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 Landlord

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11:58 AM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

Hi all - sorry I've been quiet for a few days as been dealing with the usual property issues at this time of the year ! Leaking roofs etc. Yesterday was particularly eventful

I have read every single comment on the thread since it began and will continue to do so and there has been some crackers in the last few days.

Also great to see new people joining not only the class action but being proactive writing letters/emails etc.

Got another stock response from the Treasury in reply to my 2nd letter to the PM that his office had forwarded saying the usual commercial decisions for lenders etc

Be interesting to see what type of response we get from the letter directly to Sajid Javid MP at the Treasury that Richard provided the template for.

Stuart & Mark - think its superb what you are doing re the ratings agency.

Keep up the good work everyone - so happy to not be fighting this alone !

Mike L

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12:04 PM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "22/11/2013 - 11:50":

Mark, thanks for the clarification. That sounds even better, as presumably investors could then invest whatever they: 1. could afford and 2. be comfortable with. The potential rewards would then be proportionate to their investment. If you're not careful you could start a new way of funding for all such future cases! The Alexander funding model! 🙂

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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12:18 PM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

COLLECTING TIN

Hello all, I hope you won't mind this post but I think now is as good a time as any to raise this.

Property118 is funded entirely on donations and sponsorships. I know finances for most are squeezed, especially all contributing to this thread, but if you do feel able to chip in to help fund the running costs of our work please see >>> http://www.property118.com/donations/43590/
.

Alexander Law

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12:28 PM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "22/11/2013 - 11:50":

Thanks for clarifying the position regarding further fundraising (I'm sure some of us may have become a little confused after the amazing revelations of the last 48 hours!).
We fall into category 1, and are keen to carry our fair share of the load. We look forward to you publishing a formula in due course.

In the meantime we will continue to write letters as suggested in earlier posts, and do our small bit for the greater good of the cause.

Now please take the weekend off and re-charge your batteries!

Thanks to you, and everyone else on here who have turned a potentially dreadful situation into a fight for justice!

Incensed Landlord

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12:29 PM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "21/11/2013 - 12:33":

...and I respect your decision, Mark, and the reasons you have for keeping things open, here on the forum. I'm totally behind you on this, and also you wisely holding back that all-important 1%. I can read between the lines on that one, believe me. I think we all need to keep our ace card close to our respective chests, until such times as it would come in very useful, when cornered.

Keep up the good work, and carry on as you have to date. We're all, much behind you as well all have a vested interest to do so, quite apart from it being ethically driven too. Hat's off to you :0)

Addicted to fighting the WBBS

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12:48 PM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Addicted to fighting the WBBS" at "22/11/2013 - 11:49":

The missing Director of Hawthorn Finance Ltd has been found I believe.....

Daniel Fisher is named as a Director for the last year and The Hawthorn Finance Ltd has two company secretaries, the first one has already been detailed and the second one listed is Wilmington Trust, which Mr Daniel Fisher is also the CEO of.......

When we are ready, it would be extremely interesting to know what RISK WARNINGS Daniel Hopkins and the board from the WBBS have declared to a) The Directors & Custodians of Hawthorn and What RISK warnings these Directors of Hawthorn were party to before Fitch & Moodys confirmed there was NO risk change to the Hawthorn Finance Product ?????

Daniel Fisher

CEO Wilmington Trust's European subsidiaries - Executive Managing Director/Institutional Client Services
London, United Kingdom Financial Services

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13:09 PM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

busy scanning and sending info to folk Mark asked me to call and chat with ... busy busy busy!
Does anyone have a link to the new letter we should be sending to our MPs?

Addicted to fighting the WBBS

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13:30 PM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "22/11/2013 - 08:21":

The Inceased Funding Costs that WBBS cite is the key reason for Hiking Rates and their 2nd reason is managing their business more prudently..........

Please can people let me know any thoughts on the following..............

1) As the Hawthorn Finance Loan Notes have confirmed, the original funding facility has been confirmed as Base rate Tracking. So in 2007/2008, UK Base was 6 - 7%. Reading between the lines, this was a 5 year floating facility. Would they really have entered a margin for anything over 1% for this facility ? I doubt it, so since Q1 2009, they have potentially themselves only been paying 1.5% (ish) for funding this facility since 2009.

Anyone else able to provide some thoughts on this ?

2) In May 2013, WBBS securitised £420m of mortgages (albeit owner occupier and not BTL) and they are paying a coupon of Libor plus 0.65 per cent for a three-year weighted average note, therefore circa 1.16% using Libor at 0.51% average.

The article below confirms they have not drawn down any Government Funding Monies (albeit only can do for Res mortgages, not BTL).

So, this begs the questions:

a) How have their funding costs for Hawthorne increased materially when compared to the last 3 years of what they are likely to have been paying ?

b) Is the Rate Hike creating extra cash to subsidise their Owner Occupying Lending, i.e. we are effectively subsiding WBBS New Borrowers who are being offered ridiculously low rates currently on the best buy tables by WBBS ? Can someone remind me why a 'small regional Building Society' like WBBS competing in the current Lending market with Best Buy Rates on offer by global giants HSBC etc al ?

c) Are the WBBS using our Rate Hike to offset the pathetic lending decisions they made on their overall Commercial Lending Book and/or to Offset current Main Res Mortgage deals that look too cheap and if there is Funding Available from the Government at near 0.5% levels, why have they not drawn any funds down on this scheme ?

The transaction closed earlier this week in May 2013 and the building society says it was oversubscribed by 2.2 times.

http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/west-brom-launches-420m-securitisation/1071961.article

Addicted to fighting the WBBS

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13:43 PM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

Are there any Mortgage Brokers who are part of this Forum ?

The article suggest Phase 1 for WBBS re-entering the Intermediary market was to use 4 Panel Brokers - does anyone know who these 4 panel brokers are ?

Apparently Phase 2 is for West Brom confirmed it had registered the brand “The West Brom for Intermediaries” in anticipation of “phase two” of its re-entry into the broker market.

Are there any Mortgage Brokers who can confirm some names and contact details and any Broker Updates from the WBBS in regards to the above ?

How on earth any lender can think they are going to get business through an intermediary channel when there Plan A of the Rate Hike is to let Affected Customers sue the brokers so they get off free and then expect new business through this channel ?

They must be smoking something very strong at the Board Room of WBBS, well, after the last week, who actually knows what goes on in these Bank Board Meetings and "after dinner drink parties'.............

mrs sharp

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14:14 PM, 22nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

I also posted this o the "Bank of Ireland increase..." forum so apologies for duplicating or being slightly off-topic:

I managed to track down my mortgage adviser who sold me the product 10 years ago. He informs me that he thinks Bank of Ireland has been challenged in court regarding increasing the differential on their tracker mortgages for residential and buy-to-let mortgages and unfortunately they have the right legally, if not morally, to make the change.

Does anyone know if it is true that BoI has been challenged in court over this as I don’t want to be wasting my time and money pursuing this if a verdict has already been reached?
Thanks
Theresa

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