The government approved a diploma that obliges banks to negotiate housing loans, albeit under certain conditions. Know what they are.
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The Council of Ministers announced this Thursday another measure to mitigate the impact of the increase in interest rates on housing credit: banks are obliged to renegotiate housing credits when their holders present a effort rate of 36% or more.
It is recalled that, in mid-October, the Government presented a proposal for a law that gives the opportunity to holders of housing credit contracts to request a decrease in the IRS withholding rate. This is for those who work for others and have a gross salary of less than 2,700 euros per month.
The document reads that “the withholding tax on IRS Category A income is reduced to the rate of the step immediately below that corresponding to the monthly remuneration and family situation applicable to the respective income holder”.
New diploma obliges banks to negotiate loans
The new decree-law approved this Thursday, November 3 (and which has not yet been released), defines the limits beyond which banks must allow customers to renegotiate housing loans: when the effort rate reaches 36% or when there is a worsening of five percentage points.
In case the effort rate exceeds 50%, banks must present a renegotiation proposal.
According to the Executive, this renegotiation may imply extending the credit terma credit consolidationO request for a new credit or even the interest rate reduction during a certain period of time. What can’t really happen is an interest rate increase.
Furthermore, this process of renegotiation cannot be subject to commissions. It is known that the suspension of the commission for early repayment of the loan is also provided for in this diploma.
Measure only targets variable rate credits
The measure, however, comes with conditions: it only applies to loans intended for own and permanent housing and with a variable rate. In addition, it is only applicable to credits up to 300 thousand euross.
Still according to the statement from the Council of Ministersfinancial institutions are responsible for “following up the effort rate of customers who have credit contracts for permanent housing with an outstanding amount of up to 300,000 euros”.
