In my opinion, we're living a real social drama because there are a lot of people who are losing a human right every day, and who are even killing themselves because they can't escape the debts.
And from my point of view we can't waste time searching for the guilty ones. I mean, now it's time for giving solutions instead of blaming either, the defaulters or the banks.
I think both of them can carry part of the responsability. According to Platform for People Affected by Mortgages, banks are thought to be the guilty due to the fact that they convinced their costumers to ask for a mortgage whithout considering it they would be able to repay or not. But on the other hand, indebted are said to be responsible of their loan because they shouldn't have asked for a loan if they were conscious that they couldn't afford it. The two possibilities can be true but I wonder myself if they are the only guilty ones and I'm sure that it's not possible.
The main responsible, in my view, is who created the law, the hardest in Europe. And its creator was the goverment according to its lobbies (banks, housing companies, etc). So, it seems to me that people who ask for mortgages are the less guilty in this social drama. And, the most important thing is that, now, they aren't searching responsibles but they do need aswers and solutions.
Maybe the last changes in the law aren't enough and this law is wanted to be changed again by most of citizens.
From my point of view, this is the case where we need clearly the agreement of all the political parties and particularly a permanent observation by European Institutions, mainly because we are witnessing the abuse of the banks with the permission of our Government. It is true that we can certainly blame both people and banks in many different situations, but before doing that, and specially for the first ones, we need to remember what were our politicians saying before the construction bubble started. They were promoting the investment in housing claiming that it was something reliable, something like the best business for citizens to find stability. Now look afterwards what have happened to us. They have created that compulsive shopping behavior and now they do not want to deal with the consequences. So our Government must pay more attention on people than they have done until now and create again the basis that gives new chances for those who have commited mistakes. It may not be as easy as to wipe the state clean, but I would suggest as a solution for defaulters, to set up different stages of payment, in order to finally pay off the mortgage, depending on the family situation, incomes, salaries, children on care, illnesses, and so on… The eviction should be always the last step to follow, but if it is eventually done, I think the evicted should be got rid of the loan in most cases. I highlight that I do not say in all cases. This point is very controversial because it could be unfair depending how it is done, for instance, imagine two families: - Family A, the typical indebted Spanish family with children who have borrowed money thinking they would be employed in the next twenty five years, unfortunately both parents lose their jobs, the mortgage payment doubles in a year and they cannot pay the loan. - Family B, Princess Cristina and her wise guy husband Mr Urdangaytal borrow two millions of euros to buy a very big house. Some years later some crimes commited by the husband and allegedly by the Princess are unveiled. Of course he loses his job, but she doesn´t (a mystery but this is another history) and they cannot pay the mortgage. Is it fair to let both of them to get rid of the mortgage with the same conditions by giving the house to the bank??
Hey guys,
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, we're living a real social drama because there are a lot of people who are losing a human right every day, and who are even killing themselves because they can't escape the debts.
And from my point of view we can't waste time searching for the guilty ones. I mean, now it's time for giving solutions instead of blaming either, the defaulters or the banks.
I think both of them can carry part of the responsability. According to Platform for People Affected by Mortgages, banks are thought to be the guilty due to the fact that they convinced their costumers to ask for a mortgage whithout considering it they would be able to repay or not. But on the other hand, indebted are said to be responsible of their loan because they shouldn't have asked for a loan if they were conscious that they couldn't afford it. The two possibilities can be true but I wonder myself if they are the only guilty ones and I'm sure that it's not possible.
The main responsible, in my view, is who created the law, the hardest in Europe. And its creator was the goverment according to its lobbies (banks, housing companies, etc). So, it seems to me that people who ask for mortgages are the less guilty in this social drama. And, the most important thing is that, now, they aren't searching responsibles but they do need aswers and solutions.
Maybe the last changes in the law aren't enough and this law is wanted to be changed again by most of citizens.
From my point of view, this is the case where we need clearly the agreement of all the political parties and particularly a permanent observation by European Institutions, mainly because we are witnessing the abuse of the banks with the permission of our Government.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that we can certainly blame both people and banks in many different situations, but before doing that, and specially for the first ones, we need to remember what were our politicians saying before the construction bubble started. They were promoting the investment in housing claiming that it was something reliable, something like the best business for citizens to find stability. Now look afterwards what have happened to us. They have created that compulsive shopping behavior and now they do not want to deal with the consequences.
So our Government must pay more attention on people than they have done until now and create again the basis that gives new chances for those who have commited mistakes.
It may not be as easy as to wipe the state clean, but I would suggest as a solution for defaulters, to set up different stages of payment, in order to finally pay off the mortgage, depending on the family situation, incomes, salaries, children on care, illnesses, and so on…
The eviction should be always the last step to follow, but if it is eventually done, I think the evicted should be got rid of the loan in most cases. I highlight that I do not say in all cases.
This point is very controversial because it could be unfair depending how it is done, for instance, imagine two families:
- Family A, the typical indebted Spanish family with children who have borrowed money thinking they would be employed in the next twenty five years, unfortunately both parents lose their jobs, the mortgage payment doubles in a year and they cannot pay the loan.
- Family B, Princess Cristina and her wise guy husband Mr Urdangaytal borrow two millions of euros to buy a very big house. Some years later some crimes commited by the husband and allegedly by the Princess are unveiled. Of course he loses his job, but she doesn´t (a mystery but this is another history) and they cannot pay the mortgage.
Is it fair to let both of them to get rid of the mortgage with the same conditions by giving the house to the bank??