“Good faith debtors” and the deservingness of debt relief during the Spanish home repossessions crisis

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In the early years of the recent economic crisis in Spain, as the rate of mortgage default began to raise, hegemonic discourses depicted defaulting debtors as having lived “beyond their means,” and therefore as culprits of their own situation. From 2009 on, given the huge scale of the phenomenon and promoted by anti-repossessions movements, an alternative narrative emerged: the crisis was redefined as a collective scam perpetrated by banking elites, with the complicity of public authorities. The tension between both narratives sets the basis for moral judgements that establish the deservingness of different forms of debt relief and material support. The categorisation of debtors as “deserving” or “undeserving” may either be defined by law, or result from assessments made by welfare institutions, bank employees, members of the anti-repossessions movement, debtors’ social networks, and debtors themselves. However, not all of these judgements have equal chances to turn into actual access to debt relief.