Bank of Ireland increase differential on tracker rates

Bank of Ireland increase differential on tracker rates

10:32 AM, 28th February 2013, About 12 years ago 1862

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The story of the Bank of Ireland decision to increase to the differential (interest rate margin) on  tracker mortgages started on this forum when a professional landlord contacted Property118 within minutes of a letter from Bank of Ireland landing on his door mat. What ensued was outrage from landlords and affected residential mortgage borrowers. The story was quickly picked up by the National Media as it wasn’t just the 13,500 affected borrowers who were worried.

Will this set a precedent for other mortgage lenders to follow?

Property118 reacted by using funds donated to The GOOD Landlords Campaign to underwrite the cost of a barristers opinion on the legality of the Bank of Ireland’s actions. The remainder of this thread,one of the most read and most commented threads of all time on Property118, continues to tell the story as it unfolds.

If you want to skip the story and cut to the chase simply CLICK HERE

Of the 13,500 affected borrowers, 1,200 have had the decision reversed by Bank of Ireland. With additional support and pressure we believe all affected borrowers can and will see justice done.

___________________________________________

Lee, a professional Landlord asks, “help! I have just received a letter from the Bank of Ireland stating they want to increase the differential on my tracker rates.

I have 12 mortgages with the Bank of Ireland previously Bristol and West. I have been on a base rate tracker of 1.75% above base, but now Bank of Ireland are using some fine print claiming they have to recapitalise and saying the ‘new differential will be 4.49%.

How can I fight back?”

The original policy wording seems to be:

6 INTEREST

Charging interest at a tracker rate

(j) Unless we change the differential (if any) under condition 6 (n), we will not change the tracker rate unless the base rate changes.

(m) in condition 6 (n):
– a “positive differential” means a percentage which we add to the base rate to arrive at the tracker rate; and a “negative differential” means a percentage which we subtract from the base rate to arrive at the tracker rate.

(n) We may reduce a positive differential or increase a negative differential at our discretion by giving you not less than seven days written notice. This means that we can change the differential in a way that is favourable to you.

The above seems to indicate that they can reduce the rate in my favour, but not give them the right to increase it. Am I correct?


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Ever Hopeful Landlord

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19:10 PM, 2nd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Nock" at "02/03/2014 - 17:15":

yea that's right except it wont even cost you £500 because you get it back no risk, no brainer.

Fed Up Landlord

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19:20 PM, 2nd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Perhaps that needs to be the crux of the next marketing campaign. Or will be. Whose to know until we get the full resume from Justin. But you offer what is essentially no win no fee some will still be cynical. We have to get past that somehow.

ian

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20:06 PM, 2nd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Nock" at "02/03/2014 - 19:20":

Cannot seeing it being a cynical problem personally, because where the win fee will be paid from.

Mark Vicary

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20:16 PM, 2nd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Hello to all members of this forum, I am one of the original 100 who signed up last year, whilst I have remained silent on this forum over that time, I have closely monitored its progress.

Like many, the rate rise imposed by the bank of Ireland has caused my family a great deal of stress. The help and support offered within this forum has provided hope at a difficult time. I was unable to attend the recent meeting, and was amazed at the positive news reported within the secure forum.

Massive thank you to all that have worked so hard to get this far

Heads we win tails we don't lose, count me in.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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21:05 PM, 2nd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "ian " at "02/03/2014 - 20:06":

The win fee for the litigation funder will be the refund of over-payments which will be assigned to them. In other words, the borrower will only get a reduced rate going forwards, even though the Court would award a refund of over-payments from the date they started being paid.
.

Alistair Nicholls

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1:38 AM, 3rd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "02/03/2014 - 21:05":

Mark, do you mean ALL the over-payments? I will have over-paid £3,600 in the last year. If that is the average of the 300 mortgages, the litigation funder would receive £1.08 million! Doesn't sound quite right to me.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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8:00 AM, 3rd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Alistair Nicholls" at "03/03/2014 - 01:38":

Hi Alistair

Possibly YES, and it may be another year or more before you get to that stage.

That's why litigation funders take the risk, the returns are incredibly lucrative when they win and the odds are stacked very much in their favour. Yes they will lose some cases and that will cost them money but they will makes several times that level of return on cases they win. Clearly they only back the cases which look like having a very good chance on winning too.

The human mind is a strange thing.

Most people will not risk a few thousand pounds up front to fight for their rights but after they have been screwed over for a few years they are prepared to sacrifice the refund associated with putting right the wrong doing going forwards so long as it's on a no-win-no-fee basis, even though that ends up costing them many times over what litigation would have cost up front.

It clearly has something to do with risk and fear of loss vs opportunity of gain.

Just wait and see how many people sign up to this deal vs how many paid £150 plus VAT up front.

Some people with multiple mortgages will have paid over six figures more than they should have done by the time this case goes to Court. They will happily sacrifice those refund payments in order to pay what they should have been paying all along but only in return for the benefit from the point of the win at Court onwards.

Mind boggling hey?

At least it means they don't risk any more of their own money and for some reason that's OK, "not fair" they might think but they are still far more inclined to sign up for that deal as opposed to continuing to do nothing at all.
.

Fed Up Landlord

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8:23 AM, 3rd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi Mark. Am I right in saying that in exchange for this we get our original Law Society monies back, our liability for costs is limited to what we have paid (in the unlikely event we lose and have to pay BOI costs) and there could be additional compensation for being messed about by them?

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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8:30 AM, 3rd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Nock" at "03/03/2014 - 08:23":

Hi Gary

All good questions but I don't know the answers.

I assume when you refer to Law Society you actually mean The Law Department?

Justin is a very fair man and I would have thought that he would do all he could to ensure those payments were refunded.

As for compensation for being "messed about" I very much doubt that the initial legal action would deal with that because everybody's circumstances will be different. You could probably make a further claim against the bank via the Small Claims Court for consequential losses though. If the claim amount was for over £10,000 then you would obviously need to go to the High Court but that would put you back to where you started, i.e. the risk of an adverse costs order if you were to lose.
.

ian

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8:52 AM, 3rd March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Alistair Nicholls" at "03/03/2014 - 01:38":

Just imaging if they got all 12200 over-payments. !!! At the end of the day I see it as Pay as You Go rather than no win no fee, its money that's already gone.
If the BoI use the over-payments to fund there side of the case then we are paying to fight against ourselves? I no who I'd rather pay if they make millions so be it that's life, individually its a small price to pay. I look at this as what I get out of this & I don't care a hoot what someone else gets from it, look after number 1.

Please don't look at Lawyers as anti Landlords look at us its not the way forward ?
Not sure but can we claim costs back through small claims court as BoI have caused us these costs ??

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