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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Comments

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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11:58 AM, 8th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Landlord" at "08/11/2013 - 11:44":

Yes, you are right to wait.
.

Paul Eastabrook

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13:20 PM, 8th November 2013, About 11 years ago

I was told by the Consumers' Association only last week that the FOS has already received some complaints, but apparently not very many in number. I suspect that the majority of those who have raised a complaint already with the FOS are likely to be either people like myself who did so prior to discovering property118, or else those who are still unaware of it.

Alexander Law

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13:29 PM, 8th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Paul Eastabrook" at "08/11/2013 - 13:20":

Paul, I received a reply from the FOS to the copy of the original complaint letter which I sent to the West Bromwich.
Their reply included their standard FOS complaint form which I have completed but not returned.
I think the concensus is to wait until Justin from the Law Department has produced a template reply, based on the response of counsel.
And we have until April, so no great rush.

Justin Selig - solicitor

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14:24 PM, 8th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Legal Action Update:

We have received a further 20 Instructions this week, bringing the total up to 190 loans being represented.

I have spoken to the barrister who has promised to provide me with a verbal opinion on Tuesday, with the written one to follow in a few weeks time.

We should therefore be in a position next week to prepare the forms for you to send to the FOS.

Given that we expect to have feedback from Counsel on Tuesday, I will update the forum on Wednesday next week as well as Friday afternoon.

Paul Eastabrook

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14:28 PM, 8th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Alexander Law" at "08/11/2013 - 13:29":

Yes, I spoke to a rep from the FOS on the phone and she was a great deal more supportive than the FCA was. I sent off the form she sent me plus a covering letter on 22 October before I became aware of this site. I haven't heard back yet though. Also, my MP has offered to look into the situation further but stresses that he is limited in what he can actually do. I will follow this up with him once I'm back home again, and will forward all relevant paperwork.

M Jones

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14:54 PM, 8th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Like some I approached FOS about this earlier - although it has taken sometime they have now got to the stage of requesting information about my case from WBBS. An adjudicator is to be appointed, I am informed that they will be in touch with 12 weeks! Naturally I will also forward counsels opinion as and when we get it as evidence can be added to the case at any time, at least in the meantime the 'wheels are in motion'.
I recognise from earlier posts that the rise will cause some people extreme financial difficulty - if this is the case then the FOS will fast track their complaint. Furthermore FOS will also fast track complaint if the WBBS threaten legal action - I pointed out to them that the WBBS had threatened Section 14 'When the loan has to be paid back' but because they are not actually taking action they will not fast track at this time.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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13:43 PM, 9th November 2013, About 11 years ago

To-Do List – Class Action Marketing Update

Fund raising is going well but we will either need to recruit more members or be left in a position whereby we will all need to pay more money into the Class Action legal fund to raise the necessary money to take our fight to the Courts. Recruiting more members is vital; hence we need your help. We offer the suggestions below in respect of some of the things YOU can do to raise awareness.

Please don’t leave this to somebody else. We have evidence that people and organisations which have been approached several times are far more likely to recognise the importance of this issue and take action.

Leaflets

Several active members have approached a variety of contacts who have agreed to inform other landlords about our campaigns. These include:-

  • Local Authority run landlords Groups
  • Accountants
  • Solicitors
  • Letting Agents
  • Mortgage brokers
  • Financial advisers
  • Landlords associations
  • Landlords networking events
  • Exhibitions and shows
  • Citizens Advice
  • Newspapers and magazines

Thanks to Andy Bell and the team of Class Action supporters who helped to produce this leaflet for marketing purposes – see https://www.property118.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Action-against-tracker-rate-rise.pdf

The leaflets can be printed off and handed out or posted. They can also be linked from emails and/or websites.

Please think about whose support you can recruit in order to spread the word and then leave a comment on our forum to let us know what action you have taken in order to encourage others.

Change.org online petition

Over 1,000 landlords have completed the Class Action Expression of Interest Form on the Property118 website. However, our petition on Change.org has only been signed by a few hundred people. We need more signatures on the Change.org website to provide independent confirmation of our numbers and to increase the viral effects of our campaigns. If everybody who has completed the Class Action Expression of Interest Form on the Property118 website also signs the petition and gets their partner and family to do the same the numbers will look far better and the reach of the campaign will be substantially improved too. Please see  http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/west-bromwich-mortgage-company-limited-reverse-their-decision-to-increase-the-rate-on-buy-to-let-mortgages-which-was-not-noted-in-their-original-offer-letter-and-signed-agreement

Write to your MP

I can’t stress the importance of this enough, political will is vital to our campaign. Many MP’s have referred complaints to the Treasury Chairman and the MP, they have also written to the CEO’s of the mortgage companies.

To find the details of your MP please click here - http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

An example complaint letter can be found here - http://www.property118.com/letter-to-mp-about-west-brom-tracker-margin-hike/

Thanks in advance for your continued support.

Ed Atkinson

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14:21 PM, 9th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Hoarray .... !!!!

http://www.discountletting.co.uk/blog/landlords-threaten-legal-action-over-mortgage-rates/?utm_source=Sign-Up.to&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6311-301182-09+11+13+HTML+Newsletter

Discount Letting must have heaps on their email list and they posted a link to this article in their email circular just now.

Well done to all of us who asked them to do this

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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14:27 PM, 9th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ed Atkinson" at "09/11/2013 - 14:21":

Great news, link added to our media section. I've also added a link to the Express and Star article. Any more you can think of which I've missed?
.

Devon Landlord

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12:01 PM, 10th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Mark,

As soon as my paperwork arrives from the WB I will be sending it off along with the £240 for the class action fund. In light of your earlier post today about needing more paid-up members, are you able to advise how many members we have and what the shortfall is likely to be. How much have we raised so far?

I have just signed the on-line petition and will today ask my wider family to do the same.

Alexander

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