Any recent news...

 ...on whether Spanish banks are chasing those who can't pay their mortgage to UK. Our bank (Caja Espana) have agreed to take back the keys if we pay another 30K + all taxes etc amounting to about 4K.

We have remortgaged our house and can get the money for this but having already lost about 70K on the house we are wondering whether it would be easier to walk away. We know all the risks and morality arguments etc. but wondered with all the recent chaos if we were just being too eager to give money when there wasn't much risk of them getting our house in UK. We have no other assets and live in Asia now with our jobs.

Any advice?

 Anyone?

Take a look on www.belegal.com where there is advice from lawyers on this subject in the forum pages.

Hope you find what you're looking for!

Hi Dave and Nicky,

So sorry to hear of your situation.  I regret I have no knowledge on the subject, but the pointer from Maddiemack is good and Antonio Flores blog is worth a look, via the same site.

From what you outline I would be tempted to do a runner - something I would never of dreamt of a few years ago, but "when in Rome..."  IMHO Brits have been too honest, full of principles and trusting and this has largely been abused. 

To the bank it'll just be another property to add to their list - not like any individual will suffer.

Obviously a lot of thought is needed and I would certainly put something in writing to the bank, so there is no uncertainty.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

I'm with you Acer....

 Thanks for your advice. I have read the forums on belegal and to be honest it has convinced me to pay up and be clear of the house once and for all. We made a bit of money on our UK house and so this softens the blow a little although not much. I hate thinking about how much we will have lost but just want to put it behind us and start to sleep better at night again.

By the way many of the initial problems we had were because of low life (unfortunately a family from the UK) living in the house for months without paying rent, electicity, water etc and then running away without paying us what they owed and leaving the house in a state. Unfortunately we listened to their lies when they told us they were a bit strapped for cash this month (He works at Club La Costa) and would pay with interest the following month. They are nothing but thieves. Don't let this happen to you. I can give you their names if you like.

 Thanks for your advice. I have read the forums on belegal and to be honest it has convinced me to pay up and be clear of the house once and for all. We made a bit of money on our UK house and so this softens the blow a little although not much. I hate thinking about how much we will have lost but just want to put it behind us and start to sleep better at night again.

By the way many of the initial problems we had were because of low life (unfortunately a family from the UK) living in the house for months without paying rent, electicity, water etc and then running away without paying us what they owed and leaving the house in a state. Unfortunately we listened to their lies when they told us they were a bit strapped for cash this month (He works at Club La Costa) and would pay with interest the following month. They are nothing but thieves. Don't let this happen to you. I can give you their names if you like.

 Thanks for your advice. I have read the forums on belegal and to be honest it has convinced me to pay up and be clear of the house once and for all. We made a bit of money on our UK house and so this softens the blow a little although not much. I hate thinking about how much we will have lost but just want to put it behind us and start to sleep better at night again.

By the way many of the initial problems we had were because of low life (unfortunately a family from the UK) living in the house for months without paying rent, electicity, water etc and then running away without paying us what they owed and leaving the house in a state. Unfortunately we listened to their lies when they told us they were a bit strapped for cash this month (He works at Club La Costa) and would pay with interest the following month. They are nothing but thieves. Don't let this happen to you. I can give you their names if you like.

Hi Daveandnicky,

Sorry to read of your situation. Have you really worked the figures out on this?When you say you've "lost about £70k" and now have another £34k to pay are you saying you will have actually be £104k down if you pay up and walk away?.. or is it that a fair proportion of that has been wiped off your perceived valuation between two different points in time?

May I ask what realistic value (if any) you perceive to be left in the property if your outstanding mortgage was redeemed immediately along with any current arrears (if any)?

Try and think of it this way for a minute. If someone else moved in there tomorrow and took over your monthly payments, how long would it take them to spend £34k?

Hi Growler,

We bought the house for 272K and paid about 20% deposit. We paid the mortgage for a few years and paid off another lump sum to bring the mortgage to just over 200K. (70K down although admittedly we had rented it for some of this time so recieved an income of sorts)

In their recent evaluation the bank valued the house at 140K. There is a shortfall of 60K. The bank have agreed to accept half of this and the keys to the house. The other 4K comes in tax, owed community fees, lawyers etc.

Similar houses on the site (The bank now owns 29 houses) are being sold for 140K.

If someone moved in and took over the payments it would take them nearly 2 and a half years or so to pay off the money. In 3 years time we cannot honestly see that there will be a rise in the value of the house BUT there are also lots of current building issues with the site and that is why we are looking to get rid. 

 Hi Growler,

We bought the house for 272K and paid about 20% deposit. We paid the mortgage for a few years and paid off another lump sum to bring the mortgage to just over 200K. (70K down although admittedly we had rented it for some of this time so recieved an income of sorts)

In their recent evaluation the bank valued the house at 140K. There is a shortfall of 60K. The bank have agreed to accept half of this and the keys to the house. The other 4K comes in tax, owed community fees, lawyers etc.

Similar houses on the site (The bank now owns 29 houses) are being sold for 140K.

If someone moved in and took over the payments it would take them nearly 2 and a half years or so to pay off the money. In 3 years time we cannot honestly see that there will be a rise in the value of the house BUT there are also lots of current building issues with the site and that is why we are looking to get rid. 

Sorry I didn't expect such detail!.. ouch that lot hurts even just to read! There's clearly no scope with it other than whether to pay the bank off or not. Sounds like you'll probably sleep better if you do but if it were me I'd sleep even better with the £34k in a shoebox under my own bed!

Good luck with it anyway, whatever you decide will be the right thing to do for you which is really all that matters.