West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

You are all doing such brilliant stuff. I wonder peoplewho do not have mortgages with wbbs can do in terms of swelling the numbers Justin can refer to. If he could (say) that he represented 5,000 wbbs borrowers and 10,000 other buy to let landlords who are eagerly awaiting a decision on whether a contra Ct is actually a contract there would surely be weight in numbers. After all that is what we are talking about here in a nutshell. I was one of those who did suggest to Mark that people not directly affected could contribute to the fighting fund and I have done so. I have also sent e mails to journalists and my MP. The idea of getting this out to as many borrowers as possible is really important and if there is anything Justin thinks we can do I would like to hear it.

As far as wbbs launching their new rate at the same time as they are doing what they are doing to their buy to let landlords remember the school playground. Every bully needs supporters. Wbbs stopped lending to buy to let landlords, then changed the terms of their contract with those lenders and then drummed up support from the owner occupied sector with a very generous offer. Any one tempted to take them up on this should think long and hard before doing so. What's to stop them changing the terms of those mortgages in the future? If I were borrowing from them I would go through the contract with a fine tooth comb and get their written confirmation that there was no possibility of them raising rates throughout the term

I emailed all the landlord associations as well. Hopefully we can get some additional support from some members of those. I'd like to know how much mark and Justin think we would need to put up a decent legal case ?

I know people are happy with 81 in the first week but there are supposed to be 6700 landlords effected. Surely 10% wouldn't be out of the question.

I see some on here are agents. Does anyone have any contacts with zoopla , right move etc ? Could they be persuaded to add a link to their sites ?

Could you agents put a link on their own sites?

If you are a landlord and use an agent could your agent add a link ?

Keep lobbying your MPs please. If anyone needs an address for theirs let me know.

Dean@turnerbeaumont.co.uk

More emails to watchdog and tv and radio please.

I've had a reply from the PM and Mr Clegg and Bank of Englanfd.

Clegg and BoE a waste of time really PM has sent it to Treasury.

Let's aim for 200 sign ups by end of next week.

Reply to the comment left by " " at "12/10/2013 - 22:16":

There is something we can ALL do to reach out to more WBBS btl borrowers who may be unaware of Property 118 and the class action. Pretty basic really.
We've all got mortgages through a broker pr brolers right? Presumably we enjoy a cordial relationship with them? Contact them and chat about the situation which they are bound to know about. They should be concerned about it surely? Ask how many clients they have with WBBS btl mortgages. Ask if you give them a template e mail/letter, will they send it to these clients. Although the wretched Data Protection Act did not stop WBBS finding out how many properties we have, it will stop brokers handing names to us. When he/she says yes follow it up with suitable template for them to send. Should the broker be reluctant remind them it is in THEIR interests that we win the case otherwise they, and solicitors, could just be done for negligence in not warning us about Clause 5.

Reply to the comment left by "Annette Stone" at "12/10/2013 - 20:17":

Annette

I don't think a non WBBS borrower can be part of and thus named in the class action. Nothing to stop them though chucking a few quid into a fighting fund.

We must face up to the reality though that even if every man/woman jack of the 6700 WBBS btk borrowers knew about the seriousness of the situation and that a class action is kicking in, many would do nothing. There is a sad prevalence amongst many folk "not to get involved" in anything and there will equally sadly be a few freeloaders who will sit back thinking they can ride shotgun on our efforts - and expense - and benefit when we win. We certainly need to disabuse the latter group of this notion for their sake as well as ours.

Yes 81 is a good start to the class action but its only a start ! The more that join us the stronger the arguement will be , hopefully once all the photocopying has been done that number will rapidly increase . All those interested by standers should be away of a previous posting that if Justin gets a settlement for his clients there maybe a confidentiality clause so they will neither be told nor aware of our success. In my view you need to be in it to win it and for a relatively small sum you should want to be part of this significant challenge .

Richard. Your comments are really helpful and as I said I have already contributed early on in the campaign and I would be prepared to kick in a bit more provided that anyone who did this was advised of the outcome. I quite understand the confidentiality clause but this could be extended to include financial contributors and supporters of the claim. After all, this case could be useful to us in the future as well. I think that although we cannot be directly involved in the Class Action because we are not wbbs borrowers that does not mean we are not in it to won it as Dave says and since I think that the more support you can get from interested parties who cannot be party to the class action the better

I am discussing what is going on with my buy to let landlords wherever possible and have sent off e mails as well

If you advertise the amount of signees this may have an adverse affect if the freeloaders see that you have raised enough to get to stage 4 then they will sit on the fence & await the outcome as like BoI, Just a thought.

Reply to the comment left by "ian " at "13/10/2013 - 14:11":

Correct me someone if I am wrong but what freeloaders need to understand is that sitting on the fence won't get them anywhere. Only those named in the class action will benefit from the victory. Remainder will be exactly where they are now. OK they will gain some benefit when they take up cudgels with WBBS to have their existing interest rate reinstated from case law established by our victory, but they will have to do it all themselves. Therefore unless I've got it completely wrong, freeloading apart from being slightly repugnant is also a false economy.

Reply to the comment left by "ian " at "13/10/2013 - 14:11":

It's very difficult to know what's best to do with regard to numbers. But it's important to know what's needed in the way of funds to get a good legal case together. If people are sitting on fence to save £240 maybe if they can see we are close it may encourage them to spend the money to help. But the most important thing is to get the word out to as many as possible. If all 6700 landlords knew about this surely we could get 10% of them prepared to put their funds in. If 670 paid the £240 net if vat and the 118 commission is a good £120000. That has to be enough for good case.

Reply to the comment left by " " at "13/10/2013 - 16:58":

Only 100 of us out of the original 13500 contributed to the Class Action that's less than 1% take up.
Why they will not fund a court case to me is beyond belief.
Richard opinion was if one got of then all would.