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 Alexander - Founder of Property118

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16:45 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Ed Atkinson

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16:57 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Mark - I can repeat the regional Landords Associations contacts I did a couple of months ago. I'd hope the press release will include info on Counsel's Opinion. Well done, Ed

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17:42 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Mark

I have received back (via my MP) a three page letter from Andrew Jones, Group Risk Director of WBBS. One paragraph which I thought was particularly interesting was in relation to the term "professional landlord" Mr Jones says "I was rather surprised to see the term "professional landlord" attributed to the communication which your constituent has received from West Bromwich Mortgage Company (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Society). I have checked our communications and cannot find any reference to this term. We have used the term "Buy to Let landlord with multiple properties". This is an entirely appropriate description of individuals who have three or more buy to let properties in their portfolio. We have also used the term "professional investor". Ironically, this is used by the individual who is heading up the class action group through Property 118 of which Ms Everden is a supporter".

This again proves that they are reading this site but also monitoring who has signed up.

He justifies the small print, and says that as a professional investor I was competent to assess and understand the contractual terms relating to the mortgage.

He goes on to justify the increase by stating that buy to let borrowers have seen their mortgage repayments reduced by over 60% and that as the BoE will not be increasing their rates for a while yet that this is having a very adverse impact on the performance of West Bromwich Group. He says that a small number of buy to let tracker borrowers with multiple properties are receiving a wholly disproportionate benefit as a result of the ultra-low interest rates at the expense of the Society's many hundreds of thousands of savers, many of whom are elderly and place a great reliance on their savings income.

I'll forward on a complete copy to Justin as it makes staggering reading!

All BankersAreBarstewards Smith

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17:52 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Nicola Everden" at "04/12/2013 - 17:42":

"a small number of buy to let tracker borrowers with multiple properties are receiving a wholly disproportionate benefit as a result of theultra-low interest rates at the expense of the Society’s many hundreds of thousands of savers"

so when will we see WB offer a corresponding 1.9% increase in the rate offered for savers ? I won't be holding my breath

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18:02 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "All BankersAreBarstewards Smith" at "04/12/2013 - 17:52":

Exactly! No mention of what they will do when the BoE base rate starts to rise either - no doubt they won't be reducing it down by 1.9%! He justifies the increase by saying that when I took my mortgage out I would have been paying interest in the region of 5 or 6% and so even with this rise they are imposing I am still quids in!!!

Dean

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18:05 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "All BankersAreBarstewards Smith" at "04/12/2013 - 17:52":

Im just breaking out a new box of tissues !!

AnneJ

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18:18 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Hi Mark

Emailed important information to Aaron Lyall at London & Country and asked him inform their clients.

Anne

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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18:31 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Nicola Everden" at "04/12/2013 - 17:42":

Hi Nicola

Wouldn't you think that a man in his position would be able to interpret his own company mortgage conditions? It is quite plain for all to see that the condition being relied upon to increase interest rates relates only to Standard Variable Mortgages rates (as per their own promotional materials) and not Variable Rate Tracker Mortgages, also very well defined in their own promotional materials?

The mind boggles!

Nice to know they have a man at the top reading our forum, I'm actually quite flattered in a strange sort of way. I really don't know how he finds the time though! Perhaps he's a non-exec and and has plenty of time on his hands due to being a professional landlord. If that's the case I wonder if he has tracker mortgages? LOL

I would very much like to see a full copy of his letter if you wouldn't mind emailing it to me.

There is no legal definition of a Professional Landlord, nor "Buy to Let landlord with multiple properties" so I can't see the relevance, unless he thinks we are reliant upon consumer based protection, which of course we are not for our case to succeed

I find his comments insulting to pensioners and savers generally in that West Brom are blaming the Bank of England, economic conditions and landlords who provide much needed accommodation to many a needy family for the the policy makers of West Brom's own greed and incompetence during the property boom years and banking crisis of the last decade. They are clearly trying to hide their own shame by pointing the finger of blame in any direction possible and then fleecing us, their own loyal customers to pay for their mistakes. Disgraceful.

My message to West Brom regarding finger pointing is look at your own hand when you point your finger. Three of your own fingers are pointing right back at you!
.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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18:41 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

I NEED YOUR HELP

I have written an article which I need to get to as many mortgage advisers as possible. Not just the broker who sold your mortgage to you, every broker you can find the time to contact please.

This is the link to the article >>> http://www.property118.com/important-message-to-mortgage-advisers-re-west-brom-mortgage-company/61182/

At the top of the article you will see "share this page" and a row of icons. The last icon allows you to print the page or to convert it into a PDF which can they be printed out and handed to mortgage brokers. You can also use the other icons to share the article on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

Thanks in advance for your help 🙂
.

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18:59 PM, 4th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Dean " at "04/12/2013 - 18:05":

Surely that's the very reason we all paid massive arrangement fees to access this product? We took a gamble and we won. WBBS took a similar gamble and they lost! Had the situation been reversed I doubt my writing to them quoting the need to run my business 'prudently and efficiently' stating that I was therefore reducing my payment by 1.9% would have been that well received by WBBS either!

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