SPAIN: A seventy-four-year-old man recovering from heart surgery fights off an eviction order issued after he guaranteed a mortgage for his son who was unable to keep up with payments.

Record ID: 773815

  • Title: SPAIN: A seventy-four-year-old man recovering from heart surgery fights off an eviction order issued after he guaranteed a mortgage for his son who was unable to keep up with payments.
  • Date: 19th April 2012
  • Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (APRIL 13, 2012) (REUTERS) CANARY IN CAGE HANGING ON WALL VICENTE TORRES AND HIS GRANDSON JONATHAN TORRES IN VICENTE'S LIVING ROOM PICTURE ON WALL AND VICENTE SQUINTING AND HOLDING HIS HEAD VICENTE HOLDING HIS HEAD / JONATHAN JONATHAN WATCHING TELEVISION VICENTE AND JONATHAN WATCHING TELEVISION CLOCK PENDULUM (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VICENTE TORRES, 74
  • Embargoed: 4th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain, Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Economy,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADUODSZDRXZSRU7CGDMB2V6477
  • Story Text: Vicente Torres has lost his home but his eviction on Wednesday (April 18) has been delayed until May 3 after activists demonstrated outside his home and bailiffs considered there was not enough police to allow them to enter the apartment safely.
    Seventy-four year-old Vicente, who just over a month ago had heart surgery and a leg operation for thrombosis, never imagined he would be facing eviction when he guaranteed his son's mortgage with his 49 square metre, two bedroom apartment.
    When his son could no longer pay for the mortgage, Citifinancial repossessed his son's home and also asked for Vicente`s apartment if he could not come up with 53,000 euros to cover the outstanding debt.
    "Imagine how I feel, imagine. I've been here 50 something years and now they tell me I have to go....," Vicente says, "Imagine you have heart surgery then they come to you with this problem, how would you feel ... impossible," he adds.
    In Spain, unpaid mortgages are not necessarily covered once the bank repossesses the property it has issued a loan for.
    "They want everything and if you have more, they will take more. That's how it is, life's like that now," Vicente says.
    On Monday (April 16), two days before the eviction date, Vicente bravely made his way down the narrow stairs of his building to meet the ambulance that took him to his doctor's appointment.
    His 24 year-old grandson, Jonathan, has been living with Vicente and taking care of him ever since he had heart surgery. Jonathan has also taken charge of fighting off the eviction order with the help of members of the Platform of People Affected by Mortgages (PAH).
    "I thought the only way to thank him is to be with him, he's always taken care of me as a child and my sister. He and my grandmother took us everywhere and now the only way (to thank him) is to support him in everything," Jonathan says. "Ok, if it happens to me, I am young, I can overcome it and get on with a situation, but an old person, where will they go at 74 when you have already paid for your house throughout your life?", Jonathan, who is unemployed, adds.
    On Wednesday morning, PAH activists carrying banners and placards arrived outside 41 Zaida Road calling on neighbours to prevent Vicente´s eviction.
    PAH lawyer Rafael Mayoral was also in place to negotiate with the bailiffs.
    After showing them Vicente´s medical records, the bailiffs said they still had to verify whether the elderly man was as unfit as the medical reports indicated.
    After approximately an hour of negotiations, Mayoral obtained the family's permission and the protesters' approval for the bailiffs to see Vicente but the bailiffs declined to come up to the apartment and postponed the eviction until May 3rd on the grounds there was not enough police presence to guarantee their safety.
    Although the eviction is postponed, the fact it buys Vicente time was enough for an emotional family celebration.
    Vicente says the positive but temporary outcome was down to his grandson's hard work.
    "He's done a marvellous job, he's been very involved, it's thanks to him, what could I do? I have to thank him all my life."
    Mayoral said he would continue to work the legal route to convince Citifinancial to let Vicente keep the home he has been living in for over 50 years.
    "Citifinancial has said it doesn't address humanitarian reasons, it doesn't attend to any type of humanitarian reason, they execute the procedures because it´s bank policy," he says.
    Evictions, up to 200 a day, have become a painful symbol of Spain's profound 5-year economic crisis after a collapsed housing market and building industry put millions out of work.
    Evictions of people unable to pay their mortgage almost doubled to some 50,000 last year in Spain, from 27,000 in 2008, as unemployment soared to 23 percent, according to the General Council of the Judicial Branch. The Council says more than 150,000 additional families face eviction.
    Economy Minister Luis de Guindos recently asked banks to forgive mortgage debt for properties worth less than 200,000 euros and where all family members are unemployed.
    Most of Spain's banks, including Santander and Bankia, one of the biggest mortgage lenders in Madrid, said they will respect the new code.
    Jonathan is confident that in the next two weeks they will be able to negotiate a way out and his grandfather's home will not be another property added to the statistics of foreclosed homes.
    "It´s time to keep fighting, go to the bank, pressure them, try to reach an agreement, because you can. There are lots of cases where they have negotiated. We will keep fighting hard," he says.
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