Spanish Mortgage Foreclosure and Unfair Terms in Banking Contracts

Abstract

Mortgage foreclosure in Spain has been in the spotlight of all legal practitioners since the economic crisis began. At the time many debtors found themselves to have severe difficulties in meeting the payments of their debt which was secured by a mortgage and, from this resulted in losing their homes, the privileges of these proceedings set forth within the Spanish Civil Procedure Act began to arise. As a consequence of this, many courts started to refer questions for preliminary rulings to the Court of Justice of the European Union, in order to examine the compatibility of them with European standards. Due to many rulings of the European Court, Spanish legislation has been modified accordingly. We have arrived to a point where social awareness has imposed and the consumer´s protection has been increased. The aim of this paper is to show the way this change has been generated.