West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

I have been having further thoughts about the inappropriate targeting of “multiple property owners” for the 2% rate hike and have been looking at the Information Commissioner’s Office website. The section on Credit states:

“Nobody has the right to credit. Before giving you credit, lenders such as banks, loan companies and shops want to be confident that you can repay the money they lend. To help them do this, they may look at the information held by companies called credit reference agencies. If personal information held about you is incorrect or out of date, it could lead to you being unfairly refused credit.”

It then goes on to explain the purpose of credit reference agencies, as follows:
“Credit reference agencies give lenders a range of information about potential borrowers, which lenders use to make their decisions. The information shared may include information about your previous credit history. They hold certain information about most adults in the UK. This information is called your credit reference file or credit report. The three main consumer credit reference agencies in the UK are Callcredit, Equifax and Experian.”

What seems to have happened in this instance is that the credit reference agency has supplied WBMC with information for a commercial purpose other than for providing credit to lenders. WBMC has in turn used this data to target a specific group of existing lenders for the sole purpose of imposing a rate increase which will not be applied to any other group of lender.

I am unaware of which credit reference agency has been used, so if any of you knows the answer, please let me know and I will draft my letter of complaint to the ICO accordingly. I am not, as yet, clear in my own mind as to whether my complaint will be against WBMC or the credit reference agency, or both, although I would expect it to impact upon WBMCs perceived right to apply this data in the way that it has. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Reply to the comment left by "Paul Eastabrook" at "01/11/2013 - 14:01":

Hi Paul

They used Experian.

it has been suggested earlier into the discussion that they may well have the right to obtain this information. However, I'd be interested to learn what Experian do say about the matter if you are minded to complain to them.
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Mark Alexandra
As mortgagees are complaining to the FOS would it be possible to get FOS to direct then to the Class Action,

I was wondering has anyone addressed the issue around the possibility of a mis-selling issue around the premium arrangement fees we paid when we took out tracker mortgages - because of the supposed benefit they offered for us which will no longer apply if WBBS can alter the percentage interest rate we are obliged to pay?
We were definitely told by our mortgage broker that it was worth our paying that larger than usual arrangement as it would be more than compensated for by having the security of knowing our payment would track Bank of England base rate He correctly predicted that BoE base rate would quite likely be reducing within the following 2-3 years and told us in his view it was a risk worth taking - at no point did he indicate the scenario we find ourselves facing now.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "01/11/2013 - 14:41":

Thanks Mark. I think that an initial letter of complaint to Experian is indeed worth a go and, depending on the response, I'll follow it up with a suitable complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Hi Denise, if you check you KFI it will say whether your broker offered advice or not. Either way, suing your broker is unlikely to be commercially viable as his PI insurers will argue that advice is unregulated for BTL and not covered. By all means try but it's unlikely to get very far without throwing a lot of money at a solicitor and unlike suing West Brom for breach of contract there will be insufficient other affected borrowers for you to share costs with

I don't suppose that any brokers would be prepared to offer a professional opinion as to what they understood to be the terms of the agreement at the time? I arranged mine through Endsleigh, even though I actually found the deal myself. I gave it to Endsleigh for the commission as a reward for the research it had done on my behalf up to that point.

New to the site and thread today, having been directed to it by my IFA after I copied him on a letter I sent to WBMC on Monday. Evidently late to the party as it appears many others have raised the Unfair Contract term given WBMC are trying to “impose a hidden term, or variation clause, that was not defined” at all within the Mortgage Offer.

Also raised a question of discrimination since people with more than one property, but say certain of their properties are mortgage free, are being treated unfairly - couldn't find any web references to this type of discrimination though.

However, in writing to WBMC I declined to accept their 'offer' to change terms as a breach of contract, and am awaiting their reply before proceeding with any referral to the Banking Ombudsman and Office of Fair Trading.

Depending on their willingness to see reason, but after this month's mortgage is paid I am cancelling the direct debit mandate and intend instead to continue to service the contracted mortgage amount via Standing Order. That way if it does get ugly I can at least be seen to have tried to do my best.

I've also stated that during any ensuing 'dispute period', if they send my any threatening letters I will be expensing £50 per item. Again, putting it it writing I'm hoping will help me if court proceedings are threatened.

Need to look more thoroughly (but so many pages!) to see if there is a legal basis for the Unfair Contract terms, whether others are writing to the OFT, whether discrimination has any legal footing, and whether others are going to cancel DDs and replace with SOs... and whether the imposition of fees can be contractually enforced - WBMC seem to want to get away with it!

I retired as the MD if the UK's largest brokerage in 2009, we ranked #38 in The Sunday Times Profit Track 100 at the time. Does that answer your question?

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "01/11/2013 - 20:45":

I was thinking that a raft of opinions from mortgage brokers supporting our own view as to interpretation of the terms and conditions might carry some extra weight with the FOS. I have seen comments made by representatives from John Charcol and was wondering whether we could get a few like minded firms to formally give a view.