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Shell construction of a single-family house: detailed clarification necessary
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Commerzbank has suffered another defeat in the legal dispute over high costs for bank customers in the event of premature exit from a real estate loan.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) rejected the institute's non-admission complaint against a judgment of the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court (OLG) from July last year (Az .: XI ZR 320/20).
"The Federal Court of Justice is effectively following the decision of the Higher Regional Court Frankfurt am Main and considers further clarification of the matter to be unnecessary," explained lawyer Marko Huth from the Berlin law firm Gansel, who won the OLG ruling against Commerzbank.
With this, the lawyers see the position of borrowers strengthened.
Commerzbank did not want to comment on the subject upon request.
After the OLG decision last summer, the institute announced: “Against the background of the latest case law of the BGH on the requirements for the presentation of the calculation method for early repayment penalties, according to which it is only necessary to roughly name the essential parameters, the view of the In our opinion, the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court is not convincing. "
Avoid prepayment penalties
The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court came to the conclusion that the statements made by Commerzbank regarding the calculation of the compensation in the disputed loan agreement »did not meet the legal requirements«.
The information should be "clear, concise, understandable and precise".
The conclusion of the OLG as the second instance in these proceedings: »The early repayment penalty was paid without any legal reason.
There was no payment obligation. «(Ref .: 17 U 810/19).
In the specific case, the borrower should pay more than 21,500 euros to Commerzbank to replace two loans.
With such compensation, institutions secure - to put it simply - compensation for the loss of interest income in the event of early termination of a loan agreement.
The judgment, which has now been confirmed by the BGH, is also of importance for customers of other banks, said Huth. Some institutes have revised forms, but these too are "still open to attack in some cases". For many private individuals there is the option of avoiding a prepayment penalty. This applies to contracts from March 22, 2016. At the time, the legislature stipulated that banks must provide their customers with detailed and understandable information about the so-called early repayment penalty, especially when it comes to construction financing.
According to consumer advocates, many banks are charging too much money from customers to get out of home financing.
The calculation of the early repayment penalty is sometimes so complex that even the institutes failed to comply with their information obligations regarding this compensation claim.
The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court held that a bank had the right to demand “an appropriate early repayment penalty for the damage directly related to the early repayment”.
However, this claim is excluded "if, among other things, the information on the calculation of the early repayment penalty in the contract is inadequate".
mik / dpa-AFX
