SOBRE LA ADJUDICACIÓN DEL INMUEBLE HIPOTECADO EN PAGO DE LA TOTALIDAD DE LA DEUDA (Y II).

Abstract

In Spain the effects of the financial crisis have raged beyond the financial sector and displayed greater virulence than in other European countries. This is due primarily to fact that the Spanish real estate sector swelled to absurd proportions in the last decade, dragging with it the financial sector and broad layers of the population. Now those people are facing a present and a future of insolvency, as a consequence of the nosedive in the economy, the job market and thus individuals' purchasing power. As one effect of the economic panorama, there has been a sharp rise in mortgage foreclosures due to defaults on loans. This, combined with plummeting property values due to the monstrous oversupply of empty homes and the impossibility of getting homeowners' loans, leads to situations where borrowers are being forced to liquidate all their personal assets in order to pay off their loans in full. Thus, there has of late been a proliferation of feeling in favour of reducing the harmful effects of foreclosure on borrowers' personal assets through measures like, for example, enabling borrowers to surrender their mortgaged property in full payment of the loan, or other measures having a similar effect. This paper takes a close look at the legal implications that could ensue from measures like this and a number of solutions now put into legislation. In this sense, it is also necessary to consider possible solutions to the existing problem, taking account of the economic factors that could affect such measures' advisability.