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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ian

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16:54 PM, 18th September 2013, About 11 years ago

It was hard enough to get 300 or so to sign up to class action, so I very much doubt if many will go for private funding.

Lucy McKenna

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17:27 PM, 18th September 2013, About 11 years ago

I think it would be easier if one could commit to an upper limit and then see how many people would join, signing up to an open ended commitment would be tricky. How would it work does anyone know?

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20:30 PM, 18th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Why do the FCA insist on BOI counsel's opinion remaining secret ? Surely as a government body they are obliged to divulge the information on which they based their decision .
Did they explain their decision and will everyone who complained to the FCA get a written response ?

MG1

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19:35 PM, 19th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "David Lawrenson" at "18/09/2013 - 12:00":

David you do speak a lot of common sense and it will be great to bring on board some other like minded interested bodies who are there to help landlords like us. However I as a previous director of the NLA asked if they were interested in helping landlords like me ( affected by 2 bristol and west mortgages) and they said NO they were not interested. This is why I sent all my paperwork to Property 118 and joined their case. However with the NLA I think they earn so much money from Mydeposits that they are only really interested in that rather than helping landlords like us. Possibly as some other landlords have mentioned some of their directors have a conflict of interest as some of their directors are also directors of Mydeposits. I suggest if anyone is interested they look at the annual accounts of the NLA and Mydeposits and look at their director listing and draw their own conclusions.
This is a brilliant opportunity for Property 118 to step up and be the 'leading voice of UK landlords' ''protecting and promoting the interests of UK landlords'.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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21:01 PM, 19th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Garner" at "19/09/2013 - 19:35":

Hi Mark

The reality is that we simply don't have the funding or the resources. Please bear in mind that there are only two of us working full time on Property118. We are looking to put together a volunteer board of directors to assist with recruiting sponsors and gaining PR but it's very early days. We have 200,000 people subscribed to our news feeds but they don't pay as we didn't want Property118 to be a subscription service and we refuse for it to be covered in advertising. We manage to keep the website going on donations and sponsorships and even if I say so myself we do a pretty good job of it with the resources we have. However, without a lot more income from sponsorships and donations this fight is far too big for us to take on alone. Please see >>> http://www.property118.com/donations/ and http://www.property118.com/good-landlords-campaign-board-of-directors/43076/ and http://www.property118.com/business-sponsorship/

Alistair Nicholls

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21:13 PM, 19th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Given where we now are, I would return to potential issue of the mis-selling of the BoI mortgages by intermediaries. Those people sold us fixed rate products that reverted to tracker mortgages! Were the imtermediaries themselves mislead by BoI?

If we act against the intermediaries, will their PI insurers act against BoI?

Just asking!

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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21:32 PM, 19th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Alistair Nicholls" at "19/09/2013 - 21:13":

I don't see how that would achieve anything. It would cost as much to win a case against a brokers PI insurers as it would to win a case against the BoI. If such a case was won against a broker there is a good chance that only clients of that broker could use the test case for their own benefit. In any event, the initial barristers opinion was that it would be pointless to try to pin this on brokers. Also, many of the broker sales were not advised and BTL sales in particular were unregulated. For example, the firm I worked for (The Money Centre) were packagers, they did not provide advice on whether it was appropriate for BTL borrowers to proceed with any mortgage offer they arranged and this was very prominent in their Terms of Business which were in large print in the centre of their mortgage application forms. Other major brokers such as Pink, TBMC, Mortgages for Business, Professional and Commercial etc. followed the same model.

Joe Pearce

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13:07 PM, 20th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "ian " at "18/09/2013 - 16:54":

It is crazy to think that people would hesitate in joining in the test case action.
What's it going to cost? £100,000? My increase was in the region of £300 per month which equates to £54,000 over the remainder of my mortgage.
If only half of the 300 paid to date subscribed, the cost per individual would be £666 which equates in my case to 2 months increase.

It's a business decision and is a no brainer just as would paying a bill of £600 to repair or maintain your rented property.

Don't forget. it almost certain that our friends in BOI are monitoring this forum and they need to be shown that we are strong, together and determined, not weak and too busy counting the pennies to see the big picture.

ian

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17:30 PM, 20th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Joe Pearce" at "20/09/2013 - 13:07":

How is £666 x 150 add up to £100.000 ?

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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17:33 PM, 20th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "ian " at "20/09/2013 - 17:30":

666 X 150 = 99,900 according to my calculator. If we get that far I will happily put the extra £100 in, even though I'm not an affected borrower.

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