‘Bad’ debtors are not all bad. They’re fleeced

I believe the Cyprus Mail editorial ‘Should bad debtors be given more slack?’ (February 4) your opinion on this matter cannot be more wrong. We are the victims, and part of the bad debtors that you refer to.

We were advised by the bank 20 years ago to take out a house loan in Swiss francs. As you will know, Swiss francs strengthened by over 60 per cent and our payments shot up accordingly. Also, banks increased their interest rates and charges illegally. This made it impossible especially for a single parent family with three children under 17 to maintain the full monthly payments. 

The debts mounted. We took the bank to court, but it took 10 years before there was a hearing. We had two independent financial consultants to assess the true balance amount of our loan which came to €130,000. The financial institution was demanding €380,000 and had put the house up for auction before the court could decide the true amount of the outstanding balance!

Eventually the financial institution, realising that a court decision would set a precedent for future cases, offered to accept €177,600. Rather than suffer a house auction and be thrown out of the house, we regrettably accepted the offer.

I do not consider these bad debtors to be in the wrong. I am not an Akel supporter but on this matter only they appear to understand how unfair, scandalous and biased the legal system and the current laws are against the consumer. We are the victims not the banks or financial institutions.

Andy Georgiou, Paphos