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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ian

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16:44 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Brilliant idea Mark how about doing the same to the FCA get there attention to.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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16:47 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Andy Bell" at "15/10/2013 - 16:35":

These are brilliant!

How about posting them to our Facebook group as an album we can all share.

How about some angles about faith in FCA, speed of FOS, protection of tracker rate margins.

These could go viral.

I have Tweeted with the agreed #Tags and also given you a Google +1
.

Dean

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17:13 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Follow this link to a petition web site shown on BBC news this morning

http://www.change.org/petitions/west-bromwich-mortgage-company-limited-reverse-their-decision-to-increase-the-rate-on-buy-to-let-mortgages-which-was-not-noted-in-their-original-offer-letter-and-signed-agreement?utm_source=guides&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition_created

Hopefully it will bring a few more to this site

I am not sure but I think it needs 100 signitures toactually go live on the Change.org site

We have 72 so far so please email the link to as many people as you all can . If it is 100 needed I would like it to go live today as it seems to be in todays news

Thank you

Mark Landlord

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17:15 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Andy Bell" at "15/10/2013 - 16:35":

These are fantastic Andy !! Sums it up perfectly

Dean

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17:16 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

important posting by Mark today thought I would repruduce it for the evening crowd

Dean

Please see my latest update article >>> http://www.property118.com/tracker-rate-class-actions-update/44117/
.
Mark Alexander recently posted…Tracker Rate Class Actions Updates – 15.10.2013My Profile

Mark Landlord

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17:20 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Also just opened a letter from my MP Stephen Hepburn acknowledging receipt of my letter to him from last week & saying that he has contacted the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on my behalf.
He says he will contact us again when he has any further information

Peter Faulkner

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17:49 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

I have studied this letter and think they are on thin ice. Generally Lenders always have the whip hand. But the wording and the tone suggests they are not 100% sure of themselves in this case and could be “flying a kite” even offering to waive fees to encourage clients to move lenders, (when they know the only suitable deals on the market available now are above 4.00%)

I would write to them (recorded delivery) and state the following;

1.You object to them trying to increase the interest rate charge from the agreed amount by 134% (more than double)
2.You took out the mortgage in good faith on a promoted life time tracker rate after the initial discount at BoE plus 0.99%. In 2008 the Bank of England rate was 5.25% and you were paying 6.24% on your mortgage – no help from the Lender at that tine and if the BoE rate had gone up to 10%.the client would have had to pay!
3.Because Bank of England rates have since gone down to 0.5% in 2010, are they saying that they are now losing money? They set up the product and would have bought the funds on the money markets on a similar deal, they took the risk it may go down, and you took the risk it may go up.
4.As a credit agreement, there was nothing in the terms and conditions of your mortgage that you signed up to (on the advice of your solicitors) that said the lender could change the rate if they so wished.
5.They comment that you are an experienced landlord with multiple properties, this is not true, you have limited experience and only have a few other properties and use professional letting agents to manage these properties. Even so, what has your knowledge or experience got to do with it – When you entered into the contract you were new to buy to let.
6.Their letter says a “”tracker rate is not expressed as a fixed rate” This is wrong, it was expressed as “fixed at a rate of 0.99% above the Bank of England base rate”. If they are charged with managing their business prudently, then they should not have gambled, you agreed to their formal offer and accepted that if interest rates increased, you would have to pay more. So what happens if BoE interest rates now go up to 6%, are you expected to pay 8%? It appears they want it both ways.
7.In short you do not believe they have a right to make such a materrial change to the mortgage contract.
8.Request a copy of their terms and conditions as at 2005 with the part they claim gives them permission to make such a change highlighted (the consumer credit act does not focus on who benefits, who doesn’t and how experienced the parties are, but does focus on what was declared by each party before they signed the contract.
If not regulated (which is the case, then pure contract law applies.

I would cancel your Direct Debit and continue to make payments by standing order until this is resolved.

Get a professional legal advice (maybe a class action) to review and advise.

If it was me, that’s what I would do – I believe it is “natural justice”, are they saying if the BoE rate went up to 10% they would reduce your payments down to 3.49%! no think not!

Alexander Law

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17:51 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Dean " at "15/10/2013 - 17:13":

I am Spartacus - now we have 74 signatories!

Scottish Association of Landlords

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18:05 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

The Scottish Association of Landlords has emailed the call to action to our members today. We have also asked those members affected to also contact us directly with their concerns.

Paul Sotheran

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18:29 PM, 15th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Hi

new to this forum but have monitored its reporting for a couple of weeks now.

My documents and £240 went in the post today.

Just a thought ..... I wonder if the treasury will be pleased to know that WBBS will be responsible for a reduction in our taxable income due to the increase in interest paid i.e. tax deductible

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