The Court of First Instance Number 5 of Arrecife has forgiven a debt of 50,000 euros to a couple who had requested loans "to help some relatives."
According to the Debt Relief Association, which is the one that has brought this lawsuit, this couple enjoyed "a stable situation", since both "were employees and with controlled debts, which allowed them to pay regularly." For this reason, the Association assures that they "ventured" to help other members of their family.
However, they point out that as the economic situation of those relatives did not improve, "the non-payment of monthly installments was not long in coming." "The claims were towards them and then the total amount was very difficult to reconcile," they detail.
The association explains that it was then that they began to learn about the Second Chance Law. "The couple went to the Debt Relief Association, a national entity specializing in this process," and the lawyers of the group "recommended its processing."
The association points out that their main doubt was "if they could opt for this process despite their income." "To know the insolvency of a person, income is not looked at, but the ability of the person to face those debts. In this case, it represented 70% of the payrolls, so there was no doubt," explains the lawyer of the entity, Pepe Domínguez.
From the association they detail that the steps to take to obtain the favorable sentence are clear: "the first is to try to reach an agreement with the creditors and, if they reject it, request the forgiveness of everything."
Thus, the lawyers first presented "the pre-bankruptcy proceeding", initiating this negotiation period, in which "they could stop paying all creditors and, in addition, not be seized."
According to the association, the attempted agreement presented in a notary's office "did not go ahead due to the refusal of the banks." "Being reflected in the public domain, it stated that the debtors had done their part to pay part of the debt, which the creditors did not accept," he explains.
The Debt Relief Association clarifies that this, "more than a failure, helped the debtors, since they had the right to present the request for the forgiveness of debts", which has now been accepted by the Court of First Instance Number 5 of Arrecife.
The ruling highlights that in order to be eligible for this exoneration, they must be "debtors in good faith", who have not been convicted in a final judgment for economic crimes and who "have tried to celebrate an extrajudicial payment agreement in a notarial way, although without success", which he considers to occur in this case.
Thus, the banks will no longer be able to claim that sum from this couple, although they will be able to do so from other people who are "jointly and severally liable" or who had been fixers or guarantors of the loans.