This is an article published in idealista/news.
Some families are accusing banks of charging for the cancellation of home loans, something that was banned around four years ago. But the financial institutions operating in Portugal guarantee that they are complying with the law by not charging any commissions for the “distrate” of home loans.
Complaints from customers accusing banks of charging for cancelling home loans reached the PCP parliamentary group, which ended up sending a request to the Bank of Portugal last week, writes Jornal Económico. It should be remembered that with Law 57/2020, banks were prohibited from charging abusive commissions, namely on the issue of cancellations of home loans.
However, several banks, such as BPI, CGD, BCP, Santander and Novobanco, assured the same newspaper that they are not charging any commission for issuing the housing loan cancellation document, thus complying with the law and the Portuguese regulator’s guidelines.
What may be being charged as part of the mortgage cancellation is the cost of authenticating the document proving that the debt has been cancelled, which is legal and is not a commission. Even so, not all banks charge this amount, says the same publication.
