Mortgage Lending in Europe and North America

This is a book focusing on international and cross border property finance. International Mortgage lending is a particularly complicated procedure because two basic fields of law are involved: the law of loans and local mortgage law. Each depends on the other but they can have different sources of law. Mortgage law contains the basic rules in order to ensure the repayment of the loan. Banks have to be sure that their mortgages are safe, which means that there is a system of land and mortgage registration which ensures that the mortgage security can be realized in case of non-repayment of the loan, irrespective of the rights of third persons and the insolvency of the debtor. The whole sector has not yet been harmonized. In particular, mortgage law is still local law influenced by land registration law, land law, execution law, procedural law and insolvency law. A good knowledge of the local laws is therefore essential. The book will give banks, lawyers, judges, registration officers, notaries public, investors and construction company directors a complete introduction to the law of more than twenty countries in Europe and North America with an example of a mortgage deed for each country as well. The reader will be informed about how to obtain a charge, how safe it is, for what period of time it provides security, how to realize the mortgage and how to handle the insolvency of the debtor. Aspects of national and private international law will be discussed as well as all necessary procedural rules. The authors can draw on many years experience as practising lawyers in Europe and North America. They are mostly members of the working group International claims enforcement in Eurojuris EWIV, working for banks, as insolvency administrators and for clients who lend money. They are aware of foreign law systems and the differences between these and their national legal systems.