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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15:12 PM, 2nd January 2014, About 11 years ago

West Brom "rant and rave" call centre line.

Some of you are going to have some real fun with this >>> http://www.contact-centres.com/1213.rantandrave.case.study.west.brom.htm

If only we knew the number!

Seems to me that they must only transfer happy customers to this line LOL

Perhaps we should all call them and ask to be put through to their "Rant and Rave" line? 😉
.

Ed Atkinson

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15:16 PM, 2nd January 2014, About 11 years ago

To Mark Smith when you next log in .... what were your concerns that give us only a 70% chance of a win rather than 99% ?

It would be good to see how this estimate changes when you read through the first draft of the QC’s opinion.

If you or Mark A. feel this should not be posted openly, then fine, keep it under wraps.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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15:22 PM, 2nd January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ed Atkinson" at "02/01/2014 - 15:16":

Hi Ed

It is very unusual to get better a barrister to say you have much more than a 50/50 case, 70% is almost unheard of and especially so for an ATE insurer to underwrite legal costs on better terms than that.

The QC didn't give percentage chances at all, his opinion just gives a probability outcome to each legal argument of win or lose.
.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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15:29 PM, 2nd January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Charles Pilton" at "02/01/2014 - 11:39":

Further thoughts.

We only need three decisions to go in our favour:-

1) That West Brom can't apply the increase

2) That West Brom can't call in our loans on the basis of their veiled threats

3) A costs award in our favour.

If we lose that's not the end of the road by any means. We then have two further choices:-

a) To raise the funds required to appeal - we could then set the target to be to raise the necessary funds to have our QC representing us

or

b) To pursue "no win no fee" claims against the solicitors firms which acted for us.
.

Kevin Thomson

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15:19 PM, 3rd January 2014, About 11 years ago

I had some problems logging in.

- in answer to a question from months ago, the WB tracker rate increase was mentioned at p55 of the recent NLA magazine. I've had no reply yet to the email I've sent, and re-sent, them. I'll raise the issue with them at the next local NLA meeting.

- when WB said that they would be raising our rate by 1.9% instead of 2% there was discussion on the forum as to what WB were up to. My thoughts are that they may be trying to scupper a potential avenue of claim that Mark raised a while back, probably in October. He said that our claim against WB could be the sum of the extra 2% on all our mortgage payments until the end of term. If this were to come off then I would get a cheque for about £50,000. This is what I want! Far preferable to have the money in hand and up-front than just to go back to the original terms of my lifetime tracker. I'm sure WB would not want a legal decision against them which forced them to come up with so much money up-front. By changing their (illegal) premium from 2 to 1.9% they are reinforcing the fact they consider this to be a variable premium, therefore not easy to calculate what extra we will be paying per month for the remainder of the mortgage term….and therefore not easy for a judge to make an award. I'm sure there are other reasons for this move by WB, but this could be one angle.

Craig Holmes

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16:05 PM, 3rd January 2014, About 11 years ago

Hi, I sent my documents off and sent the £240 by bank transfer on 11th December. I know we have had the Christmas break, but I was wondering when to expect to hear about the next stage. If anyone could advise I would be most grateful.

Regards

Craig

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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17:09 PM, 3rd January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Craig Holmes" at "03/01/2014 - 16:05":

Hi Craig

I suggest sending an email to ana@lawdepartment.co.uk to check that your instructions have been received.

Ana only works two days a week so please bear that in mind.

It may well be that with Xmas post and the holiday period she may not have got around to acknowledging receipt yet but it is worth checking that your papers have actually been delivered.
.

Paul Eastabrook

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13:18 PM, 4th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Interestingly, and notwithstanding any pending legal action by ourselves, I received an unrelated letter from my residential mortgage provider today. The contents aside, it stated at the bottom of the letter "Please note that although the +++++++ is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (sic), your mortgage is not regulated".

This seems to directly contradict what the FCA told me about why it would not intervene in disputes concerning unregulated products such as "commercial" (i.e. BTL) mortgages, but would be able to for regulated products such as "residential" home-owner mortgages.

Either way, it seems to suggest that the FCA is relatively ineffective in all such situations.

Ian Burton

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21:43 PM, 4th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Hi Folks
Happy New Year.
Just to show something that we have done is showing some result (not a massive result but perhaps shows they are a little wary) I have received today an unsolicited letter from the WB saying "following recent clarification from the Information Commissioner's Office" etc telling me something about my mortgages that I obviously didn't know.
Not a lot but added to the fact that they will have to send this to everybody who asked more money that they must spend.
A Small result.

M Jones

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13:10 PM, 6th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "02/01/2014 - 11:55":

Thanks for the update Mark, I am inspired by both your and Mark Smiths confidence and thank you for your opinions - I am sure we are all convinced that WBroms action is wrong, however it is reassuring to hear that this is also true from a legal perspective.
Further to Charles Pilton's post however I would reiterate that many (I believe) are prepared to pay more towards this case if required - we will trust your judgement on this matter - however we want to win this at first attempt, if an appeal is necessary it will prove to be far more costly in the long run, lets put our best foot forward from the outset.

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