West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

I had an email today from a chap with 20 properties. We subsequently spoke on the phone. His concern was that it would cost him £4,800 to sign up. He's gone away to have a re-think now that I've fully explained the benefits to him.

That lead to a further thought. When people sign up they provide their telephone number and number of affected properties. I plan to call every name that I don't recognise, starting with those with the most properties and working my way down the list. Obviously I need to find the time to do this but it should keep me busy until I go to Russia for Christmas on 21st December. I will then be offline until 1st Jan due to very limited availability of internet in rural Russia.

I will encourage all those I do manage to speak with to introduce themselves to the forum.
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Hi

Firstly I have to say that I am actually doing this on behalf of someone else, it is not my personal mortgage, hence why I am using the 'we' phrase. However I have two mortgages myself (not WB) and so am very interested in how this is going to turn out.

Following the newspaper articles back in September and then the first letter from West Bromwich we started off by writing to WB saying that we did not accept their increase and would not be paying an increased amounts. We also notified them that we would be joining the class actions to dispute the rate change. We then got a letter back (standard letter I think) saying that under the T&C's they're entitled to do this and if we carry on making the lower payments we will incur fees etc.

Since then I have used the templates on this website (although slightly amended) and have written to the Ombudsman and our local MP. The Ombudsman has notified us that they will get back to us within 6 weeks.

We have just today received another letter from WB formally notifying us of the new rate and that they have lowered the increase from 2% to 1.9% due to an 'improvement in market conditions'!

Hope this helps, it has all been a fairly pain free process and it is very interesting to see what everyone else is doing. I don't think it has been spoken enough about in the press, as it has rightly been pointed out, if WB can do this then what will happen next with other lenders.

I was alerted to the Property118.com Class Action by an email from Geoff Prestridge who is a financial journalist writing for the Mail on Sunday.

I was scepticle about joining the Class Action at first but given the fact that its a win/ win situation ie either we win in court or we win by taking the mortgage brokers/ solicitors to court persuaded me to join.

I also have BTL tracker loans with other lenders so don't really want a repeat of this situation with each of them.

I've registered X5 properties from my portfolio.

My concerns include :-
* WBMC Ltd could call in the loans.
* The Class Action won't raise enough money.
* The barristers opinion won't be as good as many expect.
* We will be called upon to contribute more per property to make up any shortfall.
* The time frame to get a court judgement will be years instead of months.
* Those that don't join will still benefit free of charge.

Nevertheless .....in spite of my reservations I have chosen to join the action.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "03/12/2013 - 14:17":

Hi Mark

I know ive asked this before but don't recall an answer. Is it not possible for you to initially email people first to try and get additional interest and then follow up with calls . That could save you some time maybe.

In additional to what you said above the guy with 20 plus the solicitor with 11 would go somewhere to our target. they would be two very nice additions

Dean

Reply to the comment left by "Chris " at "03/12/2013 - 14:33":

Good choice Mervyn / Chris. I think most of us have, at some stage, experienced the same thoughts / concerns that you have. I think now though, that we are all acutely aware how much worse things will be if we sit tight and do nothing. Irrespective of the non-joiners, we will all be crucified unless we stand up to the bully boys at WB.

Reply to the comment left by "Chris " at "03/12/2013 - 14:33":

Good on you Chris. Like Paul posted we've all "been there" regarding your concerns. For the benefit of ongoing waiverers may I comment upon them? Please correct me anyone if I'm wrong.

* WBMC Ltd could call in the loans.
CONCEIVABLE BUT UNLIKELY
* The Class Action won’t raise enough money.
EXTREMELY UNLIKELY NOW THOUGH A FAIR CONCERN NOT SO LONG AGO. BUT SHOULD IT HAPPEN THEN NO CASE & NEARLY ALL YOUR £240'S IS/ARE RETURNED.
* The barristers opinion won’t be as good as many expect.
AGAIN UNLIKELY BUT AS ABOVE IF WE DECIDE NOT TO PROCEED BECAUSE PROSPECTS OF SUCCESS ARE IFFY, YOU GET YOUR MONEY BACK.
* We will be called upon to contribute more per property to make up any shortfall
MIGHT GET ASKED BUT NO COMPULSION.
* The time frame to get a court judgement will be years instead of months.
WHO KNOWS? BETTER A FAVOURABLE JUDGEMENT DOWN THE LINE THAN NONE AT ALL! LATER IT IS THE MORE MONEY WE GET BACK.
* Those that don’t join will still benefit free of charge.
THIS POINT HAS BEEN DONE TO DEATH IN MANY POSTS ON THIS FORUM. ANYONE PERSISTING IN THIS VIEW WILL BE SADLY DISAPPOINTED WHEN WE WIN. THEY WILL STILL BE OBLIGED TO PAY AT NEW HIGHER RATE OR FIGHT THEIR OWN PRIVATE CORNER AT LARGE EXPENSE WHILE THOSE NAMED IN THE ACTION WILL BE OF THE HOOK.

......... THEY WILL STILL BE OBLIGED TO PAY AT NEW HIGHER RATE OR FIGHT THEIR OWN PRIVATE CORNER AT LARGE EXPENSE WHILE THOSE NAMED IN THE ACTION WILL BE OF THE HOOK

.....and therein lies my problem Richard.
I'm totally opposed to anyone paying a higher rate to join the class action.

The term class action suggests action by a single group. I'd hate to see the class action adopt an 'Animal Farm' approach where all contributors/ members are equal ....but some are more equal than others.

some people have put in way more effort and time than others

Reply to the comment left by "Chris " at "03/12/2013 - 16:38":

I was purely referring to WB borrowers who may think, still, that by not joining the class action they can nevertherless benefit from its success without contributing. They can't.

Are you commenting on recent posts about late joiners to the action maybe having to pay more hence your equality observations? Another matter for another day.

So my remarks have nothing to do with equality at all. Folk are either in and will benefit from so doing when we win, or they are out and won't benefit come the win. Simple choice but there still seem to be some who can't grasp the reality.

Folk are either in and will benefit from so doing when we win, or they are out and won’t benefit come the win.

Do we know that for sure ?