If the customer doesn't pay 18 mortgage installments (consecutive or not), the bank can sell the house directly, i.e. without going through the real estate auction in the Court. It is not an obligation: it is a clause optional and not retroactive, which can only be included in contracts signed from the date of entry into force of the new regulations. Don't worry, therefore: for contracts already in force, including subrogations, nothing changes. On the other hand, the assistance of a consultant will be mandatory, who will have to "accompany" the consumer in the event that he chooses to insert the default clause in his mortgage.
These are the main innovations contained in the legislative decree on mortgages definitively approved on Wednesday by the Council of Ministers. The text transposes a community directive of 2014 (the 17/EU), modifying the initial version of the provision - which provided as a condition the non-payment of only 7 installments, not 18 - based on the indications arrived from the Finance commissions of the Chamber and Senate, also in the wake of the controversies raised above all by the 5 Star Movement.
The note from Palazzo Chigi specifies that "the parties may agree, through an express clause, that in the event of default by the consumer, the return or transfer of the good given as a guarantee, or of the proceeds from the sale of the good itself, entail the extinction of the entire debt even if the value of the returned property (or the proceeds) is less than the outstanding debt”. In addition, "the compulsory assistance of a consumer adviser who intends to sign this clause" is envisaged.
