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 Smith Head of Chambers Cotswold Barristers

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20:17 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Dean " at "28/11/2013 - 18:25":

Dean, please find out who it is with and I will let you know

ian

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20:22 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mervyn Wharton" at "28/11/2013 - 20:06":

Yes on your tax return you can claim on agent & legal fees

Norfolk n'Chance

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20:26 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Shouldn't that fact be used to 'sell' membership ?

Brings the real cost per property down to £192 or £144 depending on wether you are a 20% or 40% tax payer.

Paul Eastabrook

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20:29 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

As a brief aside, I made an interesting discovery today. I got a letter from Experian who wrote to me explaining that, although the search it undertook on behalf of WB may not have fallen into any of its four global business lines, Experian considers that it will be in line with WB’s business requirements and as such will, in all likelihood, be covered by the terms and conditions of our mortgage agreement with them. It goes on to tell me to take it up with WB as to both the reasons for the search, and also the interpretation of the information supplied, and that I should refer any remaining issues about Experian to the FOS.

Although unsatisfactory, I did then undertake my own new Experian search and, it appears that WB’s search of me / us didn’t actually take place until 5 November 2013, i.e. 6 weeks after it first stated that we were “a landlord of multiple properties”.
I have now realised that WB appears to have interpreted each of four component elements of our residential mortgage to be four separate mortgages, of which three appear to have been assumed to be BTLs.

WB’s credibility is going to be shot to pieces once this finally gets to court. I cannot wait.

ian

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20:31 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mervyn Wharton" at "28/11/2013 - 20:26":

It was bought up weeks ago. not a bad thing to highlight it again though as newbees may have not read about it.
Are you sold now then ???

Addicted to fighting the WBBS

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20:36 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Paul Eastabrook" at "28/11/2013 - 20:29":

Paul, thanks.

Unless I have missed anything in earlier posts, if no-one can prove that Experian/Equifax have been actually searched by West Brom Q3/Q4 2013 in relation to this matter, West Brom may have simply reviewed initial application forms whereby it would have clearly stated how many properties you owned at the point of application.

The search you have identified on the 5th Nov 13 could simply be 'due diligence' on behalf of West Brom to make sure they have not have made a Boo Boo by assuming you still were a BTL professional by relying on your initial application data.

Paul Eastabrook

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20:42 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Addicted to fighting the WBBS" at "28/11/2013 - 20:36":

I was thinking along similar lines myself until today. That scenario could only have arisen, though, if WB had re-interpreted the 2007 data as 3 BTLs this time round. It knew in 2007-08 that I / we only had one residential property / mortgage.

ian

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20:52 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Paul Eastabrook" at "28/11/2013 - 20:42":

Don't quote me I don't think you can have more than one residential Mortgage, so they would show up as BTLs

Paul Eastabrook

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20:59 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

I could conceivably have a weekend retreat I suppose, but in this instance the other building society used to set up new loan references every time I re-mortgaged my residential home, for the top-up element. Hence it shows up as four (now three) separate accounts, even though the society has always taken just a single monthly interest payment.

Alexander Law

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21:04 PM, 28th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mervyn Wharton" at "28/11/2013 - 20:06":

Dear Mervyn,
I agree, many if not most of us are fairly skint at the moment. I know we are (difficult trading conditions, daughter's wedding, roof repairs......I could go on for ages - but no-one would listen!)

But I have absolutely no doubt we will collectively raise the cost of funding legal action. Not the slightest doubt.

From a personal point of view this is a battle we simply can't afford NOT to fight. The WB rate rise will cost us personally £4,000 a year. If our other lenders see WB getting away with this and follow suit, that could cost us £12,000 a year extra, and that's before the bank rate begins to move north again, which will probably happen sooner rather than later.

I'm relaxed about the bank rate rising. It means that the economy is recovering, unemployment is falling, and the green shoots of recovery are growing into saplings. But an extra £4,000 per annum cost, for which we hadn't budgeted would really hurt us, and make us wonder if all the sacrifices we've made since the banking crash were worth it. That would be a real kick in the plums.

So £240 inc.VAT per loan (tax deductible) seems to me like a very small price to pay to join the action group, and let's divi up any shortfall when the lawyers come back to us with the likely cost of the action.

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