Verdicts & victories (IV): Nieto Jones gets the formalisation fee imposed on a consumer by BBVA to be declared void

The First Instance number 1 court of San Cristóbal de la Laguna has just dictated a sentence that condemns BBVA, S.A. to return the formalisation fee they forced a consumer to pay on December 1, 2005.

This is one of the first judgments made in Spain after the Court of Justice of the European Union  sentence on March 16, 2023, which stated that the formalisation fee for opening a mortgage is not part of the main purpose of the contract and therefore, the clause can be considered abusive if the judge, after analyzing whether the consumer had clear and understandable information, considers that the clause causes a significant imbalance between the rights and obligations of the parties.

In this case, led by Nieto Jones, the court came to the conclusion that the clause should be declared null as it was not transparent and caused an imbalance that was detrimental to the consumer.

The sentence by Ms. Priscila Espinosa Gutiérrez, Chief Judge of the First Instance No. 1 court of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, stated:

"In the present case, and assessing the evidence, specifically the formalisation fee clause itself, the first transparency control is not met, since the contract does not expose or detail which specific services are the ones that this fee entails, not specifying the exact amount of the same, alluding to the fact that the amount of said fee will be a certain percentage of the loaned capital, at the same time that it establishes a minimum, so that the consumer is not in a position to evaluate, based on precise and intelligible criteria , the economic consequences that arise for them or understand the nature of the services provided in return for the expenses paid. In addition, there is an overlap between the different expenses because although the formalisation fee must include the management services, the agency expenses were imposed on the borrower, and there is no evidence that the financial institution has provided sufficient information for all of this. All this, taking into account the level of care that can be expected from a properly informed and reasonably attentive and perceptive average consumer.”

This excerpt of the sentence has been modified based on its translation to the English language for easy reading.

You can read the sentence in Spanish through this link.

In the past, the Supreme Court refused to declare the nullity of the formalisation fees considering that they formed part of the main object of the contract. However, after the recent judgment of the CJEU, it now must modify its doctrine in this regard.

Claim the formalisation fee paid on your mortgage!

During the last few decades, banks have improperly imposed many fees on their clients, such as the one declared null in this case.

If you want us to review your case without any obligation to contract and claim the formalisation fees on your mortgage, call us or send a WhatsApp to610632963 or write to us at contact@nietojones.com.