Bank of Ireland increase differential on tracker rates

Justin selig- I,am unable to meet your criterer As i dont have a current valid passport & all my corresspondence goe,s to parrent address because i live in a flat & post has gone missing in the past as its a communial letter box so i have no utility bills to prove address, i emailed you asking if it would be possible to for you to forward me a letter to send myself .
Many Regards Ian

ps sorry to use this forum for contact.

Justin a slight anomaly. I would like to join and contribute towards any proposed court action , however the £100 contribution is being initially used to fund written letters direct to the BOI in an attempt to get them to reconsider. Any court action will necessitate further funds for sure. I have written a detailed leter to the BOI myself and feel all the necessary points of concern have been raised by myself. Further letters by the law department solicitors , in this respect only , would be a duplication.

Surely it makes sense to pass on councils advice so that anyone interested in solely court action and not duplicated letter writing , can be part of the concern.

@Anthony Walker

I'm in a similar situation. I've a Residential Product and will happily contribute to a class action if deemed necessary. I've not had a reply to my letter yet, and had already explained that based on the 2004 marketing I'd expected the Term rate to actually be for the Term.

What was proposed was seeking clarification of this

On 06/04/13 at 00:37Justin wrote "it is our opinion that we should now write to the Bank of Ireland on behalf of all the borrowers to obtain an initial response to their comment that “if any borrower believed that the differential was for the life or lifetime of the product then they would be excluded from the increase”.

Has this letter been written yet? Or is this letter only being sent for the £120 per person??

Thanks

In response to both Gary and Anthony's earlier comments, firstly we are not looking to duplicate anything anyone has previously done and secondly the £120 will not be solely to write to the bank - it is also to fund the Counsel's opinion.

The letter we write will to the bank will be based on the opinion we receive from Counsel. We would not look to duplicate our charges so if we write a standard letter on behalf of everyone who instructs us the cost will be split between everyone rather than charging people individually for the same letter. The more people that sign up the cheaper everything will be.

Thank you Justin for your latest. So is it possible to participate in any proposed court action at a later stage , having not been part of the initial £ 120 contributors?

I suspect there will be many people like me that would like to contribute financially towards a court case , but only if a court case is proceeding to full court decision.

While I can see your point about not making counsels advice freely available , any subsequent decision at a court would be binding on the BOI as a whole and not just the people who were listed in any court action.

I will be supportive of a class action but only if there is one.

@Anthony Walker - I understand where you are coming from and I suspected that we might have this situation. That's why I agreed to underwrite the entire cost of the barristers opinion to get things started and I'm not even an affected borrower!

For matters to progress it is incredibly important that as many affected borrowers as possible chip into the pot and instruct Justin. If they don't, everybody is on their own and I can kiss goodbye to the money I've given to Justin which he is holding on his clients account to underwrite the cost of the barristers opinion. I was really hoping to recoup that!

A Class action isn't just about building a fund for a Court Case. There is a lot of work to be done before that stage and it is quite possible that Justin might be able to negotiate a settlement for his clients without going to Court. BoI might well insist upon a gagging clause if that's the case and where will that leave you if you are not one of the clients Justin has been instructed to act for?

I have been watching the debate with interest. The way I see it is Mark was good enough to fund the counsels opinion so we could get the ball rolling. My own experience of counsels opinions is that it is not cheap. Without sounding unsympathetic if we are all being financially affected by this, and I am to the tune of about £1900 a year, then, ladies and gents, it's time to put our money where our mouths are, and bite the bullet. £120 is not an absolute fortune when you look at how much extra is being charged by BOI. Work out the scenarios. Scenario 1 is that the counsels opinion is we have no chance. So no further funding. £120. That's it. Scenario 2 is that the FOS look at all the complaints and decide we have no case. That may well influence any legal action so it's unlikely that there will be a request for funds as there will probably be no litigation. Scenario 3 is that counsel says we have a case, FOS upholds some are all of the complaints, and then we have a runner. Then we will have to look at what the maximum cost will be if we go for injunctions etc. Individuals will then make a decision as to what financial level they're willing to support the legal action. But we have to start somewhere. And if BOI get 200 letters from Justin asking them to reconsider then this is not legal action pre se. It's just letting BOI know that there's a lot of people willing to take them on as a collective.

@Anthony Walker – how would you feel if Justin were to post a comment along the lines of …. I have settled with BoI on behalf of all clients which instructed me, however, this is on the basis I will not accept further instructions on this matter and that neither I nor the people I have been acting for will disclose any information or correspondence with the BoI in respect of this matter?

Thank you Mark , your explanation does help and you deserve credit for underwriting the barristers fees.

I would like to know from Justin or yourself the answer to the following question.

Can I join the fund at a later stage once I have personally exhausted all areas of question and issue directly with the BOI and FOS ?

The reason for this is I and others may have success independently. While I am not holding my breath , it is possible that this may be the case and any fees to the law department would have been unnecessary.

I do not wish to undermine any attempt to gather support , but this is the reality of the situation.

Surely business at a later stage is better than no business at all?

@Neil Patterson - I have read your response to Anthony and also Gary's response. Given the nature of the beast we are dealing with I suspect that the outcome you have suggested is a realistic one as BoI will be keen to brush this one under the carpet at the earliest possible opportunity.