Consumers have won another battle! The Parliament has approved a diploma which now allows disabled individuals to benefit from subsidised home loans.
The previous 1976 law said that if all legal requirements were complied with, citizens with a degree of disability equal to or above 60% would have more advantages when buying or building their own home. In other words, these citizens were entitled to very much the same advantages as bank workers. But the law said nothing about changing a mortgage when the handicap was sustained during an ongoing loan, and this influenced many banks’ attitudes: none of them wanted to change a regular mortgage to one that was subsidised in these kind of circumstances.
Thus, the new diploma is very positive: it differentiates the disabled citizens’ loan scheme from that of bank workers, and says that people who become handicapped during an ongoing loan can now benefit from subsidised mortgages.
The text is clear about this and it makes sense that this was the original legislator’s intention, but it was never said explicitly.
DECO is therefore satisfied with the new law, but will remain vigilant to see how it is carried out.
In this column, Portuguese consumer watchdog DECO informs readers of various interesting issues
and laws affecting consumer decisions. 289 863 103 | [email protected]
