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

Greg Jackson

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16:41 PM, 4th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Mark, further to our email corresspondence could you just confirm that when we go to Court we will know how much it is going to cost each of us and that we are not commiting to an open ended cost.
I am with you all the way on this, however, if you could clarify this point then I am sure that it will put others at ease and make them more confident to join the action.
Keep up the good work as justice needs to be done here!

Common Man

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18:38 PM, 4th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "04/10/2013 - 13:32":

Mark

You said -

"Hi Will
My thoughts at this stage are that we should see what our barrister thinks. Rest assured, I’m very confident that he will read all of these comments because that’s what he did last time on the BoI thread prior to writing his 32 page opinion."

Would it be a good idea for you to collate a list of pertinent points taken from all of the comments, together with your own thoughts, and provide them to the barrister as part of his instruction ?

Colin Childs

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19:12 PM, 4th October 2013, About 11 years ago

The 2013 published accounts are quite revealing. Four years of operating losses and a 60% exposure to BTL is their asset book. Certainly more to this hike in interest rates than just profitering it would appear.

Richard Adams

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22:00 PM, 4th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Common Man" at "04/10/2013 - 18:38":

Hey give Mark a break Common Man! It would be one hell of a job to trawl through 283 posts let alone decide what is pertinent or not. That is our barrister's job. He will be able to decide quickly what is useful and vice versa and will do it anyway like Mark says. No point in having a dog - a well paid one - and barking ourselves.

Mark has done plenty already.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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22:51 PM, 4th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Common Man" at "04/10/2013 - 18:38":

I am also a Common Man, what makes you think I would make a better job of it than you or any other person who has commented here?

My opinion is that of a layman, I am no different to anybody else here, that's why we are forming a group and all chipping in our funds to make the hiring of legal professionals to advise us more affordable is it not?
.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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23:08 PM, 4th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Greg Jackson" at "04/10/2013 - 16:41":

I Greg, I have clarified this point before in this thread but for the avoidance of doubt, we will not commence a group action in the High Courts until we know the extent of our liabilities whether we win or lose.
.

Addicted to fighting the WBBS

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9:08 AM, 5th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Common Man" at "02/10/2013 - 18:21":

Common Man, I have read your post several times to ensure I am not simply repeating what you or others have already posted.

However I am not convinced we are saying/referring to the same points, so I will detail hopefully some new thoughts:

I) KFI - Page 1 - section 4 (description of this mortgage). BTL Lifetime Tracker - BBR +.89% - a variable rate which is the same as the BOE base, currently 5.5%.... with a 'premium' of 0.89% until the term end. As other posts have repeated, the "premium" is not confirmed as fixed or variable, however the product description(Life Tracker) infers although the pay rate is variable, the premium is Fixed. Therefore if the Premium is variable, it should have been disclaimed as variable and/or confirmed it is not fixed.

ii) KFI - Page 2 - section 7 (Are you comfortable with the risks ? - What if interest rates go up ? Surely a significant risk should have also been mentioned/referred to in section about what happens if rates do not go up, e.g. the "premium" can be increased.

Also, The KFI on page 2 refers to The FSA's guide "You can afford your mortgage now, but what if...? "You can get a free copy from http;fsa.gov.uk/consumer . The important factor that is missing in the KFI is that there is no mention or disclaimer that The FSA DOES NOT regulate buy to let mortgages. If the FSA were referred to, why was this disclaimer missing and why have the FSA not included the change in the Premium calculation as a scenario for not being able to afford your mortgage.

iii ) Acceptance of Offer - Still there is NO mention or disclaimer that The FSA do not regulate Buy to Let Mortgages. Following the verbal response from the WBBS yesterday to me, that are terms and conditions are as important as each other (this was the response why the warning of increasing the premium was not highlighted in any specific way in Promotional AdvertKFI/Acceptance offer, then why have they produced a "Special Conditions of Offer" and within Acceptance of Offer, have listed 2 pages with clauses 0827 - 8995 but no mention. Surely this "Risk Warning" of increasing the Premium is not a 'Standard T&C", but rather a Specific one that should have been prioritised. Taking this point further, the ability to raise the Premium is not merely even a Special Condition, but it should be highlighted and warned as a "FEATURE or RISK Warning of the Feature" of the product.

iv) Booklet Page 14 - There mortgage conditions incorporate any terms contained in the OFFER of LOAN. If there are any inconsistencies between the terms in the MORTGAGE CONDITIONS and those contained in the OFFER of the LOAN then the terms contained in the OFFER of LOAN will prevail.

Concerned Landlord

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9:56 AM, 5th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Colin Childs" at "04/10/2013 - 19:12":

Colin, it is not mortgagee's fault that the bank has been run inefficiently. Remember that if anything happens to you that you couldn't pay their mortgage payments the bank would have no sympathy for you and they would not hesitate to repossess your property.

Concerned Landlord

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10:09 AM, 5th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "stuart marshall" at "05/10/2013 - 09:08":

Stuart - Thanks for outlining the pertinent points here. I think your iv point is particularly potent, i.e. the offer letter takes priority over anything else.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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10:18 AM, 5th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Concerned Landlord" at "05/10/2013 - 10:09":

And point iV my friend is why I have mentioned contra proferentem many times in this thread amongst many other legal points.

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