Iskan warns borrowers
who have defaulted

Houses under mortgage to be sold in a public auction, if borrowers don’t pay their duties

The Public Corporation for Housing (Iskan) issued a notification, yesterday, calling on borrowers in default to pay their housing loan duties to the Independent Iskan Fund, in order to close overdue property mortgages.

Out of 13,000 borrowers from that Fund, around 500 borrowers have not yet payed their loan duties and related aggregated interest rates, according to Rony Lahoud, Iskan’s Chairman. He said that the loans provided by the Fund ranged in the nineties between LL90,000 and LL100,000, which makes the due amounts with the aggregated interest rates relatively small, ranging between LL1,000,000 and LL2,000,000. The total due amount would then approximately reach LL1 billion ($660,000).

The Independent Iskan Fund was a tool established by the State to provide housing loans directly to clients. It ceased operations in 1996 and was replaced by Iskan, in 1999.

“Some of the borrowers have begun paying their dues, but Iskan has to issue this notification regularly as they may use their right of prescription, and stop paying their duties,” said Lahoud.

Iskan considers the current notification as final. “No solutions or exemptions will be advanced to the concerned borrowers anymore,” said Lahoud. “We will be forced to sell the houses under mortgage in a public auction,” he said.

Iskan previously resolved such delays by issuing decree No. 1969 in 2000, which consisted of rescheduling the due funds in installments.