LIBOR Scandal Claims for Property Investors

LIBOR Scandal Claims for Property Investors

11:45 AM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago 25

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LIBOR Scandal Compensation for Property InvestorsAnyone who holds any form of mortgage or loan should examine their portfolio now to see if the interest payable to the lender/financier is linked in any way to a LIBOR rate of interest.

WHY?

A case in the Court of Appeal last month has given a chance to those holding such products to challenge their validity in court.

WHAT’S THE BACKGROUND?

LIBOR is the collective name for a series of interest rates that were published (until they were barred from doing so in April 2013) by the British Bankers Association. The rates were meant to describe the actual trading conditions that banks were experiencing in borrowing and lending funds to each other. The most common rate was the one the bank would expect to pay to borrow funds for 3 months from another bank. The banks would submit their rates daily, and the trimmed average would be published at 11.30 am.

Trillions of pounds-worth of products are dependent on one of the range of LIBOR rates to fix the interest rate paid by the borrower.

Following a multi-national investigation, principally covering the period 2005-2010, several UK banks, including Barclays and RBS Group (which includes Natwest) have been fined massive amounts by UK and US regulators for secretly manipulating the LIBOR rates to suit their aims; either to exaggerate their creditworthiness by reducing rates, or increase profits by increasing the rates. For example, there was a pattern of rate rises on the first business day of each month, being the day when many variable rate mortgages had their rates reset. There have been ‘departures’ at board level, most notably Bob Diamond, and sackings of those lower down the pecking order.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME?

If you have a product that is with one of the lenders who have been fined and is pegged or linked to LIBOR you may be able to rescind it. The Court of Appeal has given permission for a case to be brought against Barclays on the basis that had the borrower known that the bank was manipulating the LIBOR rate for its own ends, and which had an effect on the rate the borrower paid, the borrower could have thought differently about entering the contract. In the words of the judgment;

“If the day after the contracts had been made, the banks had told their counterparties that they had been manipulating LIBOR in the past and intended to do so in the future, but would be happy to pay any loss that their borrowers could prove, the borrower would (arguably) be sufficiently horrified so as to think he would be entitled to rescind the deal.  The law should strive to uphold the reasonable expectations of honest men and women”

WHAT IS THE UPSHOT?

First, a borrower would not have to prove that he actually suffered loss from the manipulations. It is enough that the product is from one of the relevant lenders, and that it was linked to LIBOR at some point in the relevant period (2005-2010). Second, if the contract is rescinded you would still have to restore the sums lent, but only to the extent of the current value of the property that they were used to buy. If you have property that is worth less than your borrowings you will only have to repay what the value now stands at. If your property is in negative equity you may be able to save considerable sums as a result of this wrongdoing by the banks.

If you have any questions which you don’t mind sharing in public forum please post them in the comments section below and I will respond as soon as possible.

If your enquiry is of a more confidential nature please feel free to contact me offline, my details can be obtained via my Property118 member profile and when doing so please mention this article. I am a barrister who specialises in mortgage and financial fraud and litigation, acting always for the customer.


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Comments

Shakeel Ahmad

13:02 PM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago

Please confirm if only & only loans/credits that are linked to LIBOR applies. Loans that are linked to Banks variable rate, Bank of England rate are not applicable.

Mark Smith Head of Chambers Cotswold Barristers

13:06 PM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "shakeel ahmad" at "02/12/2013 - 13:02":

This is correct.

You need to tick these boxes to get the case off the ground
1. LIBOR rate is used to fix what you pay back
2. Product is from a lender involved in manipulation
3.The property is now in neg equity (if a mortgage) or you can show other losses to you from the operation of the contract (not from the LIBOR being manipulated)

Don Holmes

13:23 PM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago

Very interesting I have 2 situations of this nature developing 1 with Barclay's where they agreed one thing about "write down" "write off" of losses after a valuation exercise, which they are now denying, kicking myself for not getting the terms of the valuation exercise in writing, lesson, learned there! However I have another meeting with the senior director NW in Manchester mid December to determine who said what and when, so for now I will keep my powder dry, unless Mark Smith is available for a day out LOL, but will defo stay tuned in on this one, The second is HBOS twisted my arm to convert from 1.5%OB to LIBOR +2% on a £2,000,0000 facility and then pulled the end balance of the facility £700k, saying I was under water, and that without a formal valuation they can not lend any more, I objected to vals, on the basis that I new their tactic was to pull the whole loan on the basis of out of covenant, the case was passed to recoveries who have since determined that in fact we were not under water "It gets worse" in fact three of the properties were not even accounted for within the branch analysis, which actually we new, and,"it gets worse" it now seems the three missing properties are not even registered at LR in their favor? and they have gone quiet for the last 9 months?? My question on this one is, do I re-mortgage the missing 3 as this will defiantly rock the boat and put the others at risk? or 2 Do I have an argument for contractual compliance in them continuing with the balance of the facility?

Rob

13:52 PM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago

So if i have 1 personal loan with Barclays and 1 personal loan with Natwest (1 year remaining) both were on a 7 year term at say 10.9% for the whole term how do i know if im affected by the libor scandel? Plus 4 barclaycards at whatever silly interest rate im being cherged?

Mark Smith Head of Chambers Cotswold Barristers

13:53 PM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Rob walsh" at "02/12/2013 - 13:52":

Unless the interest rates are specifically LIBOR pegged then you have no remedy

Rob

14:01 PM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Smith (Barrister-At-Law)" at "02/12/2013 - 13:53":

How do we know if there libor pegged? Ask the lender,i can imagine there answer.

Shakeel Ahmad

14:51 PM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago

It is quite obvious from Rob Walsh's comment that the Banks are not going to facilitate any queries. Turkeys voting for Christmas, comes to mind in the festive season.

Surely, all Banks funding's are based on "Libor" i.e. monies raised to advance to applicants looking for credit. It stand to reason that they have been menupilated. Irrespective of how the Banks have offered them to customer i.e. variable rate, Bank of England rate etc.

I am aware that Banks also lend out Depositors monies. Considering the Banks mentioned interest rates on offer to its depositors this cannot be a very amount of their balance sheet.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

15:03 PM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Rob walsh" at "02/12/2013 - 13:52":

It would be extremely unusual for unsecured loans or credit card facilities to track the LIBOR rate. I think you are barking up the wrong tree there Rob.

Similar response to Shakeel, unless the loan is a LIBOT tracker with Nat-West, Barclays or RBS then forget it.

This will mainly affect commercial property investors or large scale portfolio residential landlords.
.

Rob

15:12 PM, 2nd December 2013, About 11 years ago

I must admit i am a bit of a wishfull thinker,it helps me sleep!

9:49 AM, 9th January 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi we took out a libor mortgage with JP Morgan Chase on 4 sept 2006, we are still with them, we noticed our libor going up and up every quarter, then when the libor fixing scam came to light, suddenly our libor dropped dramatically, are we entitled to any copensation, and if so how do we claim?

Kind Regards
Deanne.

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