West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

18:38 PM, 30th September 2013, About 11 years ago 3869

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West Bromwich Tracker Rate Mortgages Legal Action Group

West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

Are you affected by the West Brom Tracker Rate Hike?

If your mortgage account number begins with the number 8 you are highly likely to be one of the unlucky 41% of the mortgage customers of the West Bromwich building Society with a West Bromwich Mortgage Company account affected by the 1.9% increase in your tracker margin rate. However, if you arranged your mortgage directly with West Bromwich Building Society (i.e. not via a broker) or before 2006 the chances are that your account number will begin with the number 9 and you are not affected – YET!!! West Brom will give no assurances that mortgages with account numbers beginning with the number 9 will not be affected at some point in the future.

OUR INTENDED CLASS ACTION LITIGATION OVERVIEW

Tracker Rate Class Actions Updates

The reasons we started this campaign are very simple:-

1) We believe the actions of West Brom are immoral

2) We believe the actions of West Brom are unlawful, i.e. they have no legal grounds to increase their tracker rate margins

3) We have no wish to subsidise other areas of the West Bromwich Building Society business model

4) We are fearful of other lenders following suit if West Brom are allowed to get away with this

Mark Smith (Barrister-At-Law) said …

“Representative actions, where one person starts a case representing many others, who all want the answer to a legal question from a court such as ‘is this contract enforceable against me?’ but are not seeking damages. All those who sign up to the action will get the benefit of the win, but they do not have to start their own cases, as they are ‘represented’ by the lead claimant.

The only people who will definitely benefit from success in the case are those who have signed up. There will be no free rides. Any others will have to fight their own corners individually, either alone or with legal help (which will inevitably cost significantly more than the group case).”

We will NOT settle on any basis.

Landlords take legal action against West Brom Mortgage Company

We have a moral duty to do what is right for those who support the values upon which this campaign was started. Our promise to all who support these values is that we will not sell out on you at any price. We will continue to fight this injustice and we will fight any other lender who tries to follow suit.

Are you with us?

This discussion thread is now closed – we’re off to Court!

To link to the new discussion please CLICK HERE

West Bromwich Mortgage Company Tracker Margins Legal Action


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Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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12:31 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Peter Cole" at "05/11/2013 - 12:20":

Was there anything you would consider useful in there Peter?
.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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12:38 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Thanks to "Mark Landlord" for alerting me to two further website articles promoting our campaign. I will add these to the media section of the main article.

Gateshead Landlords Association >>> http://www.renting-in-gateshead.co.uk//news/index.php?id=80

Property Consultants 365 >>> http://www.propertyconsultants365.co.uk/page/west-bromwich-society-tracker-legal-action
.

Devon Landlords

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14:00 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "05/11/2013 - 12:31":

The only thing of interest is a copy of an internal West Bromwich memo from May 2011 just before we reverted to Bank of England base rate +0.99% stating that both of our mortgages (amongst 17 other peoples at that time) had incorrect/incomplete information in our original KFI. Our KFI stated we would be reverting to 'variable rate', but it apparently should have stated 'it will track Bank of England Base Rate'. I will scan this in and e:mail if it's any use! Apart from that it's all just copies of what we already have.

ian

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14:08 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Just Emailed local Councils housing officer to see if they would be kind enough to get in contact with the private landlords that rent out to them. anything is worth a try.

Scotty Lifetracker

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14:38 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Is there a template letter for writing to local mp, please ? Plus Is there template letter for requesting information from wb under data protection, I already have the usual mortgage docs sent with their final response letter, thanks

Devon Landlords

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15:29 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Scotty Lifetracker" at "05/11/2013 - 14:38":

Here is the MP Letter Template

Dear [ ]
I don’t know whether you have seen in the press that the above building society has decided to increase tracker mortgages for some 7,300 landlords by 2%. They are specifically targeting “professional landlord’s” i.e. those who have three or more rental properties despite the fact that there is no legal definition of what constitutes a “professional landlord”. They have carried out a credit check on all of their borrowers to see what other mortgages they hold with other lenders in order to decide who fulfils the criteria. This in itself is an abuse of the credit check system which is not to be used for deciding whether or not members of the public fall into a certain category that can have their mortgages increased. In addition this will leave a footprint on my credit rating history and is totally unacceptable.
My understanding of the basis of the mortgage that I had with them was that it could only ever vary when the base rate changed. They are now telling me that they are able to adjust the tracker rate margin as well. Had I known about this at the time the mortgage was taken out I would have chosen another mortgage product or lender. The building society are relying on a clause that is buried in a booklet entitled “Information you need to know about your Mortgage”. This ability to increase the rate was not mentioned in the offer loan or the mortgage illustration key facts sheet that was provided by the broker. In fact the booklet is not mentioned either although West Bromwich say that it is noted in the mortgage deed that I signed. Case law supports the requirement for important conditions to be made clear and obvious in contracts and this is definitely not the case in the mortgage documentation that was issued to me.
This increase which is to take effect on 1 December 2013 will increase the payments on my buy to let mortgage by £[ ] per month. My main concern is that other building societies may decide to follow suit if they see West Bromwich getting away with this. Having [ ] rental properties in [ area ] this will cause me a huge problem if this were to happen. Although landlord’s often receive bad publicity I do feel that we provide a valuable service and because we have benefited from low interest rates for the past few years we have been able to keep rents down and at a realistic affordable price. I simply won’t be able to sustain paying an extra £[ ] per month and obviously this is not an increase that I can pass on to my tenants. I know that other landlords in the [ ] area are going to be in a similar position. This in turn may cause [ ] Council a huge problem if properties are repossessed and sold making many people homeless as a result.
I am supporting a Class Action group called Property118.com which is gaining a lot of support from landlords up and down the country but we really could do with some political support and have this situation highlighted in Parliament.
If you could assist, I and many other landlords would be very grateful.
Regards

Scotty Lifetracker

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15:32 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Peter Cole" at "05/11/2013 - 15:29":

Thanks, much appreciated !

Devon Landlords

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15:32 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Scotty Lifetracker" at "05/11/2013 - 14:38":

And here is the Data Protection Request Letter:

Dear Sir or Madam
Subject access request
[RE: Your WBBS account number(s) here]
Please supply the information you hold about me which I am entitled to under the Data Protection Act 1998 relating to all dealings connected with my mortgage with you and all of your associated dealings with external agencies in respect of my above mortgage account numbers(s). For the avoidance of any doubt this is to include any information relating to me kept on computer or in a structured manual filing system or intended for such a system.
I have enclosed my cheque for £10 which, I understand to be the amount I am required to pay to you by law for a data access request. If you need any more information from me please let me know as soon as possible.
It may be helpful for you to know that a request for information under the Data Protection Act 1998 should be responded to within 40 days.
If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you and can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 or at http://www.ico.org.uk
Yours faithfully
[Signature]

Scotty Lifetracker

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15:35 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Peter Cole" at "05/11/2013 - 15:32":

Thanks again!

Paul Eastabrook

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15:41 PM, 5th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Peter Cole" at "05/11/2013 - 15:29":

On a point of reference, the "professional landlord" definition actually applies to those with only TWO rental properties, or even just a minority share in them. References to THREE properties also takes account of one with a residential mortgage.

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