Consumer loan agreement

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The consumer loan contract or the consumer loan , also consumer credit (contract) , is a loan contract that is concluded between a consumer as the borrower and an entrepreneur as the lender.

The origin of this type of contract and its legal regulation go back to the EU Consumer Credit Directive .

Germany

Origin, legal basis

If the corresponding regulations were originally in the Consumer Credit Act , they were integrated into the Civil Code ( §§ 491 ff. BGB) by the Law of Obligations Modernization Act . As of June 11, 2010, other regulations will apply after the law on the implementation of the Consumer Credit Directive, the civil law part of the Payment Services Directive and the reorganization of the provisions on the right of withdrawal and return of July 29, 2009 came into force.

Legal regulations

The legal terms consumer and entrepreneur are defined for Germany in § 13 and § 14 BGB.

In principle, the general provisions on the loan contract ( §§ 488 to 490 BGB) apply to the consumer loan contract . The norms of §§ 491 to 505 BGB also apply to the consumer loan (with exceptions) with the aim of strengthening the protection of the consumer.

To protect the consumer, the consumer loan contract must generally be in writing and have a minimum content. Since the written form is required, the signature of the parties is required ( Section 126 BGB). However, the lender's declaration does not require a written form if it has been created with the help of an automatic device ( Section 492 BGB). However, the consumer's signature is required.

The statutory minimum content ( § 492 BGB) (for example, information on the net loan amount and the effective annual interest rate ) should enable the consumer to better compare the different types of credit and their costs. In the case of interest rates that are dependent on creditworthiness , Section 6a PAngV (“Advertising for Loan Agreements”) stipulates that the bank must indicate in its advertising that the interest rate is dependent on creditworthiness. The bank may only advertise with interest rates that are not undercut by 2/3 of the contracts actually concluded.

Further rules in favor of the consumer:

Failure to comply with the written form and minimum content lead to the nullity of the loan agreement ( Section 494 (1) BGB). The consumer loan contract becomes valid as long as the borrower receives or uses the loan ( § 494 BGB).

In any case, the borrower has a right of withdrawal ( § 495 BGB). The withdrawal period is two weeks ( § 355 BGB). However, this deadline can become ineffective due to incorrect cancellation policy. Such incorrect determinations have been documented in several instances. The consumer center Hamburg assumes that 9 out of 10 consumer loan contracts contain incorrect cancellation instructions. However, on February 18, 2016, the legislature decided to allow this extension of the right of withdrawal for contracts from 2002 to 2010 to expire, thereby implementing the European Residential Property Credit Directive .

Mitigating the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic

In the case of consumer loan contracts that were concluded before March 15, 2020, the lender's claims for repayment, interest payments or repayment payments due between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020, according to Art. 5 of the Law to Mitigate the Consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in civil, insolvency and criminal procedure law with the due date being deferred for a period of three months if the consumer has lost income due to the extraordinary circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany lead that the performance of the owed service is unreasonable for him. Terminations by the lender due to default in payment , due to a significant deterioration in the consumer's financial situation or the intrinsic value of a security provided for the loan are excluded until the deferral has expired (Art. 240 § 3 EGBGB new version).

Demarcation

In an advance for a checking account the regulations of the consumer loan agreement does not apply ( § 493 BGB).

A special case of the consumer loan contract is the real estate loan contract for mortgage-backed loans.

Austria

In Austria, the Consumer Credit Directive was implemented by the Consumer Credit Act.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Directive 2008/48 / EC of April 23, 2008 on consumer credit agreements . In: Official Journal of the European Communities . L, No. 133, 2008, p. 66; Art. 15 deals with "linked credit agreements"
  2. Directive 2007/64 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 13, 2007 on payment services in the internal market, amending Directives 97/7 / EC, 2002/65 / EC, 2005/60 / EC and 2006/48 / EC and to repeal Directive 97/5 / EC
  3. Act to implement the Consumer Credit Directive, the civil law part of the Payment Services Directive and to reorganize the provisions on the right of withdrawal and return
  4. ^ Errors in revocation instructions recognized by the higher court
  5. Investigation of the consumer advice center Hamburg
  6. Directive 2014/17 / EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of February 4, 2014 on residential real estate credit agreements for consumers and amending Directives 2008/48 / EC and 2013/36 / EU and Regulation (EU) No. 1093/2010 , Retrieved July 7, 2017
  7. Law on the implementation of the residential real estate credit directive and on the amendment of commercial law regulations
  8. Draft of a law to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in civil, insolvency and criminal procedure law . BT-Drs. 19/18110 of March 24, 2020, p. 4.
  9. Corona aid package and other options: When money is running out, North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Center, March 30, 2020.
  10. Entire legal provision for the Consumer Credit Act

literature