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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Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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9:31 AM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Richard Adams" at "16/10/2013 - 21:11":

Good morning Richard

You are quite right, I have amended my comment above - see http://www.property118.com/west-brom-building-society-to-increase-btl-tracker-margins-by-2/43657/comment-page-68/#comment-30318

I have also updated the Class Action Expression of Interest Form on all related pages as well as updating the auto response emails which are sent out when people complete the form. The response emails now link to the overview article which has also been updated based on the constructive feedback provided yesterday by Sam Collett, Kevin Jeffrey, Neil Gallagher, yourself and Dean - see >>> http://www.property118.com/tracker-rate-class-actions-update/44117/

Thank you to all who are providing constructive feedback and keep it coming please.
.

Ed Atkinson

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10:34 AM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

I have some suggestions for the publicity stunt at the W Brom main branch, or HQ. As landlords we don’t want to be too whingey and bitter in public as we have limited public sympathy, so a lighter tone will help us and will make it easier to fit into the news schedule, where they like the odd lighter item.

I suggest that we stage a funeral for the credibility of banks, as inspired by the brilliant gravestones artwork that Andy Bell produced, with the epitaph: “Trust in banks died Sept 2013”. This would also make our campaign easier for general news consumption, so long as the W Brom and Property118 aspects were still prominent.

I imagine a pall-bearing walk along the street and then lowering a coffin into the ground, with a suitable eulogy and mock weeping. I reckon lowering a coffin into the pavement would be easy enough using a collapsible coffin that laid flat (I am a bit of an inventor). The graveside would be imitation grass that is easy to lay out on the pavement or wherever.

Most demonstrators will just need to come in funeral clothes, the only difficult dressing up would be the vicar. (Mark is this your hidden calling?)

A final twist could be an announcement of the death in the Times along the lines of the famous “Death of English cricket …Ashes have been sent to Australia” . This could be the same day or a few days before. “We report the sad death of Trust in UK Banks on 23rd September 2013. After a long illness Trust in Banks finally died in the West Bromwich head office when …… Trust in Banks will be mourned by many throughout the UK who remember happier times when a Bank’s promise was secure….” (OK yes, this needs work)

If this idea inspires better suggestions I’ll be delighted. Let’s get creative.

PS I reported back last Friday on my phoning round to local landlord associations.

http://www.property118.com/west-brom-building-society-to-increase-btl-tracker-margins-by-2/43657/comment-page-50/#comments

Update - I have had no further response from the emails and messages.

Meanwhile I had managed to speak to these and they said they were in action:
North Staffordshire Landlords Association
North West Landlords Association
Portsmouth and District Private Landlords Association
East Midlands Property Owners
Guild of Residential Landlords

The last one certainly followed through.

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10:56 AM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ed Atkinson" at "17/10/2013 - 10:34":

Brilliant - wish we lived nearer!

Andy Bell

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11:02 AM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ed Atkinson" at "17/10/2013 - 10:34":

Ed, Lots of potential in that.

preceeded by notices in news papers BDM's ?

"“We report the sad death of Trust in UK Banks on 23rd September 2013. After a long illness Trust in Banks finally died in the West Bromwich head office when …… Trust in Banks will be mourned by many throughout the UK who remember happier times when a Bank’s promise was secure….” no flowers, contributions to the fighting fund at http://www.property.118

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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11:04 AM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Andy Bell" at "17/10/2013 - 11:02":

In principle I like the idea as it could also work well on You Tube.

However, we must remember the West Brom are a Building Society and not a bank.
.

Andy Bell

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11:35 AM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "17/10/2013 - 11:04":

Quite right Mark, I had toyed with that as well - "mortgage lenders", "financial institutions", "banking sector" etc.

On balance for the snappiest marketing strap lines, quotes, headlines and sound bites. My judgement went towards "Banks" being the closest to the general public perception, the public bank with a building society run by bankers. It serves as a "hook" to draw more in to the detail. IMHO and open for debate.

We are also in contracts with the West Bromwich Mortgage Company Ltd. which I expect was deliberately set up to distance the lending (and liabilities) from the mutual society. I'm not sure where this fits an overall terminology?

I'm happy to roll with the flow on this.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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11:56 AM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Andy Bell" at "17/10/2013 - 11:35":

I concur with your logic Andy, just making certain we are all on the same page. The mock funeral idea would last for around 2 minutes at tops. We need more ideas. I do also worry about how many might turn out. It there are only a handful of it it will look crap.
.

Devon Landlords

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11:56 AM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ed Atkinson" at "17/10/2013 - 10:34":

Good ideas Ed! - also we thought that with Halloween coming up in two weeks time it could be extra fitting with funereal connotations, trick or treating etc - we certainly got "tricked" by the West Brom!!

AnneJ

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12:51 PM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

I have contacted the Newcastle Private Rented Service who are going to email all their members and direct them to Property118. Written to David Cameron, George Osborne, Chi Onwurah MP and emailed everyone I can think of who could be affected. Really like the idea of descending on West Brom. As previously said, we all need to stick together and fight this unethical and outrageous rate rise.

Rob & Julie Atkin

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13:06 PM, 17th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Just back from our (marred by the WBBS) holiday and have transferred our £960 into the Law Department's Client Account.

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