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

Text Size

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


Share This Article


Comments

Gary BTLowner

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

18:39 PM, 8th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "08/01/2014 - 14:41":

1) The veiled threats of WB calling in their loans - I wonder if further legal action will be needed to stop this? If so will it be a second legal fight be undertaken, and will the same £240 offer for existing scheme members apply?
2) I was pleased to see...."We will continue to fight this injustice and we will fight any other lender who tries to follow suit." Similarly will the same legal offer apply?
3) Publicity via Jeremy Vine. To get interest on his programme I think highlighting a large number (how many currently?) of people getting together to fight an injustice/ unfair lender will attract attention. I will certainly do so - what is the link?

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

22:30 PM, 8th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Deceived by West Brom " at "08/01/2014 - 18:22":

1) Please contact ana@lawdepartment.co.uk - personally I think involving the FOS is a waste of time now but the template has been drafted so it's up to you. Others have used it, I've not bothered yet but may well do so just before the cut off date.

2) Possibly, but I do not consider this to be a cost effective use of our legal action funds.
.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

22:44 PM, 8th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Gary BTLowner" at "08/01/2014 - 18:39":

1) Our case will deal with this issue at the same point as challenging the rate rise. Therefore, I doubt further action will be required.

2) It is not possible for me to answer this question at this stage but I doubt it. If the need to run a similar campaign ever arises I will need to charge for my time so the contribution contribution sought will be higher. Same goes for anybody who is not involved in the representative action but subsequently decides they want to be represented if/when we win our case. as I have previously stated, fees on this basis are likely to be in the order of £1,500 per affected mortgage.

3) I will leave it to Justin to decide whether to publish the number of individuals who have instructed him if he feels it is appropriate to do that at this late stage in proceedings. There is no longer an incentive to publish these figures to attract new borrowers as we have already exceeded our initial fund raising targets.
.

Lucy McKenna

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

9:25 AM, 9th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Hi Mark, does your comment (2) to GaryBTLowner, at 22.44 apply to the BOI too. If so what is your advice to us, would it be an idea to sit tight and wait for the outcome of the WB case in the hope that the result will be of use to us. I was very sad that we were somehow it seemed highjacked by the WB case and never quite understood why. Is 118 definitely deserting us?

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

10:01 AM, 9th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "LucyM " at "09/01/2014 - 09:25":

Hi Lucy

I am disappointed that you would even consider that I have deserted the BoI borrowers, nothing could be further from the truth.

The reality is that the campaign ran out of steam, there is only so much I can do. The success of the West Brom campaign is not a result of me putting any more effort into it, it's down to the promotional efforts of the group.

Both myself and Justin have continued to work on the BoI case, Justin hasn't even been paid for his efforts since the funds ran dry. Funds raised only amounted to around £10,000.

If enough money had been raised to take the BoI case to litigation perhaps the West Brom wouldn't have followed suit, we will never know the answer to that. However, the reality is that I have committed huge amounts of time this year to both campaigns and I have not been paid. It's not just the money, this has had an impact of my family too. If I am to commit to promoting cases like this in the future I will need to buy time elsewhere and that has financial consequences.

Once the West Brom case is completed we will have a far better insight into how much funding we will need to raise to take on the Bank of Ireland and (hopefully) we will have a far better track record for getting results which should make the fund raising a LOT easier.

Hopefully you will appreciate the time and effort I have put into both cases this year on an unpaid basis. I don't think it is unreasonable for me to expect to get paid if this does become a long term commitment, what do you think?
.

Lucy McKenna

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

11:13 AM, 9th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "09/01/2014 - 10:01":

Hi Mark, thanks for your reply. Please believe my comment was not intended as a knock at you personally it was meant as a request for some clarification. I admire enormously all your efforts and the time you spend on these cases, I often wonder where you find all the hours in a day.
Yes, I am a great believer in people being paid for the work they do, having always paid staff well because I believe good work deserves good remuneration.

Ian Burton

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

13:05 PM, 9th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "LucyM " at "09/01/2014 - 11:13":

Hi Lucy
When we win the case and you decide to go ahead against the BOI (With Marks help ) I'll chip in £100 from my winnings (if there are any and even if there aren't I'll still chip in) This type of bullying and illegal action cannot be allowed to carry on. If the only way to stop it is to sue/take to court then we should all chip in as we can..
So hope we win. Then I presume Mark will tell us where to send our donations to the BOI fight.

Lucy McKenna

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

13:49 PM, 9th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ian Burton" at "09/01/2014 - 13:05":

Hi, Ian, what a fantastic response, thank you. I totally agree that these type of actions by building societies, banks etc should not be allowed to happen, it is totally immoral and they depend on the "small man" not being able to do anything about it. I will celebrate the day you win your case even if it is not to be for us, but by nature I am optimistic.

Justin Selig - solicitor

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

16:06 PM, 10th January 2014, About 11 years ago

LEGAL ACTION UPDATE:

We have now had our counsel's opinion back from our QC and had the opportunity to study this in depth. We have been given a number of different remedies to pursue but given the privileged nature of the advice it is not appropriate for us to divulge any of our legal strategies on this forum. Therefore we will be sending an email circular to all our instructed clients early next week outlining the next steps.

Going forward, all our communication regarding legal strategy will be off this forum. It would also be helpful for people not to discuss legal strategy on any public forums (including this one) to avoid any professional privilege being breached.

We can confirm that people are continuing to instruct us so the fighting fund continues to grow.

Become a Member

If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!

Sign Up

18:08 PM, 10th January 2014, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Justin Selig" at "10/01/2014 - 16:06":

What about BoI class action clients ?

Can we be advised of the legal strategy with regard to the WB class action ?

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

or

Don't have an account? Sign Up

Landlord Tax Planning Book Now