By Richard Torné
Mortgage holders who were hit with a ‘floor clause’ by their banks should demand a full refund in addition to the valuation and legal fees, a property lawyer has said.
Quique Ruiz, an expert on floor clauses, held a public meeting in Turre last week to offer advice on how to recover interest charges from mortgages containing floor clauses, but warned the banks were likely to delay reimbursing customers or may even ignore written requests to do so.
The ‘floor clause’ prevented the interest rate from falling below a certain limit – it was often set at three per cent – even though the Euribor variable rate dropped below one per cent from 2009 onwards. However, the European court of justice ruled last December that it was an abusive clause and that clients should be refunded.