Novelties in the Code of Good Practices of Royal Decree Law 6/2012 introduced by Royal Decree Law 19/2022

Abstract

Royal Decree Law 19/2022, of November 22, which establishes a Code of Good Practices to alleviate the rise in interest rates on mortgage loans on habitual residence, has modified Royal Decree Law 6/2012 and introduced novelties in the Code of Good Practices for the viable restructuring of debts with mortgage guarantee on the habitual residence. Said modifications consist of expanding the threshold of social exclusion and establishing the enforceability of the Code of Good Practices to third-party assignees of the mortgage loan and determining which rules of the Law 5/2019, of March 15, regulating real estate credit contracts, are not applicable to novations that originate from the application of this Code. Regarding the modifications introduced in the Code of Good Practices, they affect the restructuring plan and the dation in payment of the habitual residence. As well as the lease that the beneficiaries of the suspension of the releases derived from foreclosures of the habitual residence can request. Of particular interest is the opinion that the request for the application of the Code of Good Practices is cause for suspension of judicial foreclosure and extrajudicial sale, which is supported by doctrine and jurisprudence. Thus, mortgage debtors or non-debtor mortgagees that fall within the scope of application of the Code of Good Practices, may request that a restructuring plan be applied to them or that the benefit of excussion be applied to them, even if they are involved in an execution procedure, unless the announcement of the auction had been produced. In this way, irreversible effects are avoided for the debtor or the non-debtor mortgagor, such as the loss of the family home that a viable restructuring plan or the application of the benefit of excussion could have avoided.