A very significant banking mediation case for a pair of borrowers was handled by the lawyer and accredited mediator, Anna Korsanou. The borrowers had a debt in Eurobank arising from 4 loans, one of which was in Swiss francs. They had appealed to Katseli’s law by cooperating with another law firm and received a rejection decision as a result of deceit, but also because the judge was not convinced that their separation, which they invoked, was true. The decision was so well-documented on the part of the judge that in case of an appeal by the borrowers, they wouldn’t have had good chances of success.
They came to my office and I proposed banking mediation. It is worth noting that their loans have now been transferred to CAIRO and they are processed by DoValue Greece, which was recently established. The mediation was attended by representatives of DoValue Greece along with the company’s lawyers.
The processing and preparation of the mediation lasted for months and it was ultimately conducted in a specially shaped mediation setting. It is important to realize that the mediation preparation is almost 70% of the result and it is dependent on the borrowers’ lawyer. This means that the more interest the lawyer shows for the case, the more he deals with it, the more time he dedicates for communicating with the bank, for sending documents and providing explanations to the borrowers, the more the chances of a successful outcome are increased.
Anna Korsanou handles all mediation cases personally by being direct. She provides clear explanation for the procedures to the borrowers-customers, which are naturally the weakest part of the process or may face difficulties in understanding financial terms and have already been suffering for 10 years without seeing an end to it.
The mediation lasted for about 10 hours. At first, the bank started with the most difficult proposals, which, following negotiations, were differently shaped and in a viable for the borrowers way. The environment and communication were civilized since by using this process there are no attacks or accusations or blaming, whereas it is a practical attempt to resolve the problem.
The loans amounted to 430,000 euro. The borrowers owned two properties and had a monthly 2,500 euro amount of remuneration while they didn’t have any children. However, they did present their costs as well as their obligations towards other banks proving their real payment capacity.
In the end, a, amount of debt reduction was a fact and payment of monthly installments with an escalating increase after three years was achieved. This agreement was the best possible taking into account the circumstances for the borrowers as their alternatives were extremely limited, whereas all previous negotiations they attempted on their own were unsuccessful.
In cases of loans and over-indebtedness it is helpful for the borrowers to cooperate with an experienced lawyer who is willing to handle their case responsibly, to examine their alternatives carefully and follow the one having the most realistic chances of success.
