Bank of Ireland increase differential on tracker rates

The devil is in the details. What we don't need here is landlord haters here lecturing us saying we should accept a loss. I assume all these people have their pension funds & saving in ethical funds ?!
I doubt it. No, they put it wherever you can get the best gain regardless of which companies it's with!
Drug companies that fake drug trials, arms manufacturers, companies with 3rd wolrd sweat shops etc etc!

Landlords provide property that's needed in the rental sector as not everyone wants to buy, students & people on the move in their careers etc. If I don't keep my properties up together I don't get decent tenants. I'm in a market place. I reap the consequences if I don’t do things correctly then I get no income but still have mortgages to pay.
Unlike EU bureaucrats, bankers, civil servants & polticians.

BTW my properties are worth no more than they were 10 years ago so no capital appreciation. Were it not for low interest rates giving us some income then it wouldn't even be worth being a landlord.

I digress. As I said the devil is in the details.
It seems B&W (now BOI) never gave out mortgage terms & conditions booklet on pre 2004 mortgages. It wasn't included in the list of docs as listed on the mortgage offer we have. No one else has managed to find a pre 2004 terms & conditions booklet as far as I’m aware.

The further advance we got in 2008 was accompanied by a terms & condition booklet that said they could only change the differential in our favour. So how can they claim they can now do the opposite of that for pre 2004 mortgages on the basis of a book that was never given to anyone!?

What is needed here is BOI mortgage holders to check out their mortgage docs & compare & share information here & work towards a class action.

I look forward to more constructive replies.

RE: GAVIN
Unable to sell because first time borrowers cannot get a mortgage for my house due to the banking crisis. You cannot expect customers to pay for the bank mistakes !!
Radio 4 comments are incorrect. Please read MARK ALEXANDER posts about the Unfair contract of terms and lack of clarity at point of selling the tracker. This tracker was misleading and in breach of advertising rules. I would have not signed any contract if I was told at the beginning that the base rase tracker might move to a variable any time.

I took out a B&W (now BoI) mortgage on my first buy to let property in 2004 and I have received the unpleasant notification of the change to the differential on the tracker rate. I have no memory or record of being supplied with a copy of the Residential Mortgage Conditions referred to in my offer letter. I can however clearly remember the stickler of a solicitor who undertook the conveyancing for me - and feel sure that he would have made me fully aware of this clause had he himself been aware of it.

I have just left a formal complaint with BOI and will be contacting FOS as soon as i have received a letter from BOI. Also I can't remember getting a letter from BOI offering me a sum to move the mortgage, as I am sure this is something I would have at least explored.
I am happy to be part of a collaborative course of action against this immoral and possibly illegal change to what we all seem to believe was a contract for the term of the mortgage.

Mark Alexander has offered a draft letter of complaint, drafted by a legal expert.

I think he will publish it here soon.

If you have been affected by this BOI decision you may choose to wait for that.

II have now read the T & C’s from Bank Ireland. I wonder whether than can be done for mis-selling fixed tracker for a discretionary tracker?

If you look at page 5 of the offer paragraph D then it says ‘’Subject to our mortgage conditions, we may also increase the differential under this paragraph for any other valid reason’’ ..in other words then can change it when they want for what ever reason,,,? In that case why put a figure down of 1.75% in the first place? I think it is mis-leading and lead me to believe if was a fixed tracker

There are also lots of reasons listed given by BOI in their Mortgage Conditions 2002 why they can change the differential – see 9 (10). Again in other words does this not mean they can change the interest rate when ever they want?

I am a mortgage adviser with no BoI mortgages but i'm seething about it. How can we as professionals advice people on mortgages if a lender is prepared to change the deal mid contract. In my mind from a selling perspective the industry is clear there are fixed rate mortgages - which remain fixed, there are tracker rate mortgages - which track the BBR at a specified level, and there are variable rate mortgages - which the lender is free to change as they see fit (some are loosely based on BBR but those clearly state that they are still variable rates NOT trackers). If tracker rates could be changed as and when the lender felt like it they'd be variable rates based on BBR NOT tracker rates. A court must surely see that. I wish all of you the best of luck in your endeavors. Don't give up the fight!

I am not sure how much this helps you BTL guys but for residential holders like me,
I found a copy of the Residential Mortgage conditions 2001 Edition 2 (England and Wales), which I received when we took out the morgtage in Nov 2003. (How do you post files here if anybody would like to see it all?)
Here are the terms which seem to apply from section 6
(m) Unless otherwise provided in the offer, we may not change the differential (if any) at any time by giving you not less than 30 days' written notice. Conditions 6(o) to

6(r) apply to any change in the differential which we make under this condition 6(m).

(o) We may reduce a positive differential or increase a negative differential at our discretion.

Now if the banks were honest why not simply advertise it as variable and dispense with all the small print.
Ive sent my letter of complaint to BOI today, see what happens.

I have just come off the phone to Bank of Ireland myself and asked them about my situation. I have a BTL interest only mortgage which began in February 2006 and ended 5 years after so that would be February 2011, and since then I have been on a tracker rate + 1.75 so currently on 2.25%. They said that I was not affected and that the people that were, it would have stated that the "differential" could be increased in their paperwork. It's a big relief for me and the lady actually double checked for me to confirm that I was ok. If anyone would like to ask me what my paperwork specfically says then I am happy to provide this information if it helps others.

@John - please email the mortgage conditions booklet to me and I will upload it to our document library and then post a link to it here so that all readers can download a copy. My email address is mark@property118.com