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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Comments

Annette Stone

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13:33 PM, 30th December 2013, About 11 years ago

Colin is absolutely right here. Please do not respond to the article regarding tracker rates as it is entirely irrelevant to the argument with WBBS. The article focused on the best ways forward for 2014 not on what can go wrong with trackers.

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10:00 AM, 31st December 2013, About 11 years ago

I've just received a signed for letter from West Brom regarding the recent request for information they hold on us. They have now had clarification from the Information Commissioners Office and re-visited the position in relation to the credit agency information used to determine the number of mortgages we have elsewhere. They enclosed a report that not only tells them how many mortgages we have but what the total exposure is. We certainly did not have this quantity of mortgages when we took out the West Brom mortgage so they have not relied on the credit checks they took out on us at the time as I was told!

Has anyone else received this letter?

Ed Atkinson

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10:52 AM, 31st December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Nicola Everden" at "31/12/2013 - 10:00":

Nicola, this is interesting. Does the credit report they obtained show the start date of the mortgages? If so, they could use it to see how many you had when you took out the W Brom mortgage.

But still, if they told you it was credit checks when you took out the W Brom mortgage, not recent ones, that were used to target you - that must be a fib. Does being caught telling fibs to customers help them in court?

Did they send the credit agency information from your file for when you took out the W Brom mortgage? If yes - that should confirm the fib, if not, why did they withold it?

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11:35 AM, 31st December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ed Atkinson" at "31/12/2013 - 10:52":

Ed

It is a really basic table which literally just says 18 mortgages, total exposure X, it doesn't detail any lenders, date when they obtained this information, who they used to obtain this information.

I've had a quick look through the paperwork they sent regarding the request for information and can't actually find a credit agency information report which I presume they would have carried out at the time we took out the mortgage. I know for a fact that back in 2007 I did not have 18 mortgages though!

Ed Atkinson

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12:26 PM, 31st December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Nicola Everden" at "31/12/2013 - 11:35":

Thanks Nicola. Good work.

So has anyone who sent in the information request been sent credit agency information for the time of their W Brom application? I think we have been here before in the 286 pages of discussion and I think the answer is a clear No.

Also, has anyone been given a reason or excuse as to why this info has not been provided? Apologies if the answer in already in the 286 pages. I guess Paul Eastabrook might be able to answer as he has been on the ball regarding this issue throughout.

Auntie P .

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12:26 PM, 31st December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Nicola Everden" at "31/12/2013 - 11:35":

Hi Nicola and all. This is the first time I have commented on this site although I have read pretty much every comment since I discovered P118. I have a very small portfolio and am a member of the class action group. I figure that if WB hadn't been able to find out who has multiple properties then they wouldn't have known who to target for the increase. I based my complaint to the FOS on this and have specifically asked WB how they found out. They sent me an obscure letter saying they would not disclose but suggesting that I contact Experian and/or Equifax. I have since received confirmation from both of these companies that WB did not access my information from them. I have forwarded this information to the FOS and await a response.
I am left wondering how on earth WB can have obtained the information and am convinced that it was definitely WITHOUT my consent! My mortgage broker has full details about my portfolio and I am now wondering if it is possible that WB has extracted the information from him somehow..... ?

All BankersAreBarstewards Smith

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14:03 PM, 31st December 2013, About 11 years ago

If we have a mortgage broker amongst our midst..... i am sure s/he can tell us how the HUNTER system works to disseminate information about us

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14:13 PM, 31st December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Auntie P ." at "31/12/2013 - 12:26":

Hi Auntie P

Andrew Jones Group Risk Director of WB responded to my MP on the point regarding the credit reference. He said

"When borrowers applied for these mortgages they completed an application form which gave the lender (West Bromwich Mortgage Company) a number of rights as regards the use of credit reference data. One of the reasons that the company was authorised to use a credit reference agency was for the "management of your account". Consequently, the credit reference checks that have been undertaken are within the purposes which have been accepted by the borrower. It may also be helpful if I clarify that these credit reference checks would not leave a footprint which would be visible to another lender".

My understanding was that credit checks should only be carried out if there is a concern on the borrower's ability to pay the mortgage ie the management of the account. I cannot see how they can justify carrying out the check to see how many other mortgages I have and therefore if they can increase the interest rate on the mortgage I have with them!

Paul Eastabrook

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14:36 PM, 31st December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ed Atkinson" at "31/12/2013 - 12:26":

I didn't really get a proper answer from WB in this regard. I had originally assumed that WB ran its check on me / us sometime between May and September of this year as May is when we got involved in a second BTL mortgage with another family member and September when we got the original nasty letter. At that time, I was unaware of the 3 BTL mortgage stipulation and WB did nothing to inform me of that.

It was only when I ran Equifax and Experian checks on us that I noticed that WB didn't run VISIBLE checks on us until early November 2013, presumably as a result of our complaint. That was when I finally realised why it thought we had multiple BTLs. I ascertained that it had used old data on us (presumably from 2007) and thought that our residential mortgage was 4 separate mortgages of which 3 were likely to be BTLs. It then re-ran the checks on us after we complained 6 years later.

I have brought the error to WB's attention a number of times but it now sites the 2013 mortgage, that I actually informed it of, to justify its original decision, even though that would still only account for a maximum of 2 BTLs. I did send a "final" notice to it on 20 December, based upon Justin's template about our mortgage now being re-defined as a "consumer", rather than a "commercial" agreement, but it appears not to have been delivered yet, according to Royal Mail's "signed for" service.

ROSEMARY BOSWORTH

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14:40 PM, 31st December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Auntie P ." at "31/12/2013 - 12:26":

I received a snippet of a report that looked like a piece of data input when I asked where they had sourced this information this is the response I received:

"We are not obliged to release the details of the Credit Reference Agency who has supplied this data. If you feel this information is incorrect, I have provided you with the details of Experian and Equifax below should you wish to confirm the details held about you:"

Did who ever supplied the information used details from these agencies?

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