How can mortgage enforcement be stopped?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

The most direct way is to pay. If it is your principal residence, you can free it from the enforcement even if the bank does not agree, by paying only the arrears with interest and costs before the auction closes, provided you have not already done so in the previous three years. You can also object within ten days of notification, but only on the limited grounds set out in the law, such as an unfair term on which the enforcement is based. Outside court, you can negotiate with the bank and, if your financial situation is very difficult, ask it for a restructuring of the debt or for the surrender of the property in full settlement (“dación en pago”) provided for in the Code of Good Practice (“Código de Buenas Prácticas”). If it is the principal residence of a particularly vulnerable family that meets the legal requirements, the enforcement continues, but the eviction is suspended until 15 May 2028. Paying There are two ways of paying that bring the enforcement to an end: Paying only the arrears. If it is your principal residence, you can free it from the enforcement even if the bank does not agree, by paying into court, before the auction closes, what was overdue when the claim was filed and whatever has fallen due since, with late-payment interest and costs. The loan continues as before. This can only be done again if at least three years pass between this release and the next demand for payment. If it is not the principal residence, it depends on the bank accepting it. Paying the whole debt. You can do so, with interest and costs, at any time before the sale at auction or the award to the bank is approved. The auction then has no effect. Objecting Within ten days of notification you can object, but only on the limited grounds set out in the law, including these: That the mortgage or the debt has been extinguished, for example because you have already paid, if you prove it with the deed of payment or of discharge or with a certificate from the “Registro de la Propiedad”, the Land Registry. That a term of the loan on which the enforcement or the calculation of the amount claimed is based is unfair, such as excessive late-payment interest in an old loan. The objection suspends the enforcement until the judge decides. If the unfair term is the basis of the enforcement, the judge brings the enforcement to an end. If it only affects the amount, the enforcement continues without applying it. The judge also checks on their own initiative whether there are any unfair terms. Any other disputes about the loan go to separate proceedings, which do not stop the enforcement. Negotiating and protecting the principal residence At any time you can agree a solution with the bank, such as a payment plan, the sale of the home or the surrender of the property (“dación en pago”), which means handing the home over to the bank to settle the debt to the extent agreed. If you and the bank agree to go to mediation, the enforcement is suspended in the meantime. In Catalonia, the Ofideute service of the “Agència de l'Habitatge de Catalunya”, the Catalan housing agency, advises people who have difficulty paying the mortgage on their principal residence and mediates with the bank. If the mortgage is on your principal residence, your bank has signed up to the Code of Good Practice (“Código de Buenas Prácticas”) and you fall within the so-called exclusion threshold (“umbral de exclusión”), a very difficult financial situation, you can ask for the debt to be restructured, for example with a longer term. If that is not viable, you can ask for the surrender of the property in full settlement, which the bank must accept if its requirements are met and which cancels the whole debt. Neither can be requested once the auction has been announced. If it is your principal residence and the family falls within one of the cases of special vulnerability set out in the law and meets its economic requirements, the enforcement continues, but there is no eviction until 15 May 2028. This must be proved to the judge before the eviction. Another matter is the suspension of evictions approved in October 2026. In Barcelona, it is a criterion agreed by the judges of the civil section of the first-instance court (“tribunal de instancia”) that this suspension does not apply to mortgage enforcement. Nor is the enforcement stopped by the bank's failure to make the prior offer of social rent that Catalan law requires of large-scale landlords (“grandes tenedores”), because that is an administrative obligation.