Opinion – Maria Inês Dolci: Let’s hope that the attachment of the family property does not become law

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We generally criticize the slowness of legislative processes, because important laws fail to pass. In the case of Bill 4188/21, of the Executive Branch, which establishes the legal framework for the use of guarantees intended to obtain credit, blessed slowness. If the PL is fully approved, the same property can guarantee different financing. And the family property can be pledged if it guarantees the mortgage.

The ‘goodness’ embedded in the Executive’s project would be to facilitate credit and reduce financing interest. Usually, it is claimed that projects like this are fundamental to improve the life of the consumer. But they don’t necessarily improve.

The mortgage crisis in the United States in 2008 resulted from the fact that citizens borrowed money to buy real estate. And to judge that several debts, from various financing, would be covered by the value of the properties. This generated a crisis that, starting in the US, affected the entire world.

Credit, therefore, is a very serious issue. Allowing a property to be a guarantee for more than one financial operation is to make room for over-indebtedness. After all, a loan is not income, but an assumed commitment that must be respected.

In a country that alternates between serious economic crises, with still high unemployment and a reduction in the average salary, this risk is always very great. Even more so since most of the job openings in recent years are informal. In other words, no labor rights.

As for the unseizability of the family property, it is a matter of survival. Many people do not assess the risks of indebtedness. They are prodigal, and could lose the only asset of the family nucleus. This loss would not only be incurred by the adult responsible for the business, but by all family members, including children, who would be homeless.

It is obvious that we have to improve the credit market. Lowering the interest, then, is very urgent. But it is difficult to see lower interest rates on the horizon, while pre-election packages (electoral) increase spending and impact inflation, which remains in the double digits annually.

The most recurrent instrument to combat inflation is the increase in the Selic rate (basic interest rate in the economy), which increases the cost of credit. And that won’t be solved by pawning a family’s only asset. This measure is similar to the extension of the payroll loan to Auxílio Brasil beneficiaries, who may commit up to 40% of their income to this credit.

The PL of the President of the Republic was recently approved in the Chamber of Deputies, but is not yet being processed in the Senate. It’s better if it doesn’t even get voted on.

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