THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS STILL CONSIDERS THE REFORM OF THE MORTGAGE ACT INOPERATIVE

Abstract

The crisis in Spain has generated situations of great distress among Spanish people, due to the large number of evictions. The legislator seems to have tried to alleviate the situation trough different reforms, all inconsistent and far from the real problem, as the Court of Justice of the European Union has stated in several judgments, urging the Spanish legislator to reform what has been already reformed. One of the key issues in all foreclosure is the possible opposition of the debtor, which needs to support in one of the causes enumerated in the Civil Procedure Act. Among these, it was not included the existence of abusive clauses in the mortgage contract, and it is in this regard that the Court of Justice has pronounced first of all. The Spanish legislator has obeyed the mandate and has proceeded to reform what was required, but still gives preference to the creditor in the enforcement procedure since it allows that when a clause is declared as abusive, the creditor can appeal and, nevertheless, if the clause is not declared abusive, the debtor cannot appeal. Such reform has caused further reaction of the Court, who has given another call for attention to our legislator. This shows that there are many other reforms to undertake if we really do not want to keep on harming the mortgagor