How long does it take for mortgage enforcement to become effective?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

The law does not set an overall duration, because it depends above all on when the bank sues, on the court's workload, on whether the debtor can be found and on whether the debtor objects. It does set some time limits, such as the ten days to object or the twenty calendar days that the auction lasts. Counting from the first unpaid instalment to the day the home has to be vacated, it normally takes more than a year and often considerably longer. If it is the principal residence of a particularly vulnerable family that meets the legal requirements, there is no eviction before 15 May 2028. Before the claim is filed The bank cannot claim the whole loan after the first missed payment. If the mortgage is secured on a home and the person who signs it is an individual, the unpaid amounts must reach 3 % of the capital lent or twelve monthly instalments in the first half of the loan term and 7 % or fifteen instalments in the second half. In addition, the bank must demand payment and allow at least one month. How many instalments are needed depends on the loan term and the interest rate. For example, on a mortgage of 200.000 euros over 30 years with an instalment of about 850 euros, the 3 % threshold is reached with the eighth unpaid instalment if the default occurs in the first half of the loan term. With a shorter term or a higher interest rate it is reached sooner, sometimes with four or five instalments. In the second half, fifteen are needed at most. On top of that comes the month given in the demand for payment. Often, too, the bank takes longer to bring its claim. In Catalonia, if the bank is a large-scale landlord (“gran tenedor”), before suing it must offer social rent to occupiers with no other home who are at risk of housing exclusion, although if it does not do so the court still admits the claim. Court time limits Once the claim has been filed, the law sets some time limits: Ten days from notification to object. The objection suspends the enforcement until the judge decides. Twenty days from the demand for payment before the auction can be requested. Twenty calendar days for the online auction. Ten days for the debtor to put forward someone who improves on the highest bid, if that bid does not reach 70 % of the auction value. But what matters most is what has no time limit, such as how long the court takes to admit the claim, to notify the debtor and to decide each step. The proceedings take longer if the debtor cannot be found and notice has to be given by publication (“edictos”), through an official announcement, if the debtor objects or appeals or if the approval of the sale is disputed. When you have to leave the home Once the property has been awarded, whoever acquired it asks for it to be handed over and, if the debtor is still there, the court sets the day and time of the eviction itself (the “lanzamiento”), when the court bailiffs remove the occupants. If it is the principal residence, the eviction is suspended until 15 May 2028 when all of the following conditions are met at the same time: That the family falls within one of the cases of special vulnerability set out in the law, such as being a large or single-parent family, having a minor or a person with a disability or dependency living in the home, the debtor being unemployed or the debtor being over 60. That it meets the economic requirements of the law, including that the family's income does not, as a general rule, exceed three times the IPREM, the public index used to set entitlement to aid. Also that the mortgage instalment is more than half of the family's net income and that the home, bought with that loan, is the only one it owns. The suspension does not stop the enforcement, only the eviction. The requirements must be proved to the judge before the date of the eviction. The suspension of evictions of vulnerable people in force since 8 October 2026 is a different matter. 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.