West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

Reply to the comment left by "Richard Adams" at "31/10/2013 - 22:31":

Maybe a reference somewhere to the "Wild West Bromwich", a cowboy society? Ok, perhaps a bit too flippant, so maybe park that one for now.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "31/10/2013 - 22:16":

Mark. I've just realised there is no link on the 118 site to the petition on change.org

I thought this was on here before. I think the more people signing the petition the easier it is to find and therefore get people back to the property118 site.

Mark I think the time has come to expand on the legal reasons this campaign is gathering storm n any press release and it needs to be punchy and not sound to complicated like the contra profitorium argument which until you explained it flew right by me. I think the matrix argument about everything being clear and easy to understand in a legal document is what will make other people without wbbs mortgages sit up and maybe think it could be them next. That, along with the various decisions that have gone against wbbs make for good publicity I think.

I've just noticed that the free buyer's guide to mortgages from Ethical Consumer (see http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/money/mortgages.aspx) lists West Bromwich as joint 7th out of 48 mortgage providers in terms of its ethics rating.

I wonder how easy it might be to influence its standing in terms of customer dissatisfaction in terms what we all consider to be unethical behaviour?

I'll take a look at how the scores are collated and see if I can submit something to Ethical Consumer which may force West Brom to face up to what it is doing and how it can justify what it is doing in terms of fairness and openness, at the expense of its loyal customers.

It may be a long shot but could still be worth a try.

Ethical Consumer does seem to support campaigns, so I decided to register with it and have just submitted the following posting. It is yet to be moderated so may not actually see the light of day. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained. It reads as follows:

"As one of several thousand individuals currently in dispute with one of the top scoring ethical mortgage providers, I am very surprised to see West Bromwich Building Society scoring so highly.

The society has decided to exploit a loophole in its terms and conditions to try to vary its contractually defined rates beyond what is defined in the original agreements. There are currently over 1,000 individuals considering a legal challenge to force the organisation to honour its contractual obligations. Many of us have already made representation to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and a number of constituency MPs are already taking the issue forward with Treasury ministers and the Financial Conduct Authority.

On the basis of the behaviour of the West Bromwich Building Society I am at a loss to see how they can be considered to be an ethical organisation."

If Ii remember correctly, Northern Rock was building an expensive new office block as its head office at the very time it suddenly collapsed as a result of Adam Applegarth's "business" decisions.

@Annette Stone - I think we need to be slightly cautious about what we say to the Press about our legal case until we have Counsels opinion. We need that to be a really big thing and for them all to write about it in some detail. The next big event for them to report will either be the increase day or the commencement of litigation, whichever comes first. We still don't know what shape the legal action will be. For example, will it be a claim or will it be an injunction? That will depend on Counsels advice.

@ Dean Turner - I felt the To-Do list was becoming too long and potentially of-putting to new people joining to I shortened it to what I beleive are the critical points. The petition is a repeat of what's here but in far less detail. If you search West Brom Petition it's easy to find so I've left it at that. There are so many things we could also add to the To-Do list such as writing to West Brom Board Members, asking all professionals you know to distribute a template to other BTL clients, contacting local CAB office, suggesting other places to leave comments etc. The list could be endless. Today I have removed contact Watchdog too as the current series is coming to an end. We need to keep things simple at the beginning, i.e. show people the first step. If they really get the bit between their teeth they will read this entire forum and will pick up on all the other ideas and add a few of their own anyway.

Does anyone know for sure if WB photocopied 'information you need to know about your mortgage' is the same physical size as the original?!

The photocopied version WB sent to me suggests the original was A5 (half A4)...

Reply to the comment left by "Concerned Landlord" at "01/11/2013 - 09:26":

There are two versions dated 2006 and 2009, I have them both and can't spot any obvious differences, certainly not in the conditions they appear to be relying upon anyway.
.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "01/11/2013 - 07:42":

Ok Mark

Change.org

But what about adding a link to the Media section. I just think the more that have signed the petition the more prominent it becomes in there. Everything I have put in there is focused on getting people into 118. Every single person counts at the moment

Watchdog

Although next weeks program is the last in the series they are doing something on banks next week. I know they wont be able to do any sort of investigation now but I intend to have one last try ( never give up until the fat lady sings) . I am going to try and encourage as many as possible to send in a short email simply seeing if they could do a 30 second slot telling viewers if they have been affected by the rate hike at West Brom to contact the 118 website and change.org. This is our last chance so it wont do any harm . A short mention could bring in a few. I think this is even more important after Paul Eastabrook joined last night. It does show that there are people out there who are feeling alone on this. Paul seems to have done a lot a digging and only just found us. There will be many who wont have done any or have given up .

Citizens Advice.

I think Paul as given us another focus here. This should be added to the "to do list".
This is potentially better than the NLA. They seem to have their own agenda. And good luck to them we all want the same result but they want to go their own way. They will feel they have the expertise to go alone. There may well be advisors at the CAB who are speaking to landlords but have absolutely no idea what to do . We only need to make them aware of 118 and its a simple process for them to pass it on. They wont have reasons not to . I think we need to encourage everyone to email as many CAB in their area as they can.

Press

I think we spoke about this before and you rightly said the budget did not stretch to main stream adverts. I do think your idea of the Mirror, Sun etc would be a good one if funds allow.

MPs

I am going to try and email as many MPs today in one email as I can get email addresses. Im going to ask them to try and get Martin Wheatley of the FCA to look into this properly. As you know David Blunkett my MP as said he will contact him. In addition I think there will be MPs out there who are getting letters from landlords who do not know about 118 just like Paul. If they would simply mention 118 in their replies it makes the MPs life a lot easier. In addition Im going to ask the MPs if they would be willing to pass our story and details of 118 onto any journalists or editors they know.

Finally could you email all the 1000+ asking for one last effort on Watchdog, a nice short email to Watchdog requesting a 118 mention after the issue they are bringing on the banks. Also a request to inform local CAB of 118. Direct contact from you will result in more positive action

Thanks

Dean