West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

I follow your logic Jackie but the reverse could also be true. The more we are able to reveal the more people pay up. We may have hundreds of people holding onto their money until the target is perceived to be close to being reached.

I have no problem in West Brom reading 99% of what we are up to because we may just convince them they have no case and we may see them do a u-turn. Wishful thinking perhaps but still a possibility we must not rule out.

The 1% we need to protect is things we are uncertain about. Discussion which may be irrelevant to our case could also work in our favour as it may have their defence lawyers running around in ever decreasing circles HAHAHA
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I would just like to reiterate - it is vital that this matter is taken to court. The West Brom will simply sit tight and hope that we run out of steam. There is no possibility that they will settle until they are faced with a court ruling against them as there is simply no incentive for them to do so. They cannot however risk loosing in open court as to do so will cost them a fortune not to mention their reputation.
Therefore the sooner we can establish beyond doubt that we have sufficient funds to take this to court the better. I would be more than happy to double / triple or quadruple my payment to The Law Department, if there is a sufficient number of others who are also willing then we are there! If not then I will take this matter to court personally.

Personally, I do not believe the risk of not reaching our target is a significant one. I wholeheartedly believe that there are enough members committed on here already to easily take this to court. This is by far the preferred option and it puts a great big smile on my face to imagine the newspaper headlines when WB lose and are forced to back down. The negative publicity to them will be hard to put a price on and I do not believe they have properly appraised the business risk associated with that. The longer this thing goes on and the bigger the momentum that we build, the worse it gets for them.

In those circumstances I would not be at all surprised if they try to wiggle out of the mess that they have caused for themselves by trying to offer some sort of a deal to those already signed up (as suggested by Dean). That's when we will have to make some hard choices, but by then it will be a nice choice to make for those that are already paid up and 'in' - a win whichever way it goes!

Reply to the comment left by "Matthew " at "20/11/2013 - 10:32":

I agree Matthew . I would prefer it goes to Court and I too am willing to pay more in.

My point is , if you were a director of West Brom, what would you be doing now ? We are half way to the total. Most people have paid in £240 . I suspect that the vast majority of those will be willing to chip another £240 in. So then we are so close. WB directors will know this. So what would you do if you were a WB director?

With bankers busy buying illegal substances and hiring rent boys, and being thoroughly incompetent and deceitful, it is then no wonder that they come up with unethical and stupid plans like playing with the rules of Tracker Mortgages. If I were a WB employee I would question my bosses motives and credentials. These guys can easily bring their bank down as we've seen it all before...

I am not affected by BoI or WB, however I did contribute to the marketing fund when launched and and would like to contribute to the legal fund.
Do I just send it via online banking to Justins Law Dept a/c
Apologies if this has been answered previously.

I would expect WB to do to all they can to exhaust our fighting fund by arguing the finer detail. They will attempt to cloud the issue and to distract us from the basic facts of our case in order to use up the money raised and to keep this out of the courts. Every month delayed by them is a victory as they will collect more payments and simultaneously get some of these mortgages off their books due to customers simply being unable to hang on!
I believe WB will do everything in their power to stop this going to court.

Reply to the comment left by "Matthew " at "20/11/2013 - 11:16":

How ?

We get the funds we apply to take it to Court. we do what they do when we raise questions , ignore them.

So you would risk as a Director allowing us to take them to Court to save 3.333% of your anticipated increased revenue , your reputation and that of your society and possibly your job . rather than have a confidential agreement with a few ?

Mortgage Stratergy has just run an article stating that the FCA are investigating the West Brom with regard to raising tracker rates. Some clown of an employee has written a comment stating that the building society is in trouble because of the greed of landlords! Anyway I have given him a full broadside.

I have been really quiet on this topic for a few weeks as I am not a wbbs borrower and therefore not directly affected. I have, however, contributed to the fighting fund and would happily do so if there is a shortfall BUT this would be only on the understanding that the matter went to Court so there was a definitive decision once and for all on the issue of whether tracker rates can be issued. I would not be prepared to put one penny in to a fund which secured a pay off for any borrower

The article in The Times this morning was very keen to suggest that the FCA need to act now and in the future to stop banks/building societies being able to "smuggle" (Ian King's word) clauses into their terms and conditions and this is the nub of what this fight is about. Mark has put his commitment to this on the line and basically it is in or out for everyone else. This campaign should have only one aim now and that is its day in Court.

Dean does seem to be the only person who is still making the case for wbbs to potentially come up with some sort of confidential agreement with people who are clearly part of the class action and, with all due respect to his views and apologies to those people who have read this point before and agreed with it, I think this would be disastrous. Not only would it not provide a Decision that could be relied on and would therefore detract other borrowers from trying the same thing on, it would also mean that another campaign did not have to be fought with Property 188 trying to raise another £100K to take on another bank/building society with the resultant absolute waste of money. In addition, how do we know that people with wbbs mortgages only would be up for another fight - this is a one off chance to do something definitive.

Please let's put all thought of a confidential settlement out of our heads and concentrate on some of the brilliant ideas that have been put forward on this forum and take this issue to its logical conclusion.

Finally, it has always been and remains my opinion that wbbs cannot offer a settlement. They are not a Bank; they have no income other than that provided by their borrower, interest earned on mortgages and commissions earned on sales of insurance. All of this must be shown in their Accounts. I think it would be impossible to hide any payoff to any of their borrowers on tracker rates in their accounts and if they tried it I am fairly sure that investors would ask questions at either an AGM or an EGM that might be called to discuss this very issue. I simply cannot see the directors doing an under-the-counter deal.