Welcome to the section of our website explaining loans and mortgages.
Here you will find many answers to your doubts, free consulting and contacts that can facilitate you in the research of the product suitable for you.

Our organization can supply financings aimed you at the purchase of pieces of real estate, provided by some major credit institutes like Tuscany Bank (group MSP), Savings and loan company of Lucca (group BIPIELLE), UniCredit Bank (Unicredit group), Bank UCB (group BNP Paribas), Woolwich Bank (group Barclays Banck PLC), with which we have stipulated conventions and near which we succeed to obtain, for our customers, particular facilities and rates.

Introduction

The mortgage is the contract with which a part (said mortgagee) provides a determined amount of money or other useful things to an other (said mortgagor) which assumes the obligation to give back, at the established moment, as many things of the same species and amount. Generally the contract is under onerous title and the amount of the interests is agreed by both the parts, or it is applied the legal interests, as established by Art. 1284 of the italian civil law.

The parts can agree that the restitution of the mortgage happens by instalments. In such hypothesis, the lacked payment of any single installment by the mortgagor give the right to the mortgagee to ask the immediate restitution for the entire borrowed amount. The resolution of the contract can be asked also in case of lacked payment of the interests. The mortgages having for object a sum of money are given back, normally by paying instalments, and the single installments, calculated accordingly to an amortization plan, can be constant, increasing, decreasing or predefined in their entity.

The mortgages can be classified as:

• GENERAL:
  when it is not assisted from any guarantee;
• HYPOTECATING:
  when it is assisted by a hypothecary guarantee;
• PLEDGING:
  when it is assisted from a pledge.

The Guaranties

• Generic guarantee with reference to the powers that all the creditors have to satisfy the own reasons, by means of forced execution on all the assets of the debtor up to the borrowed amount;
• Personal guarantee like the Mandate of Credit, the fidejussion and the guaranty with which the subjects that undersign it, take the obbligation to fulfill, in place and competition with the main debtor, with the possibility for the creditor, in leak case, to satisfy itself also over their personal patrimony;
• Real guarantee like the pledge, the hypoteca and priviledge with which they come constituted to guarantee specific bound assets in favor of the creditor in preferential way, excluding them from eventual actions performed by the other creditors.

The Interest Rates

• Fixed, when it is established that the interest rate will be the same for all the duration of the financing. The fixed rate should be choosen when:
  • The value of the fixed rate is sufficiently close to the variable rates;
  • You desire the same amount of installment for all the duration and knowing therefore exactly the amount to reimburse;
  • You plan a progressively increasing inflation and therefore a minor incidence of the amount of the installment on the amount of the future returns (wages, pensions, earnings).
• Variable, when it is established that the rate will change accordingly to the variation of the rate taken as base (as an example the Euribor that is the medium financing rate between the european banks, published from the Central European Bank, or the Libor that is the rate practiced on the Italian inter-bank market for financings, for two, three or six months). The rate the financing will be in this case composed by the base rate, increased by an agreed spread (difference between rate base and effective rate).
  • It is opportune to choose the variable rate when one desires that the financing follow the course of the cost of the money, foreseing that in the middle or long period the base rates are tendentially decreasing.
• Compound, when is agreed the application of the fixed rate and of the variable one, establishing in the contract the moment in which the rates will switch from one to the other.
  • In this case the condition can be applicable intransgressibly by the backer agency or can be an option left to the debtor; in this last case we can speak about a "Mortgage with option".

To protection of the customer, the law no. 108 of March 7, 1996, has established that:

• the medium rates applied by the italian banks for the different kinds of financings, must be published quarterly on the Official Gazette;
• the banks must expose, in easy visible way to the public, the table of the reference rates that, increased by the half, constitute the maximum levels beyond which the usury crime is declared.

The possibility to fix, freely, the value of the interest rates, Fixed, Variable or Mixed, is conditioned from the respect of an objective, fixed by th law limit. The term "USURY RATE" generally is used in order to designate the obtaining of a loan of a money to a very high interest rate. To the aim to place a brake to a phenomenon in continuous increase, like that one of the usury, the Parliament has modernized the own dispositions, establishing that the Ministry of the Treasury must find quarterly the Total Effective Average Rate of the Interests applied by the Banks and the Financial Intermediaries, in the course of the previous trimester for loan operations. The average values detected are published on the Official Gazette too.

The average rates determined in such way, and increased by the half, constitute the maximum level beyond which the usury crime is declared. In the event in which a mortgage contract with interests greater to the defined threshold of usury is subscribed, the interests will be paid exclusively in the measure determined by the law.

The Expences

• EXPENSES OF PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION, demanded in order to open the financing file, in order to estimate and to assess the effective ability to reimbursement of the petitioner. Such expenses can be in some case demanded before the mortgage contract, in fixed amount, as a percentage on the amount of the financing, or both. Generally if paid before mortgage, they do not come given back in case of non-acceptation of the request.
• APPRAISAL EXPENSES, demanded in order to assess the real value of the good given in guarantee, assessment that can be carried out by the staff of the backer agency or by external experts.
• TRANSACTION EXPENSES, applied for the every transaction relative to a single installment;
• DELAYED INSTALLMENT INTERESTS are the interests that must be paid in case of delayed payment of the installments. In contracts it comes established after how many days from the expiration that rates are applied, and the amount of the same rates, which is generally an increment to the rate applied to the financing or to the reference rate (for ex. Euribor).
• NOTARIAL EXPENSES are part in in financing contract stipulation expenses. Being the contract a public action it needs of the presence of a Notary for being validated. The notary can be named directly by the bank or proposed by the mortgagor; the notary charges for this operation are fixed, independently from the bank to which the request for financing was addressed.
• The SUBSTITUTIVE TAX demanded for every distributed financing for more than 18 months, is currently equal to 0.25% of the nominal amount of the financing;
• The PENALTIES FOR REDUCTION AND/OR ANTICIPATED EXTINCTION of the financing, with which the Banks tutelano towards the possibility that the financings come it is collected to you anticipatamente.

The Fiscal Facilities

For the hypothecating mortgages for the purchase of pieces of real estate and/or building recovery, the law foreseen the fiscal facilities based on a share of the interests and added burdens paid to the backer agency.

The fiscal dispositions foresse three cases:

1. Hypothecating mortgages for the purchase of the main residence, distinguishing: for the mortgages undersigned prior to January 1st, 1993 facilities are admitted on condition that the real estate unit has been used to main residence within six (6) months from the purchase and that the purchase has happened in the six months antecedent or successive to the date of stipulation of the mortgage. The deduction is up on a maximum of Euro 3,700.00.
   
   The deduction however is admitted:
   • if the mortgage is stipulated in order to acquire one ulterior property quota of the real estate unit;
   • for contracts stipulated with subject resident in the territory of one of the European Union countries.
   
   The deduction is not up:
   • to the usufructuaries;
   • to who contracts the mortgage independently in order to acquire a main residence;
   • from the successive period of tax to that one in which the piece of real estate is not more used as main residence.
     
2. On the mortgages stipulated prior to 1993 the deduction is fixed in Euro 3,700 for every person registered in the mortgage act, and is admitted on condition that the real estate unit has been used as main residence to the date of December 8, 1993 and that in the next years, the contributor has not varied the main residence for reasons other that those of job.
   
3. On the hypothecating mortgages stipulated for the purchase of various real estate units other than the main residence, the deduction is admitted for a maximum amount of Euro 2,100 for every registered person of mortgage; for hypothecating mortgages stipulated before 1993 on various pieces of real estate other than those used as main residence. For the mortgages stipulated in 1991 and 1992 the deduction is only up for those relative to the purchase of pieces of real estate to use as not main residence, and for which such condition has not varied.

The amortization plan

The capital that the Bank puts on hand of the customer, through the improvement of a mutuum contract, generally it will have to be given back on the base of predefined Amortization Plan, established by the parts to the moment of the contract stipulation.

The installment of reimbursement, composed generally by a capital quota and an interest quota, can be equal for all the duration of the financing (or for all the period in which it comes applied the same rate in case of variable rates), increasing or decreasing, as established by the prechosen plan.

The main categories, used nowadays, are:

• The "FRENCH" amortization plan: the installment is constant and in the periods of application of the same rate (for all the duration for the financings to fixed rate) the capital component increases and the interest component diminishes;
• The amortization plan to INCREASING INSTALLMENTS: the installment increases in percentage to every expiration or prechosen periods;
• The amortization plan to DECREASING INSTALLMENTS: when it comes established the reimbursement of a constant capital quota for which the interests to correspond will diminish in the time for effect of the reimbursements.
• The FREE amortization plan when come established the terms within which the debtor can perform reimbursements of capital, the installments therefore has a pure variable component of interests exclusively according to the reimbursements.

The Pre-Amortization

Is defined PERIOD OF PRE-AMORTIZATION that one during which it does not come demanded the reimbursement of the amount of the financing. The interests that mature in this period can be reimbursed at prefixed expirations by instalments, added to the first installment or distributed on the successive installments. The interests applied normally are equal to those fixed ones for the true amortization.

The Exemption

It is normally defined as period of EXEMPTION that one during which the backer agency renounces to calculate interests. Of such circumstance it holds evidently count of the interest rate and/or other accessory expenses of the financing.

The Installment Regularity

The regularity with which the payment of the installments is established, generally is chosen by the customer in relation to the returns which it has. Generally are offered bimonthly, quarterly and semiannual regularities.

The Duration

Relatively to the duration of the mortgage, this can diversify on the basis of the requirements of the customer and the characteristics of the backer agency; the financings to "medium term" are those the whose duration is greater than 18 months, but inferior to 5 years; the financings to "long term" are those whose duration is superior to 5 years.

Insurance Cover

In the mortgages for houses, the subscription of a insurance policy in favor of the distributing agency is demanded obligatorily, against possible damages caused by fire, explosion and lightnings, that covers the piece of real estate offered in hypothecating guarantee for the entire duration of the financing. In this case it is important to estimate the opportunity to pay in advance an amount for all the duration, or to choose a policy, that foresee the payment of annual amounts.

In some case is also offered the possibility to stipulate a life insurance policy, in order to guarantee the payment of the financing in case of death or of permanent invalidity.

The procedure and the several actions

The DEMAND for a financing generally become formal through a document already predisposed by the backer agencies for every single category of financing which they commercialize, and undersigned by the petitioner, in which must be included:

• The amount of the demanded financing;
• The duration of the financing;
• The motivations for which the concession is demanded;
• News to personal and/or business character;
• News regarding the economic and patrimonial situation, in particular the the eventual preexisting debt situation with the banks and/or with other agencies;
• The guarantees offered, depending from the type of request.

A good part of the information is obligatory, as to the norms published by the Bank of Italy, in quality of organ of vigilance on the credit institutions and on the other qualified intermediaries.

On the application form are indicated also the documents to provide in order to obtain the concession in case of favorable decision of the backer agency.

Financing Request Estimation

For every type of financing the backer agencies establish the criteria with which the financing requests must be ESTIMATED.

The criteria are various if the requests are presented by private persons or by societies.

In some case, mostly for the private persons, processes of automatic appraisal can be performed, also supported by techniques of credit scoring, in which are defined the percentages of risk (obtained on the base of the statistical elaboration of a series of variables such as the previous financings, the financed goods, the social-economic condition of the debtor, the amount of the installment etc).

The requests that obtain a score re-entering in a satisfactory percentage as of the backer agency, come authorized automatically, those that obtain major percentages can become object of deepenings or direct appraisals and/or automatically declined.

The application of the criteria, in many cases in automatic way, brings to the definition of an evaluation path that previews the participation of some professional figures:

• The Proposer, the one who carries out the examination of the information and expresses a first judgment of appliability of the financing (in some case also the eventual negative decision of requests proposing the review of a superior organization);
• The entity assigned to giving the opinion, which have the task has to verify the appraisals performed by proposer and to add those specialistic;
• The decision entity that must take the decision if to accept in all or partially the request.

Often both the entity that give opinions and the decision entity can demand deepenings or subordinate their decision to the acquisition of particular documentation and/or of determined guarantees beyond those already offered.

The Decision

With the DECISION, the backer agency declares the own availability to carry out the operation in the examined terms; every variation of that terms (except the reduction of the amount) brings to a new examination.

The Stipulation

With the word STIPULATION is defined the action with which the backer agency takes the obbligation to correspond the determined amount of money, and the debtor is obligated to give back it to the established conditions.

The act in issue nearly always has the form of a mortgage contract, that comes at the same time undersigned by both the parts when written up as a private contract; instead, when the signature of the contract happens in presence of a notary or of another public official, we speak about a public act.

The public form is mandatory for all those acts, that regard the acquisition, as guarantee, of the voluntary mortgage.

The Financing Delivery

The FINANCING DELIVERY is the operation with which the backer agency delivery to the mortgagors, the demanded amount of money and the plan of amortization of the distributed amounts is defined.

The delivery operation can happen:

• During the signature of a "FINANCING CONTRACT", moreover when the contract foresee the constitution of hypothecating guarantees or other guarantees in successive to stipulation time; the distributed amounts come constituted by the mortgagor in pledge to guarantee the assumed engagements, and are delivered only after the assessment is performed by the backer agency;
• Undersigning the contract of another type, called "DELIVERY CONTRACT AND RECEIPT", when the financing contract has been written up under conditioned contract form;
• Within a determined period of time from the underisgning of a conditioned contract, when the DISTRIBUTION by TRANCHES is foreseen - generally called distributions during work in progress - in relation to the state of realization of the financed plan.

The Payment of the Installments

The amount distributed by the Bank will have to be given back on the base of predefined Amortization Plan, established by both the parts at the moment of contract undersigning.

Eventual payments, both partial or total, carried out in advance on the payment expirement date come set aside you as sums on hand of the debtor and charged to the financing only upon maturity of the installment.

The partial payments carried out after the expiration of the installment come attributed to the several components of the installment or the past due installments according to rules established from the backer agency. In general terms the sums correspondent to the assurances are subtracted before, then passive interests, accessory expenses, and subsequently those dues relative to the interests of the financing and to the residual debt.

The Premature Extinction

As to the law, the debtor has the faculty to extinguish prior to the established term, or just to reduce the debit, corresponding to the backer agency a fee, contractually established, proportioned to the given back capital.

For the anticipated extinction will have to be done some calculation, in order to establish the amount to reimburse, if the debtor demands to reduce the financing. It can contractually be established that:

• the amortization plan have to be varied, keeping the original duration and the conditions of the financing;
• the total duration of the financing have to be modified, in order to keep constant the reimbursement installment.

Premature Extinction Caused by the Bank

The premature extinction of the financing as initiative of the backer agency can only happen when the mortgagor has not respected the obligation that, in the contract, was specifically indicated like useful for resolving of the same contract. In this case, the backer agency can demand, to the debtor, the immediate restitution of the entire amount of the borrowed capital, the interests that accrued until to that moment, and eventual penalties tied to the refunding in advance (costs generally relative to the supply of the money, specially in the financings to fixed rate), invoking the "expirement of the benefit of the term".

Beyond the lacked or the delayed reimbursement of the installments, for which precise indications - as to the law - exist, "the bank can invoke the resolution of the contract caused by the delayed payment, when the same has been effected seven times at least, also if not consecutive. To such aim, the payment is delayed if effected between the 30th and 180th day since the expiration of the installment"; in contracts are often indicated some other clauses like:

• The eventual worsening of the economic-patrimonial situation of the financed person;
• The lacked respect of the destination of the financing;
• Specific parameters relative to the attainment of economic turnouts.

The Financing Overloading

The FINANCING OVERLOADING is a contract between the debtor and a third party (the loader), with which these one acquires the obligation that the debtor has towards the creditor. The effectiveness of the overload can remain limited to the persons that have placed it in being, as the debtor and the third party, (called "simple Overload"), and can be cancelled from another agreement between the same parts.

For the effectiveness of the contract, also with respect to the creditor, the undersigning by the loader of the overload is necessary, and that undersigning generates the responsibility of the loader, in relation to the creditor, for the assumed obligations. In such case, we can speak about external overload since to the previous debtor a new one joins that remains obliged in solid with the original one.

The overload, possible for every obligation, is an operation that regards only the land mortgages, in the moment in which the real estate property, as guarantee of the financing, is sold to thirds party that, in phase of purchase, assumes the debit of the financing opportunely contracted by the vendor.

The Financing Split

The FINANCING SPLIT is the division of the original amount of a mortgage, or of the residual capital at the moment of the operation, in more quotas so that who loads them, answers towards the backer agency in respective value limits.

The Financing Rinegotiation

It is called FINANCING RINEGOTIATION the operation with which come redefined, for demand for the debtor, the contractual terms of a financing. The backer agency can come to an agreement for a rinegotiation, bringing annotations to the original contract, relatively both to the economic aspects (interest rate, other conditions, etc,) and to the other conditions such as duration, regularity of the reimbursement. Generally for this operation the payment of one penal of "recession" from the previous contract is demanded; it is opportune that the customer takes in consideration the incidence of such a penality, to the aim to estimate the real benefit of the operation.

If the rinegotiation involves a radical modification of the financing and its collocation internally to the products of the backer agency, are normally proceeded up to the extinction of the original financing and to the ignition of a new one.

The Financing Rectucturing

Is defined as "restructuring of a financing", the operation with which are defined the modalities of reimbursement of the installments not paid until to that moment or when, as a result of a request to the backer agency for an anticipated extinction, the debtor will have to come to an agreement on a plan of reimbursement different from that one dictated by the original contract.

Also such an operation is formalized through a written agreement between the parts.

The installment expiration notice

For nearly all the types of financing, is assumed the shipment to the customer of a notice upon expiration of EVERY SINGLE INSTALLMENT, which can have several forms, dependently from the predefined modalities of payment.

Only in some backer agencies, limitedly to the financings to fixed rate of modest amount and duration, the expirement notices (generally in form of deposits in a postal account) the installments come given together in a single carnet.

The information generally contained in the notices are:

• The due date of the installment;
• The detail of the components of the same installment;
• The residual capital of the financing after the payment of the installment;
• The amortization/preamortization rate;
• The terms within which the installment must be paid in exemption, and the indication of the penalties for the eventual delayed payment.

If at the moment of the shipment of the expiration notice unsolved installments exist, generally the notice comprises also the amount of these ones and of the interests calculates upon maturity of the noticed installment.

The Unpaid Installments Notices

In case of delayed payment the backer agency sends to the debtor one or more unpaid installments notices. The content is generally various in relation to the number of the days of delay regarding the payment date and to the previous number of the same requests sent.

For the financings to variable rate it comes forwarded to the mortgagor the communication about the RATE VARIATION in relation to the terms of the contract. The communication is generally sent as a letter with the detailed list of the modifications.

Is sent to the debtor also a new amortization plan, if the modification to the rate has involved a remake of the plan as far as the amount of the installments or theirs components (financed capital and/or interests) and the duration.

The Payment Receipt

Once the installment is paid by cash (in that case are the tax-collector normally release to the debtor a receipt of the paid amount) can be forwarded to the mortgagor the RECEIPT of the every payment done for a single installment.

The Certification of Paid Interests

For some categories of financing, in relation to the possible use for the obtaining of fiscal benefits, a CERTIFICATION comes forwarded to the mortgagor every year, relatively to the interests and burdens paid for every single financing.