Filenews 20 February 2026 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
One law proposal after another, which amends the legal framework for foreclosures, is submitted to the Parliament by the parties, so that they can be discussed together with the rest pending in the parliamentary Finance Committee on March 9.
During yesterday's plenary session of the Parliament, four more proposals were submitted by DIPA and the Ecologists, as well as by DIKO MPs Zacharias Koulias and Christos Orphanidis, which touch both primary debtors and mortgage guarantors.
In fact, until the issue is discussed in the competent committee, other parties will submit proposals. However, the issue is that, due to the suffocating timetables due to the self-dissolution of Parliament, the question arises whether the proposals will be discussed in depth and whether the parties will manage to reach a mutually acceptable formula.
However, the majority of the parties want at all costs to change the legal framework for foreclosures, as the last act before the parliamentary elections in May. They do not want the next Parliament to decide, as until the new committees are set up and start working, they will be found in the Autumn, with the result that borrowers remain unprotected.
Although it was originally planned that the last session of the Plenary Session of the Parliament with the existing composition would take place on April 2, the MPs will return to the benches after Easter, with the last session of the Legislative Body taking place on April 23.
What the proposals provide for
The four new law proposals submitted yesterday provide for the following:
-The DIPA bill provides for a freeze on the sale of primary residences worth up to €350,000 by the end of the year. According to the rapporteurs, the suspension is not punitive in nature towards the financial system nor is it intended to encourage strategic default. On the contrary, they note, it is a necessary and temporary measure, in order to provide the required time to the government, the Parliament and other stakeholders to correct distortions, to fill legislative gaps, to make use of existing provisions that are not sufficiently implemented to date, as well as to amend relevant legislation, with the aim of forming a fairer and more functional legislative framework.
-With the first law proposal of the Ecologists, the Financial Commissioner is given the opportunity to examine complaints about the confirmation of the debt, after the receipt of a Type "I" letter from the mortgage debtor.
-The second draft law of the Ecologists provides that, in case of continuation of the efforts to sell a mortgaged property by the mortgage lender after the expiration of the six-month period from the completion of the first auction, the obligation to apply a reserved sale price, which cannot be less than 50% of the market value of the mortgaged property, must be maintained.
-The law proposal by Zacharias Koulias and Christos Orphanides seeks to ensure that, in the event that the mortgagee does not proceed with the sale of the property and no court decision is issued against the primary debtor, he is obliged to exhaust the possibility to sell all the collateral before taking action against the guarantor. In addition, if the mortgaged property is sold, then the guarantor's liability will be limited to the principal of the guarantee contract. The same regulation will apply in the event of a court decision against a guarantor, provided that in the context of the court decision in a lawsuit, the mortgagee creditor secured a decree for the sale of mortgaged property and did not choose to apply it.
It is recalled that, a few weeks ago, a proposal for a law on the protection of guarantors was submitted by DISY, DIPA, EDEK and independent MPs.
