The Court of Cassation considers that the period of only fifteen days given to the client by the real estate loan contract is not a reasonable period.
The bank, faced with a consumer who does not respect the repayment deadlines, must give him sufficient time, after his formal notice, before taking sanction measures. The period of only fifteen days, given to the customer by the real estate loan contract to make up for his arrears, and thus avoid the immediate payment of the amounts still due, is not a reasonable period and constitutes an abusive clause, ruled the Court of Cassation.
An individual who had borrowed 220,000 euros to be repaid over ten years had received, following missed deadlines, a formal notice which required him, according to the terms of the contract, to regularize his situation within fifteen days. Subsequently, the bank pronounced the “forfeiture of the term”, that is to say, it demanded immediate payment of the outstanding capital, the interest linked to this sum and penalties.
A clause provided for in the contract
The courts then rejected the consumer’s claims, stressing that all of this was specifically provided for in the contract. However, the Court of Cassation observed, the Court of Justice of the European Union required the national judge, in such cases, to verify that the consumer actually had effective means at his disposal to remedy the effects of this requirement. And the unfair nature of a clause must be assessed in the light of all the circumstances surrounding the conclusion of the contract and not by applying only predetermined criteria, the European Court added.
Following these indications, this period of only fifteen days was not reasonable notice, ruled the Court of Cassation, and it created a significant imbalance to the detriment of the consumer, suddenly exposing him to a worsening of his repayment conditions.