Directive 2014/17/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 February 2014 on credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property and amending Directives 2008/48/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 (Text with EEA relevance)Text with EEA relevance

• Coming into Force: 30 December 2023
• Date: 30 December 2023
• Celex Number: 02014L0017-20231230
• Published date: 30 December 2023

02014L0017 — EN — 30.12.2023 — 002.001

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►B DIRECTIVE 2014/17/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 4 February 2014 on credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property and amending Directives 2008/48/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 060 28.2.2014, p. 34)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	REGULATION (EU) 2016/1011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 8 June 2016	L 171	1	29.6.2016
►M2	DIRECTIVE (EU) 2021/2167 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 November 2021	L 438	1	8.12.2021

Corrected by:

►C1 Corrigendum, OJ L 246, 23.9.2015, p. 11 (2014/17/EU)

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▼B

DIRECTIVE 2014/17/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 4 February 2014

on credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property and amending Directives 2008/48/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010

(Text with EEA relevance)

CHAPTER 1

SUBJECT MATTER, SCOPE, DEFINITIONS AND COMPETENT AUTHORITIES

Article 1

Subject matter

This Directive lays down a common framework for certain aspects of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning agreements covering credit for consumers secured by a mortgage or otherwise relating to residential immovable property, including an obligation to carry out a creditworthiness assessment before granting a credit, as a basis for the development of effective underwriting standards in relation to residential immovable property in the Member States, and for certain prudential and supervisory requirements, including for the establishment and supervision of credit intermediaries, appointed representatives and non-credit institutions.

Article 2

Level of harmonisation

1.

This Directive shall not preclude Member States from maintaining or introducing more stringent provisions in order to protect consumers, provided that such provisions are consistent with their obligations under Union law.

2.

Notwithstanding paragraph 1, Member States shall not maintain or introduce in their national law provisions diverging from those laid down in Article 14(2) and Annex II Part A with regard to standard pre-contractual information through a European Standardised Information Sheet (ESIS) and Article 17(1) to (5), (7) and (8) and Annex I with regard to a common, consistent Union standard for the calculation of the annual percentage rate of charge (APRC).

Article 3

Scope

1.

This Directive shall apply to:

(a)

credit agreements which are secured either by a mortgage or by another comparable security commonly used in a Member State on residential immovable property or secured by a right related to residential immovable property; and

(b)

credit agreements the purpose of which is to acquire or retain property rights in land or in an existing or projected building.

2.

This Directive shall not apply to:

(a)

Equity release credit agreements where the creditor:

(i)

contributes a lump sum, periodic payments or other forms of credit disbursement in return for a sum deriving from the future sale of a residential immovable property or a right relating to residential immovable property; and

(ii)

will not seek repayment of the credit until the occurrence of one or more specified life events of the consumer, as defined by Member States, unless the consumer breaches his contractual obligations which allows the creditor to terminate the credit agreement;

(b)

credit agreements where the credit is granted by an employer to his employees as a secondary activity where such a credit agreement is offered free of interest or at an APRC lower than those prevailing on the market and not offered to the public generally;

(c)

credit agreements where the credit is granted free of interest and without any other charges except those that recover costs directly related to the securing of the credit;

(d)

credit agreements in the form of an overdraft facility and where the credit has to be repaid within one month;

(e)

credit agreements which are the outcome of a settlement reached in court or before another statutory authority;

(f)

credit agreements which relate to the deferred payment, free of charge, of an existing debt and which do not fall within the scope of point (a) of paragraph 1.

3.

Member States may decide not to apply:

(a)

Articles 11 and 14 and Annex II to credit agreements for consumers, secured by a mortgage or by another comparable security commonly used in a Member State on residential immovable property or secured by a right related to residential immovable property, the purpose of which is not to acquire or retain the right to residential immovable property, provided that the Member States apply to such credit agreements Articles 4 and 5 of and Annexes II and III to Directive 2008/48/EC;

(b)

this Directive to credit agreements which relate to an immovable property where the credit agreement provides that the immovable property cannot at any time be occupied as a house, apartment or another place of residence by the consumer or a family member of the consumer and is to be occupied as a house, apartment or another place of residence on the basis of a rental agreement;

(c)

this Directive to credit agreements which relate to credits granted to a restricted public under a statutory provision with a general interest purpose, free of interest or at lower borrowing rates than those prevailing on the market or on other terms which are more favourable to the consumer than those prevailing on the market and at borrowing rates not higher than those prevailing on the market;

(d)

this Directive to bridging loans;

(e)

this Directive to credit agreements where the creditor is an organisation within the scope of Article 2(5) of Directive 2008/48/EC.

4.

Member States which use the option referred to in point (b) of paragraph 3 shall ensure the application of an appropriate framework at a national level for this type of credit.

5.

Member States which use the option referred to in point (c) or (e) of paragraph 3 shall ensure the application of adequate alternative arrangements to ensure consumers receive timely information on the main features, risks and costs of such credit agreements at the pre-contractual stage and that advertising of such credit agreements is fair, clear and not misleading.

Article 4

Definitions

For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:

(1)

‘Consumer’ means a consumer as defined in point (a) of Article 3 of Directive 2008/48/EC.

(2)

‘Creditor’ means a natural or legal person who grants or promises to grant credit falling within the scope of Article 3 in the course of his trade, business or profession.

(3)

‘Credit agreement’ means an agreement whereby a creditor grants or promises to grant, to a consumer, a credit falling within the scope of Article 3 in the form of a deferred payment, loan or other similar financial accommodation.

(4)

‘Ancillary service’ means a service offered to the consumer in conjunction with the credit agreement.

(5)

‘Credit intermediary’ means a natural or legal person who is not acting as a creditor or notary and not merely introducing, either directly or indirectly, a consumer to a creditor or credit intermediary, and who, in the course of his trade, business or profession, for remuneration, which may take a pecuniary form or any other agreed form of financial consideration:

(a)

presents or offers credit agreements to consumers;

(b)

assists consumers by undertaking preparatory work or other pre-contractual administration in respect of credit agreements other than as referred to in point (a); or

(c)

concludes credit agreements with consumers on behalf of the creditor.

(6)

‘Group’ means a group of creditors which are to be consolidated for the purposes of drawing up consolidated accounts, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings ( 1 ).

(7)

‘Tied credit intermediary’ means any credit intermediary who acts on behalf of and under the full and unconditional responsibility of:

(a)

only one creditor;

(b)

only one group; or

(c)

a number of creditors or groups which does not represent the majority of the market.

(8)

‘Appointed representative’ means a natural or legal person who performs activities referred to in point 5 that is acting on behalf of and under the full and unconditional responsibility of only one credit intermediary.

(9)

‘Credit institution’ means credit institution as defined in point 1 of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.

(10)

‘Non-credit institution’ means any creditor that is not a credit institution.

(11)

‘Staff’ means:

(a)

any natural person working for the creditor, or credit intermediary who is directly...