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
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.
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
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Member Since November 2013 - Comments: 3
11:28 AM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
Hi All,
Joined the class action and sent payment of £480.00 to Justin, took me a while to do it but as previous have said, feel better for doing it.
cheers
andy
Member Since October 2013 - Comments: 139
11:59 AM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Andy Dee” at “26/11/2013 – 11:28“:
Welcome aboard Andy.
As you tell, we are try trying to convince those watching but as yet uncommitted to join up.
It certain does feel much better for taking some action but was there anything else that swung it for you?
Member Since October 2013 - Comments: 134 - Articles: 1
12:17 PM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
Just come back indoors and it looks like Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 is going to cover RBS sometime between now and 2pm, and how it (allegedly) drove small businesses into the ground so it could make profit.
The website is inviting participants to phone in on 0500 288 291, text to 88291 or email to [email protected].
It may be worth chipping in with our own anecdotes.
Member Since October 2013 - Comments: 66
12:18 PM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
The West Brom have simply refused to answer my question;
Am I still on a Tracker Mortgage?
If so, can you please tell me what am I tracking?
Has anyone else experienced this, can anyone else get a straight answer?
Member Since November 2013 - Comments: 3
12:44 PM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Andy Bell” at “26/11/2013 – 11:59“:
Thanks Andy.
To be honest I was probably always going to join the action, just needed a bit of time to get everything together, I have sent the complaint letters etc without success and now feel it has to be court.
I would also urge anyone else like me that was sitting on the fence with their fingers crossed to send their payment as the amount of time and effort mark and everybody else is putting in to this deserves success
Member Since September 2013 - Comments: 14
12:50 PM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
Freedom of Information Request
I got my FOI documents back from the West Brom.
What they did not send me was:-
1) Any information detailing the original credit reference search they did on me.
2) Any information detailing this additional / further credit reference search that may have been carried out to determine how many properties I own.
3) I thought they would also have included the West Brom response to my initial complaint, it is after all a document with my name on. Furthermore should they not also include my original letter of complaint, again another document with my name on ?
Questions
a) What do other posters think my next course of action should be ?
b) Has anybody else who submitted a FOI request received any Credit Reference information ?
Everybody who has signed up should submit a FOI request to keep the pressure on West Brom.
Rgds
Common Man
Member Since September 2013 - Comments: 80
1:15 PM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Matthew ” at “26/11/2013 – 12:18“:
Matthew
Albeit a very simple question, I think it is a very important question that West Brom need to answer.
Apart from requesting a simple answer to a simple question, I think their written response would certainly add to our argument, i.e. if they state “we are still on a tracker mortgage”, then this surely must help us argue why are they treating the mortgage like a standard variable rate mortgage.
Anyone have thoughts on hundreds of us requesting a simple answer to a simple question from The West Brom ?
Surely from a TCF (treating customers fairly), West Brom havea responsibility to confirm if we are all still on Lifetime Tracker Mortgages ?
Member Since November 2013 - Comments: 8
1:16 PM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
My wife and I have finally got off the fence! We sent the documents to Justin last week together with a cheque for £720.
Having spent a considerable amount of time exploring the options available, we concluded the best course of action is to take the West Brom to court in a group class action.
Well done to Mark and the team for spear-heading this action. I can honestly say that we feel a lot better knowing we are part of the group.
Member Since September 2013 - Comments: 80
1:19 PM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Matthew ” at “26/11/2013 – 12:18“:
Matthew
You are asking The West Brom a very simple and important question, i.e. “are we still on lifetime tracker mortgages ?’
Their written response to this could certainly help our argument as to why they are managing our mortgages like Standard variable Rate mortgages.
Surely from a TCF (Treating Customers Fairly) perspective, they can at the very least confirm what type of mortgages we are currently on……
Member Since October 2013 - Comments: 386
1:56 PM, 26th November 2013, About 12 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Mark Alexander” at “26/11/2013 – 09:29“:
That attitude works well if we raise the funds to fight this. That’s exactly what I want to happen.
But if the required funds are not completely in place , do we say no we don’t want an out of Court settlement but we cant fight you in Court anyway? So they get to increase the premium on all and other lenders go ahead and do this same because no one can raise the capital to stop them ?
I don’t want to sit back and say Im alright Jack. But I would like Jack to get his hand in his pocket and help out . At the moment I think there are too many Jacks sat back thinking , let these deal with this at their time and financial expense and Ill be ok.