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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22:42 PM, 23rd September 2013, About 11 years ago

If all 12300 of BoI joined forces with the 6700 WBBS it would cost £5.27 each to raise £100k, Is it worth being a freeloader ? How stupid to miss an opportunity like that.

Dave Riches

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8:39 AM, 24th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "ian " at "23/09/2013 - 22:42":

.....or put it another way. Not sure if this has been posted already but.....

if all 12300 BoI did put in £150 plus VAT then the fighting fund would be a staggering £1.845 million - plenty for Justin to get his teeth into. Personally I have also contributed £150.00 plus VAT. Luckily I only have one of my BTLs affected but the interest in one month alone is more than the £180 gross I have paid. The way I see it is that if we win then I will get all "additional" interest paid back plus compensation of some sort so its well worth a punt on Justin and his team.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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8:48 AM, 24th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Hello all

The amounts paid so far are indeed £150 plus VAT. I had forgotten the second stage payment of £50 plus VAT.

I am working on a campaign which, with your help, could go viral and raise the required funding. Justin was on the phone to me a 1am this morning his time, as he's overseas at the moment.

The important thing is that we will need everybody to recruit more landlords, whether they are affected by the BoI or west Brom tracker increase or not. The point we must all get across to other landlords is that if they have a tracker mortgage, they could be next to be hit unless we stop this now.

So start thinking about everybody you know with a tracker mortgage. When the new campaign launches please be ready to call them, email them, share the campaign via your social network and do whatever it takes to get other landlords to sign up and contribute. This time around it will be much slick as we will automate the process so that people can sign up, contribute, get a receipt and download all the paperwork they may require to make formal complaints instantly.

Vanessa Warwick

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9:12 AM, 24th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Post removed as posted on wrong thread! Sorry.

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9:13 AM, 24th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "24/09/2013 - 08:48":

Brilliant Mark! Looking forward to seeing it

David Lawrenson

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9:28 AM, 24th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Keen to support.

At LettingFocus we have sent emails to our press contacts yesterday and have already been part- quoted along with Mark Alexander in "Mortgage Solutions" yesterday.
I am hoping the mainstream press will pick up on this too at the weekend.

We will also be adding a blog post at our site later today which will highlight the many dangers to the lenders in trying to copy BOI and West Brom - and hence, by reverse - the other ways in which borrowers should be able to argue successfully against these moves.

One thing I am a little curious about is this - and perhaps Justin could comment (he may have done so before, so apologies if this is already somewhere among the 87 pages here)........

Justin, what I am struggling with is that many people are saying they did not even see any small print saying that the lender could up the rate.
Presumably the lenders say that they did receive it and possibly lenders argument is that it is in the part of the mortgage document the customer did sign and where it says, "the borrower would agree to all that was in the separate document X") in which this was all supposedly flagged up.

But is it not up to the lender to prove that the separate document was
a) in existence
b) clearly, and at the time the main document was signed, somewhere clearly referring to the lender being able to er, "flex" the tracker margin.

Would appreciate a comment on this please.

LettingFocus.com
PRS Advice for organisations in the PRS and landlords.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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10:08 AM, 24th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "David Lawrenson" at "24/09/2013 - 09:28":

Thank you David. I am pleased to report that Centaur communications have also added their support, they are the publishers of Mortgage Strategy, Money Marketing, the Lawyer and many other well known publications. We are also in talks with The Times, FT Adviser, Mortgage solutions, Which? and many more.

We are hoping to commence a viral fund raising campaign over the next week or so to raise the money required to fund a test case. I will report back in due course.

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14:03 PM, 24th September 2013, About 11 years ago

I think you should await the advice of the barrister to see what percentage chance there may be of of winning the test case first?
I am not effected at the moment by this but as I mentioned earlier in this thread but fully support actions against this type of non transparent lending, being an ex IFA.
I would also make a donation as a landlord to help fund the action..
I also think that all landlords along with property 118 and the press etc should put pressure on the FCA to regulate BTL mortgages.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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14:09 PM, 24th September 2013, About 11 years ago

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15:13 PM, 24th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Hello Mark, I am one of the tracker rate borrowers with the BoI. I have been following this tread for sometime now and yes I have signed up and paid £150 + to the action group!
I have two questions for you.
1) The £100,000 that needs to be raised to launch the test case against the BoI. Will this money cover all costs and any charges made against us if the case is lost?
2) If we bring this test case to court and win, what's to stop the BoI from just informing it's tracker mortgage customers that they no longer want our business and just foreclose the account and ask for the loan back ?
Although I have some reservations I think we should keep going before this thing spreads even further. Regards Mo

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