West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

Reply to the comment left by "Addicted to fighting the WBBS" at "22/11/2013 - 13:30":

I think you may be losing it Stuart LOL

Seriously though, I suspect West Brom purchased an IRHP (cap and collar swap) to underwrite their risks of borrowing on a variable rate and lending on a fix.

The cost of funds issue is their problem, not ours. Bear in mind that if their Fitch and Moody ratings fall their cost of borrowing could increase even further!

I also suspect the initial Hawthorn funding was a bullet repayment loan structure, let's say 5 years. It was BoE linked pre-credit crunch so they probably agreed this funding at 20 to 40 basis points over base (i.e. 0.2% to 0.4% over base). I have no doubt that if/when they needed to renegotiate this funding the margin would be far higher, perhaps by as much a 500%. Therefore, it may well be true that their costs of funding have increased.

They are using cost of funds as an excuse to increase our tracker rate margins but the clause they are relying upon to do this relates to SVR's, not tracker margins. This is what we will prove in Court.

The above will also be the reason other lenders have approached the FCA with regards to increasing their tracker margins.

West Brom think we are screwed, the reality I suspect is they are looking down the wrong end of the telescopic sights of their assault rifle.
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After a conversation with Mark this morning I have now spoken to the FT and just a moment ago to Donna at Cherryfind
Cherryfind, for those of you like me who are new to all this hassle (and really only ever wanted a quiet life and to be able to sleep easy at night), is a site/forum for Mortgage BROKERS and they are keen to get our plight out there and to spread our message as widely (to as many brokers and advisors) as possible. They have already communicated with West Brom (and await their reply) and have also issued a lead article to their members (who apparently were mostly unaware until very recently of what is happening to us) about the shocking way WB have targetted those amongst their borrowers who used independent brokers to arrange their tracker mortgages - they anticiapte their members will check their own clients and to make sure that any who are affected are supported
You can register to leave a phone rant (mine ran to 4.5 minutes) to tell YOUR story about how West Broms's unethical act is affecting YOU - and they want as much feedback as possible to feed to their members - who may then be able to force West Brom to rethink their actions or face the consequences when 40K+(did she really say 40K+ - I think so) mortgage advisors and brokers have no faith in them, thier ethics or their products and so feel they cannot in all conscience broker WB products!
Cherryfind are the biggest site for brokers and advisors - you will need to go to their main site and click consumer then on RantLine - or you can leave a written question on the forum asking Brokers for help and guidance
I have copied out the Instructions from the Rantline: (if it was simple enough for em to do then anyone can do it)
Come on Guys this is an opportunity not to be missed and I think we need ALL of us to either post a question or leave a rant!

Call 0151 633 2893 (standard national call rate applies)
When asked to leave your message, please start your rant. The subject / company you are ranting about must be clear. You may also leave details of who you are if you are comfortable with this
When you've finished your rant, please hang up
Your rant will then be processed and it will, subject to approval, appear on the website soon after

Denise

Reply to the comment left by "Theresa McAllister" at "22/11/2013 - 14:14":

There is no substance to what your broker has told you.
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LEGAL ACTION UPDATE:

Funds raised to date £58,080, representing 242 loans.
Instructions to our QC have been sent this week. We expect to receive a response in mid-December.

We have prepared a proforma form to use to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and a letter to your solicitor, however we have decided to delay sending them until we receive advice back from our QC. This is because we have had positive indications that a formal legal action issued at this stage has a good chance of success (for a number of factors we had not previously considered) and therefore a complaint to the FOS may delay matters. Furthermore we expect to have sufficient funds to commence proceedings in the near future. This, obviously, is subject to the final word on the matter from our QC.

If you would like to make a complaint to the FOS or write to your solicitor in the meantime, then please email ana@lawdepartment.co.uk and she will send you the forms.

If we do issue proceedings, it will only be in the name of those who instruct us and authorise us. Anyone who has not instructed us cannot be a party to the proceedings. Therefore if you are considering doing so, please do not delay any further. You should note that if we do not proceed, you will get a pro-rata refund of your money paid to us, after deduction of our costs and expenses. The more people that join, the greater that refund will be.

Given that we are now waiting to hear back from our QC I do not expect to have much to update the forum on over the next couple of weeks, other than an update on funds collected and number of people instructing us.

Reply to the comment left by "Annette Stone" at "21/11/2013 - 13:13":

Nicely put. I was a late arrival but hopefully not the latest. Have faith more will join this just cause and justice will follow.

Reply to the comment left by "Justin Selig" at "22/11/2013 - 15:00":

Change the funds raised to date to £58, 320. I was making the transfer whilst you were writing your post!

I hope many others join in.

I have just sent a follow up to Ian King at THE TIMES who wrote about WBBS on Tuesday I ran this by Mark and also suggested that after all the wonderful people that have come forward with such amazing information in the past 2 days which have really given us some "bite" it is time that we had a weekly Press Release to go ONLY to important financial journalists on the National Dailies, Sunday Papers and Journals and the TV programmes that carry these kind of stories. My suggestion is that if they are kept up to speed regularly and know that they are receiving restricted Press Releases they will, hopefully continue to write about us as events unfold. Mark likes the idea and says he will write the Press Release. He has asked me to prepare the list of journalists for this to go to and see to distribution which I am happy to do.

This will run alongside all the other press work which people are doing with local and regional press, property websites and contact like the one Denise has made in her very recent post which is also really valuable stuff

I have no professional PR training so if there is anyone out there who does have PR experience and could do a better job than me please let Mark know. If not, if anyone does have any contacts or names they would like to suggest along with the paper they work for please post this on line and I will collate them all next week.

I am off now until tomorrow evening so have a peaceful Saturday everyone

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "22/11/2013 - 12:18":

Mark, I have again e-mailed all the landlords I have on my database, including a handful of letting agents, asking them to forward to their landlords. So I hope this 3rd e-mail to them will garner more support. There may have been the odd one who didn't art the time worry too much about what was happening; but as I have pointed out, NOW other lenders are considering raising their tracker interest rates too. So they'd be best advised to come support us in our fight, and moreover donate to Property118 to boot.

please leave a message on Cherryfind - that reaches thousands of brokers and advisors

Reply to the comment left by "Denise Doms" at "22/11/2013 - 14:45":

Thanks for that Denise. I feel a whole lot better now. Mine was 4 minutes 33 seconds.