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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Rob

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2:05 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Could it be that the BOE base rate will never go up?
Do the banks know this,is this why there putting up there rates instead of waiting for the bank of england to increase base rate?

If the banks are going to set there own rates regardless of BOE base rate then why would the BOE base rate ever need to rise?

Sam Collett

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6:40 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ju Stacey" at "08/10/2013 - 22:13":

Thanks for sharing saves me having to nip down the shop now to get a copy!

I was a bit worried how the situation would be presented, but I feel they have got the key msge across.

I esp liked:
"Miss Collett could not see the clause that allowed the rate change in her mortgage contract.

The West Brom pointed her to a separate booklet she was given when the loan was taken out. The small print, clause five, is on page 15 of this"

Kevin Thomson

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8:34 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Sam Collett" at "09/10/2013 - 06:40":

Interesting to read Sam's Daily Mail article.

it makes me wonder if the Banks draw up these mortgage contracts so that they always win. If so then might fixed rate contracts also have such a clause?

For example, if BoE were to go to the other extreme, eg 10%, then fixed rates could be raised towards the BoE rate 'due to exceptional circumstances' etc?

If so, we could use this point in our campaign to the wider public that banks and their so-called mortgage contracts just cannot be trusted. We'd get more support if more people are potentially affected by what BoI/West Brom have started.

Concerned Landlord

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9:17 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

My humble opinion is that we should stay focus - campaigning, lobbying MPs, etc are all good stuff, but there is no authority above the court of law - I think we should all contribute to getting this heard in the court - banks can say or do what they like at this stage, but once there is a decision against WB it will have the attention of all of the banks and also whilst this legal battle is going on, it is unlikely that other banks will be changing their 'premium' part of the tracker rates...

Sam Collett

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10:21 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by " " at "09/10/2013 - 08:34":

Sadly, as you will see from some of the comments left, landlords are so hated people do not understand how this affects them. Or why it is a big deal.

I have tried to explain this in my latest blog post.

Tracker Mortgages Are A Ticking Time Bomb http://bit.ly/19yWQu5

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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10:31 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Sam Collett" at "09/10/2013 - 10:21":

Hi Sam

I have tweeted your blog with the agreed hashtag. Twitter users, please click the RT button in the live tweet below

and please RT Sam too

Dean

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10:54 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Sam Collett" at "09/10/2013 - 10:21":

Landlords are hated by some tenants who think they are in their rights to trash your house , leave it in a filthy state owe you money and want their bond returning. They sit around all day watching their 55 inch TVs, supping tinnies watching Jeremy Kyle thinking the world owes them a living . Some of mine have windows you cant see through cos of the dirt. 12 month old carpets that stick to your feet smoke alarms beeping cos they cant be bothered to change the battery, no working light bulbs, bags of rubbish in the garden, brown toilets that should be white. They then wonder why they have rats .They are the type of tenants that hate landlords.

Fortunately most pay the rent on time , respect the property and the neighbours. Promptly report any problems , allow workman in to deal with those problems, make them a cuppa and thank you for sorting it. They appreciate landlords and have a good relationship. But you don't hear from them very often .

Dean

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11:17 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Mark

I know you are away soon for a short while.

Before you go would it be possible to get Justin to let us have a brief appraisal of where this is at.

Funds raised
People signed up
Thoughts so far
Next step

Also Im sure every landlord taking out these products will have had both a broker and solicitor go over the documents with them. We all know this is a scam by West Brom so its highly unlikely either the broker or solicitor will have made any mention to it.

Would it be a good idea to have a template letter drafted by Justin so everyone could write to both to put the broker and solicitors Professional Indemnity Insurers on alert. If everyone had the same letter it could include a paragraph requesting that the broker/solicitor ask a representative from the insurance provider to contact someone at the action group.

It is likely that there are only a dozen or so providers of this PII for each brokers and solicitors. If enough notices of potential claims come in surely someone at these companies would see the benefit of assisting the legal fund rather than fighting claims.

If its true that WB will increase revenue by £15m per annum the average remaining term of these loans is likely to be 15-20 years . £15m over 17.5 years is £262.5m !!

Probably around £10m per provider. Ok they may feel they can provide a case to leave the landlord bang in the middle with nothing but if each provider could be persuaded to contribute say £15000, a fraction of potential losses and a fraction of potential legal claims that would raise between £300K and £400K. Surely enough to put together a strong case against WB ?

Maybe I am being too simplistic. What do others think ? Is there anyone who works in the insurance industry that thinks insurance companies are prepared to do things like this ?

One other point on this . I read on this site someone mentioning Enact ? I got the impression that they were solicitors provided by WB as part of the deal ? Are they linked to WB? They potentially stand to lose a lot if they didn't bring this very important tucked away hidden clause to the attention of borrowers .

Appreciate others thoughts on this ?

Thank you

Sam Collett

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11:29 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Just to let you all know The Daily Mail have seen a great response to this and have now been contacted by more people - so fingers crossed we will get the support we need.

I would also like to raise another suggestion, in addition to all the legal stuff we are doing: Can we get West Brom done by the Advertising Standard's Authority for their tracker claims? (screenshot as per my blog post and earlier in this thread).

Thoughts?

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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11:39 AM, 9th October 2013, About 11 years ago

I have just received another letter from WBBS together with all of the paperwork I requested.

I will be sending this to Justin today along with the following letter ....

West Bromwich Action Group
The Law Department
7a Wellington Road
London NW10 5LJ

9th September 2013

Dear Justin

Please find enclosed my papers in respect of the mortgage I have with West Bromwich.

I owned a substantial number of buy to let properties at the time of application and still do. Please note that property investment was not my line of business at the time I took the mortgage. All of my properties were professionally managed in order to allow me to focus on my career as a commercial finance broker. I did not consider myself to be a professional investor at the time I took out this mortgage, the purpose of investing into a property portfolio was to provide for my retirement.

Neither my mortgage broker nor my solicitor were aware of the rights of West Bromwich Mortgage Company to increase the premium they charge on my tracker mortgage rate. I did read the Mortgage Conditions brochure at the time I did the deal and felt that section 5 was not applicable and only relevant to mortgages written on the building society’s standard variable rates which do not track the Bank of England base rate. This was supported by the marketing materials being used by the West Bromwich tracker mortgages to promote their tracker mortgages. Also, there was no mention of such a vital clause in either their KFI document or their offer letter.

Yours sincerely

Mark Alexander
.

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