Al Ain court orders customer to pay Dh329,426 after defaulting on Dh582,000 bank loan

Abu Dhabi: The Al Ain Court for Civil, Commercial and Administrative Cases ruled that a defaulting customer must pay Dh329,426 dirhams to a bank, after he failed to pay the remaining instalments due on a loan he obtained worth Dh582,000, despite providing guarantees that included salary transfer, a guarantee cheque and a life insurance policy. In detail, a bank filed a lawsuit against a defaulting client, demanding that he pay it Dh329,426, the value of the outstanding amounts owed, and any subsequent amounts or fees, plus 9% annual interest for the delay in payment, from the date of the claim until full payment, and obligating him to pay the fees, expenses, and attorney's fees. The bank indicated that he had obtained a loan of Dh582,000, with the understanding that the payment would be made according to the agreed terms and instalments, and provided guarantees in the form of a salary transfer, a guarantee cheque, and a life insurance policy. After the bank fulfilled its full obligation, the defendant did not make regular payments and failed to pay the instalments due on time, which led to the claim amount being outstanding, according to the bank statement attached to the lawsuit documents. The court-appointed technical expert concluded that, in settling the account between the two parties to the lawsuit, the defendant owes the plaintiff bank a total of Dh331,282 for the personal loan granted to him up to the date of filing the lawsuit. He pointed out that the approved guarantees obtained by the bank from the defendant, which consisted of a guarantee cheque for the amount of the loan and a salary certificate stating that his total monthly salary was Dh29,600, also confirmed that the value of the loan granted falls within the permissible banking limits, as it does not exceed 20 times the salary, and that the value of the monthly instalment of Dh13,851 is equivalent to 46.80% of the salary, which is a percentage that falls within the permissible monthly deduction limits. For its part, the court explained in the reasoning of its ruling that it is established from the account statements and the expert’s report that the bank had fulfilled its contractual obligation by granting the client the agreed loan amount, while the defendant client did not fulfil his corresponding obligation and failed to pay the instalments due on the specified dates, after he had paid total payments amounting to Dh355,617 and then stopped paying, which proves his breach of his contractual obligations and establishes his responsibility for paying the amounts due as a result of that breach. The court ruled that the defendant must pay the plaintiff bank the sum of Dh329,426, and obligate him to pay late payment interest of 5% annually, calculated on the principal of the debt until full payment, with the defendant being obligated to pay the expenses and fees of the lawsuit, the secretariat of the appointed expert, and the sum of Dh300 for attorney fees.