Mortgage Lenders Getting Defensive

The Skipton and the Manchester Building societies have been very quick to comment on the Property118 Action Group win at the Court of Appeal against West Bromwich Mortgage Company.

Both societies seem very keen to justify over-charging their customers by acting in breach of contract. Needless to say, they don’t see it that way!

Skipton issued the following statement, published in Mortgage Strategy on Friday 10th June 2016 …

“We note that the recent decision of the Court of Appeal in the Alexander v West Bromwich Mortgage Company Ltd case was very fact specific to the offer letter and terms and conditions of business used by that society at the relevant time and is not of any wider application.

“Skipton remains firmly of the opinion that under the terms and conditions of its mortgage offer it lawfully had the right to remove the standard variable rate (SVR) ceiling that applied until 1 March 2010 to the majority of its borrowers with SVR-linked accounts.

“The decision, taken over six years ago, to exercise the society’s right to remove the SVR ceiling was permissible because of the exceptional circumstances provision in its mortgage offer.”

Bank of Ireland have yet to comment.

Opinions of Barristers

Property118 Action group has sought numerous written opinions from Counsel. They have been strongly of the opinion that each of the mortgage lenders named above have been operating mortgage accounts in breach of contract, albeit for different reasons in each case.

In 2010 the Skipton Building Society unilaterally decided to disregard contractual commitments to their borrowers with Standard Variable Mortgages never to charge more than 3% over the Bank of England base rate. Over 100,000 borrowers have been affected and Skipton have been ripping them off ever since.

In our opinion mortgage lenders including the Skipton, Manchester Building society and Bank of Ireland have been hiding behind the long, drawn out and expensive processes associated with the UK legal system to put borrowers off fighting back.

Should they be allowed to get away with this?

If you were in breach of contract You can be quite certain that your lender would commence legal action to call in your loan and repossess your property very quickly. We need to be equally tough on them!

If you are affected by any of these lenders it must have stung to learn that customers of West Bromwich Mortgage Company will be getting a full refund of all the money they’ve been over charged as a result of the intervention by Property118 Action Group.  Have you calculated how much you’ve been over-charged and would get back if you were party to a similar successful legal action?

How much of your money will your mortgage lender swindle you out of by the time you repay your mortgage if you allow them to get away with this sharp practice?

Perhaps the most important question is what can you do about it?

Property118 Action group proved the West Brom were in the wrong and those affected will soon be refunded all over payment plus compensation. Their mortgage terms will revert to what the contract said they should be paying.

That is what you deserve isn’t it?

It only took 300 of us to defeat the West Brom.

Just think what thousands of us could achieve!

The plan of attack

The media were not particularly interested in Property118 Action group until we actually took the West Brom to Court. When we eventually defeated their ludicrous justification for overcharging us at the Court of Appeal there was a media frenzy. Hundreds of articles were publish in both National and regional newspapers.

If you want your overpayments back you MUST capitalise on this media frenzy now. Don’t leave it to somebody else, together we achieve more. West Brom were relying on not enough people banding together to fight them. They were wrong!

The media are desperate, RIGHT NOW, for stories about real people and the thousands of pounds of overcharges they’ve suffered at the hands of rogue mortgage lenders. If you contact your local radio station and newspapers and they WILL be very interested in your story. When you mention the Property118 Action Group win against West Brom they will immediately see the angle for their headlines.

The most important thing right now is for all affected borrowers to know about Property118 Action Group and that we intend to take action against other mortgage lenders. That’s why media attention is so important. It is incredibly important for you to play your part if you want your mortgage lender to pay you back all the money they’ve swindled you out of.

The West Brom campaign was successful because everybody did their bit, it really is that simple.

Don’t you find it hard to believe that some people are stupid enough just to roll over and allow mortgage lenders to continue to rip them off?

Together we need to persuade these people that it is in their interests to join Property118 Action Group and fight back.

If you use Social Media please visit our campaign page and use the sharing functionality. Add your own personal story to your Facebook post and explain how your mortgage lender has swindled you out of thousands of pounds every year for several years now.  Don’t be afraid to name and shame either. Ask your friends, family and colleagues to share your message too. Remind them it could be their mortgage lender who does this next and encourage them to contribute to the Property118 Action Group fighting fund. They don’t have to become a member, they can make a donation just because they care and because they want to see justice done. It is important that we all send a clear message to all mortgage lenders that if they don’t honour their contracts they will not get away with it.

Rest assured, as soon as there is enough money in the campaign fund Property118 Action Group will go after these rogue lenders.

The link to our campaign website page is below, we look forward to welcoming you on board.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/property118-action-group

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