The Warsaw District Court on Friday announced a verdict in a test case regarding Swiss Franc mortgage of Mr and Mrs Dziubak. The loan agreement has been nullified.
According to the judge, it was questionable whether or not the Dziubaks had been informed by the bank about the currency exchange risk. The court said that they hadn't been properly informed about the unpredictability of long-term currency fluctuation.
The Dziubaks borrowed 400,000 zlotys in 2008 but before the case owed about 500,000 zlotys, despite making 10 years of repayments because of the rise in the value of the Swiss franc.
The verdict is likely to encourage more lawsuits.
The European Union’s (EU) top court ruled in October, 2019, in favor of Polish consumers who took out mortgages in Swiss Francs, allowing them to ask Polish courts to convert the loans into the local zloty currency in a blow for lenders.
The verdict was not an outright victory for borrowers, however, because it is up to Polish courts to decide on a case-by-case basis how the contracts are altered.
Attracted by lower interest rates some 700,000 Poles took out mortgages in foreign currencies, mainly in Swiss francs, nearly a decade ago. They are now paying far bigger instalments than they expected after the Swiss franc soared 92 percent against the zloty since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008.
Foreign currency loans total 124 billion zloty ($31 billion), almost one third of all Polish mortgages, and the ECJ verdict encouraged more borrowers to sue for refunds.
Currently there are more than 11,000 cases running in the courts.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP, Reuters