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Regional Government of Andalucía Fines BBVA €1.62m

20 January 2015 – Inmodiario

A €60,000 fine for each one of the 27 protected homes not offered up to the municipal registry offices.

In Andalucía, banks and the Sareb are still being fined for not providing their empty subsidised homes to the municipal registry offices.

The partial suspension of the eviction law a year ago by the Constitutional Court following the presentation of the appeal by the central Government, has not impeded the processing of claims in any way, which are ending with the imposition of million-euro fines, which are all being appealed by the affected entities.

Now, it is BBVA’s turn. Its total fine amounts to €1.62m; €60,000 for each one of the 27 accredited homes that were not offered up to the respective Town Halls to be made available to citizens affected by evictions.

The apartments are located in the provinces of Granada (seven), Cádiz (six), Almería (five), Huelva (five), Málaga (two) and Sevilla (two).

According to the Ministry, these homes have not been offered up to the municipal registry offices, which establish the selection mechanisms for the foreclosure of properties under public protection and set the socio-economic requirements for access to them under the principles of equality, openness and accountability.

The fine levied on BBVA follows those levied on two other financial institutions for the same reason: Banco Popular was fined €5.82m for 87 homes and Sabadell was fined €120,000 for two homes. In addition, the Ministry is still investigating potential fines against five other financial institutions, for a total of €3.48m: Building Center (€1.56m for 26 homes), Unión de Créditos Inmobiliarios (€780,000 for 13 homes), Banco Santander (€660,000 for 11 homes), Servihabitat (€360,000 for 6 homes) and Anida Operaciones Singulares (€120,000 for 2 homes).

Furthermore, the Ministry of Development has fined Sareb (the entity known as the bad bank) €120,000 for obstructing the Government’s measures to ensure the social function of its subsidised homes. And it is investigating another case against Sareb amounting to €11.7m for the breach of article 20m, after it allegedly failed to place 98 homes at the disposal of municipal registry offices.

The law that contains the measures to ensure the social function of housing was not challenged by the central Government in its entirety but some precepts were appealed, such as the power to fine financial institutions for leaving homes empty for more than six months and the authority to temporarily expropriate the use of homes to avoid the eviction of families at risk of exclusion.

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake