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28th March 2024
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HomeNewsSwiss Franc loan court cases in March

Swiss Franc loan court cases in March

ONE OF the legal firms acting on behalf of clients who were allegedly mis-sold Swiss Franc loans to buy property in Cyprus has filed 145 law suits against the Alpha Bank in Cyprus.

Although hearings were initially scheduled to take place in October last year, it is expected that the hearings for cases received in 2011 will now start in late March.

The law firm’s lead council explained “Clients will be having their cases before the courts of Cyprus.

“We estimate they will start in late March and that is when we expect the hearing to begin and that is those cases that we received in 2011.”

A second law firm has filed High Court actions on behalf of more than 1,000 buyers against Alpha Bank Cyprus and 24 property developers reports FTAdvisor.

However, in this case the banks are challenging the jurisdiction of the English court and, although it has been upheld, the decision has been appealed.

It’s been claimed that as many as 35,000 could have been mis-sold Swiss Franc loans and are now facing demands for massive loan repayments and threats of legal action in the UK. In some cases borrowers have seen their monthly loan repayments treble from £400/month to £1,000-£1,200/month due to the strengthening of the Swiss Franc and the high interest rate and margin being charged by the Cypriot banks.

It’s expected that the first of the court hearings in Cyprus will last for two or three months and that the judge will make a decision four to six months later.

In a further case (which is unconnected to the alleged mis-selling of Swiss Franc loans) a London-based law firm recently succeeded in obtaining judgment against Giovani Developers at the Commercial Court in England. The judge, The Hon Mr Justice Popplewell, ruled that the clients were consumers under the European Regulations and decided against Giovani Developers for failing to acknowledge the service of the claim against them.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Interesting to see how the Polish handle the CHF LOANS after the Hungarian episode.

    Perhaps I am a romantic, but I believe in time that now the CY banks are in Foreign ownership. That resolutions will be available for borrowers, the banks have so many issues to resolve it will take time. CYPRUS being a small country we are talking about only tens of thousands of loans, sounds a lot but in the scheme of things it’s not that many. Look at the millions of cases the banks are having to deal with in the UK with claims. Unless the bank can undeniably prove that they presented ALL THE FACTS (financial scenarios) to the borrower, no matter what the customer signed.. They are in the wrong.

    Poland Seeks Franc-Loan Remedy for Alienated Middle Class

  2. Chris Woodward. No, you are most certainly not alone. We have Judicare instructed to both claim against and defend the action brought, by Alpha.

  3. Swiss franc loans has cause us financial hardships because we were mis-sold with no related information.

  4. Reassuring to know we are not alone in our endeavours to get justice against another bank responsible along with our lawyer in advising/mis-selling a Swiss Franc loan. We have a court date 27th March, but await to be advised of our requirement to fly over to Cyprus. We were reassured it would over by May. We shall see!

  5. Lets not forget. The Cypriots are artists when it comes to delaying tactics. You only have to look at what is going on with Troika.

    These court cases could drag on for years and in the end people will be so fed up with it all that they will accept a far lower settlement as opposed to what they are due. As the banks have not been convicted of any crime during the length of the trial people will still have to find the repayments or go into default which would not look good in the eyes of the court.

  6. About time too, these cased were filed in 2011 so that’s 4 years gone already.

    However as much as this well orchestrated collusion between selling agents, developers, lawyers and banks was immoral and deceitful not to mention unethical buyers do need to get their act and education together and get themselves familiarised on the perils of currency fluctuations, political ideologies which effect exchange rates and basic banking practice together with laws and codes of conduct in countries that they choose to invest in (often, but not always, because they feel they can make a fast buck themselves).

    The act of buying off plan and renting to holidaymakers to recover cost being just one case in point.

    I hope we do not witness the countless postponements to the case reaching court as seems to be the norm and that those affected are recompensed and now hopefully wiser and less gullible. Good luck to them as I fear the banks will pull out all the stops to defend this action.

  7. Yes I agree with PILS wholeheartedly. Mine is also coming up soon (Maxwell Alves v BOC). in my case I bought at 195k GBP have paid so far 190k GBP and yet still owe 171k GBP and rising by the week and never missed a payment. It’s gonna cost me 350k GBP at least and worth about 200k GBP and dropping, a goods investment, and something you should do to help your pension out. I don’t think so.

  8. YES about time these crooked banks and developers are bought to task for misleading people and forcing people into buying property based on the Swiss franc, no title deeds (pending), no official POA etc etc.

    We have been hugely ripped off with high mortgage repayments due to currency exchange, no title deeds, devalued property prices etc and it is about time that banks etc are put before courts in UK/Cyprus with preference based on a collective claim in UK for the return of our initial deposits and other costs plus mortgage contacts, as they stand, declared null and void. This is what we would except at the least for the grief experienced to date.

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