Madrid, Feb 22 (EFE).- Low-income families where everyone is unemployed will be able to use "dation in payment" - handing one's home over to the bank - to get out from under their mortgage debt, Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Wednesday.
Families where nobody is working and who have low incomes will be able to postpone being evicted from their homes, a problem that has increased in recent months due to the country's serious economic crisis, the economy minister said.
In these cases, a period "of at least two years" would be given to qualifying families during which time they may continue to reside in their repossessed homes, the economy minister said.
To be allowed to resort to the dation in payment measure, the mortgage in arrears must be on the family's main residence.
The minister discussed these proposals in his speech before Parliament and explained that the initiatives will be studied by the affected sectors.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government is proposing the measures to provide a solution "to mistakes of the past that, along with the crisis, have caused unsustainable situations" for many citizens, the economy minister said.
The government is also proposing legislative changes in the real estate market and the drafting of a code of good practice in the banking sector to which the entities may voluntarily adhere.
De Guindos made the announcements during his speech in the lower house of Parliament and in response to an urgent question posed by Izquierda Plural lawmaker Joan Coscubiela, who criticized the "abuses" of the banking sector in this matter, despite the public aid that sector has received.
The possibility of handing over one's home to settle the payment of the mortgage is a demand that has been gathering steam in many sectors in Spain and which recently Ombudswoman Maria Luis Cava de Llano supported in the face of the great increase in evictions of families who have not been able to get up to date on their mortgages because they have lost their jobs.
Many of the people affected by the evictions are from immigrant families, something that has led some governments, like that of Ecuador, to ask Spanish authorities to find a solution for them.
The "Platform of Those Affected by Mortgage" movement noted Wednesday that, according to figures from the Judicial Branch General Council, in the first half of 2011 in Madrid alone there were an average of 40 evictions per day.
