If the interest rate used for mortgages is based on the IRPH rate it must be
100% clear.
Should you have a mortgage with a Spanish bank and your interest rate is calculated by using the IRPH (“Indice de Referencia de Prestamos Hipotecarios” – The Mortgage Loan Reference Índex), you are lucky, because the European Court has declared that the IRPH being used by many Spanish Banks was not explained clearly enough to customers and, therefore, it was not legal.
Please note the IRPH is quite high in comparison with other Mortgage Indexes, which means that customers have been paying extra interest to the banks.
Therefore, any bank customer with a mortgage using the IRPH rate should check their mortgage title deeds. If the explanation written in the mortgage title
deeds was not 100 % clear (it is not clear in most the cases), the customer has the right to claim against the bank and request that another Index reference, (i.e. Euribor), be used for the calculating the interest payable for the mortgage.
Because IRPH is much higher than other indexes i.e. Euribor, customers would
have the legal right to claim all the overpaid interest, which could be thousands of euro.
Consequently, if you think that your mortgage interest is governed by the IRPH
index, your mortgage title deeds should be reviewed by a lawyer as you may have the legal right to claim thousands of euro from your bank for overpaid
interest.
For further information on any bank issues or regulations of banking law, please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail or to arrange a free appointment
