s opinion is non-binding, the ECJ will eventually reassess the limit on the retroactivity of the floor clauses next December 2016 allowing homeowners to recover the full amounts they are owed.
