Credit holiday – for borrowers of loans in Francs as well?

On the fourteenth day of July, the President signed the Act on Crowdfunding of Business Projects and Aid for Borrowers, including regulations on credit holiday. The new regulations will come into force on 29 July and requests for the deferral of instalments of mortgage loans can be filed in August. The Act provides for mechanisms of aid to borrowers. Unfortunately, they will not be available to everyone.

Along with the growth of reference rates of the National Bank of Poland, the interest rate of mortgage loans based on variable interest rates increases. As a result, a monthly instalment of a home loan grows. Therefore, for a greater and greater number of borrowers, the monthly cost of home loan repayment has the lion’s share in the household’s income. Consequently, more and more borrowers are not able to repay their debts on time. “Credit holiday” is to help them. The credit holiday means that the borrower has the right not to pay even eight credit instalments on time because they will be moved to the end of the repayment period.

The consumer has the right to suspend the repayment in the period from 1 August 2022 to 31 December 2022 for two months per quarter and in the period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023 for one month per quarter. As from the effective date of the Act till the end of the third quarter there are only two months left, to take full advantage of privileges available this year, a request for the suspension of loan repayment must be filed with the bank at the latest on the due date of the August credit instalment.

The request for the suspension of repayment can only apply to one agreement concerning a mortgage loan in PLN which was entered into to buy a real property for own purposes of a natural person being a consumer. Unfortunately, the Act excludes borrowers of so-called Franc loans from the aid.

Borrowers of the Franc loans have, however, an ace up their sleeve, which is not available to borrowers of mortgage loans in PLN, i.e., the court invalidation of their agreement with the bank. If they sue the bank and the case is successful, the borrowers free themselves of the toxic Franc loan ex tunc, which means that the credit facility agreement is deemed to never have been made. In recent months, the vast majority of such cases have been adjudged to the benefit of consumers. The most effective attorneys in Katowice have a 100% effectiveness in Franc disputes. When the exchange rate of Swiss franc reaches subsequent records and credit instalments soar, it is worth taking an initiative and consider bringing an action against the bank to invalidate the loan. If we succeed, the “credit holiday” we achieve will not last for several months, but will be unlimited in time.