Mortgages and Real Estate Loans

Prior to the conclusion of the contract, the potential lender must provide you with a European Standardised Information Sheet (ESIS). The ESIS is an EU-standardised form that contains all the important details about the potential contract, for example:

• Borrowing interest rates,
• Effective annual rate,
• The total amount to be repaid,
• The right of early repayment and
• Penalties for early repayment

If something changes, such as the interest rate, then every time you must be given a newly updated ESIS.

The Bank is required to conduct a precise assessment of your creditworthiness and will only be allowed to grant a loan, when is seems probable that you will be able to repay the loan in full. Where a bank has doubts about your credit rating, it is not allowed to give you a loan.

So that you are not pressurised, the bank’s offer must remind binding for at least seven days.

Package deals (the tying-in of a credit agreement to the utilisation of other financial products) shall generally now only be allowed for the purpose of repayment of the loan, the upkeep of the loan or as surety.

If you have submitted your contractual declaration within two days of receiving the ESIS, then you have aright of withdrawal for a period of two working days.

If you have not been given an ESIS, then the right of withdrawal shall end at latest one month after the contract being concluded.

If you have taken out a variable interest rate loan, you may repay it at any time at no extra cost.

In the case of a fixed interest rate loan an early repayment penalty may be demanded, if you repay more than EUR 10,000 within a twelve month period. The amount of the early repayment penalty shall be allowed to be a maximum of 1 per cent of the amount that is repaid early (or 0.5 per cent during the final year of the term). The bank must inform you about all the effects associated with early repayment.