By: Justicia Shipena
Metcalfe Beukes Attorneys claim commercial banks in Namibia continue to harass home loan debt defaulters to the point of economic exploitation.
This was stated by the law firm in a letter dated 3 May 2023 and written to the Governor of the Bank of Namibia (BoN) Johannes Gawaxab.
According to the law firm, the harassment is occurring despite the central bank’s decision to extend the determination on policy measures in response to economic and financial stability issues.
The central bank agreed last month to keep some of the relief measures in place to help with the domestic economic recovery.
These precautions were put in place to protect households and businesses from the worst effects of the Covid-19 epidemic and its associated economic limitations.
The new measures, enacted on 2 April 2023, will be in effect until 1 April 2024.
Since its initial publication in 2020, the Determination on Policy Changes in Response to Economic and Financial Stability Challenges Resulting from the Covid-19 Pandemic (BID-33) has been extended in 2021 and 2022 until 31 March 2023.
“The commercial banks however simply pay lip service hereto and continue to persecute home loan debt defaulters to the point of economic abuse,” the law firm said.
Acting on behalf of several house loan holders who, Metcalfe claims, have been forced to default on home loans owed to commercial banks due to harsh economic circumstances caused by Covid-19 and the financial collapse in Namibia.
The law firm stated that such people are subjected to the humiliation of having their homes taken away without compassion by commercial banks through High Court processes.
It emphasised that as a result of such humiliation, such clients become economic outcasts because they are blacklisted at credit bureaus.
“Our High Court has gone out of its way to ameliorate such humiliation and loss of homes but the vast majority of homeowners who fall into home loan arrears cannot afford the services of legal practitioners to assist them in the High Court,” the law firm pointed out.
The irony, it noted, is that commercial banks pay huge legal fees to their legal counsel in order to take homes away from respectable and hardworking homeowners.
Metcalfe stamped that such legal fees are simply debited from the errant homeowner’s bond account, further burying them in the home loan debt humanitarian disaster and ensuring that they become economic slaves to commercial banks.
“A sense of injustice is evoked when an observer at the High Court witnesses up to six legal practitioners from one firm of lawyers attending to what is a confiscation without hope of homes by commercial banks,” Metcalfe said.
Commercial banks, according to the law firm, have little interest in adopting less harsh actions than the sale in execution of residences where home loan borrowers are in arrears.
It went on to say that this creates a sense of astonished shock because the residences are typically purchased by commercial banks at sales in execution for absurdly low prices.
“Such amount is then credited to the home loan and the home loan debtor must then be subjected to further economic torture by having to repay the remaining home loan amount.”
According to the law firm, the conspiracy of home loan debt default is then tragically compounded by the commercial bank selling the home loan debtor’s home to the commercial bank at a great profit and not crediting the home loan debt with such amount.
“In South Africa, the commercial banks go out of their way to assist homeowners where times are found to be tough. Standard Bank of South Africa Limited has an EasySell programme in place where no lawyers are needed by home loan owners who experience home loan debt problems,” it explained.
In this regard, it was stated that justice and fairness demand that such a scheme be made mandatory in Namibia in order to avoid the current scenario in which commercial banks profit from the economic troubles and unhappiness of house loan borrowers.
In this regard, it demanded that the central bank investigate the “injustice” by commercial banks and compel them to implement the equitable EasySell programme, which is offered to South African house loan debtors.
Both the Bankers Association of Namibia and the Bank of Namibia could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
