West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Alexander” at “03/12/2013 – 18:17“:

Well done Mark. Great news about the funding. I can concentrate on doing some tax returns now before the deadline. These have been a little neglected recently.Totally agree with the price hike at a later date. I think £1500 will still be good value considering.

I also think Richard Watters idea of an additional small increase to £340 at a certain date would encourage another boost in funds too. Maybe from the 6th January 2014? Give people time to reflect over Christmas.

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Alexander” at “03/12/2013 – 18:17“:

That sounds extremely fair to us Mark, and thanks.

I think we have all cast the net far and wide to draw borrowers’ attention to the property118 campaign, and people can now make an informed decision as to whether they are in or out before the deadline of court action.

We are infinitely happier than we were 2 months ago thanks to your tireless leadership of this campaign, and can now actually look forward to Christmas! So, sincere thanks from Perthshire to you, and everyone else who has contributed.

Regarding the latest Press Release, once you have published it I will forward to our local and national Scottish papers.

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Alexander” at “04/12/2013 – 09:47“:

Mark

When you publish the press release I will forward it to local newspapers in the Sheffield area. I will also ask my contact at Barnsley Council to forward it to the Landlord Associations in this area she deals with.

Here is a website I found sometime back. Im sure I posted it them. It lists all the National papers with links to their websites. If volunteers could pick up a couple each to email that would help Im sure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom

Dean

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Alexander” at “04/12/2013 – 09:47“:

Certainly happy to help sending the press release to papers. A little bit of feedback that I had on the previous press release was that it was a little too complicated – certainly where some of the local papers were concerned. I was told that what some journalists wanted was an easy story to just cut and paste and not a complicated description of the underlying issues. Something along the lines of a more attention grabbing tabloid headline along the lines of: “Greedy bankers at WBBS spoil Christmas for thousands with unlawful rate increase, putting tenants at risk of eviction, etc etc. Propert118 steps in to mount a legal fight-back, etc etc”. Maybe we should consider two press releases? One for the national broadsheets and a second, simpler one for the tabloids and the local press?

Hi Mark,

Been away for 10 days and overwhelmed by input in my absence. Can you advise;

1) How to switch off email notification of each new comment (inbox bursting!)

2) Is there a way to follow the comments of individual contributors only, eg yours & Justin’s?

Many thanks, Ken

I’ve had my letter in from the FOS asking me to complete their complaint form, do i just go ahead with that?

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Lynham” at “04/12/2013 – 12:11“:

Mark. I don’t think so, not yet.

Are you part of the Class Action. If so Justin will be emailing details of the next stages.

Would like to help with press releases if I may can help with Devon and Cornwall Mark…..

Reply to the comment left by “Dean ” at “04/12/2013 – 12:26“:

i am yes but i dont get much chance to keep upto date with all the comments.

thats fine, i’ll hang fire, thank you.

Reply to the comment left by “Richard Kent ” at “04/12/2013 – 01:14“:

Hi Richard, thanks for the link to David Lawrenson’s site.

David wrote, under the heading Small Print,

“And the lenders arguments, made forcefully by West Bromwich is that as landlords are supposed to be professional business investors, they are therefore supposed to have had the gumption to read all the small print.

So lenders have started targeting the buy to let landlords, (providing of course, that their own small print allows that lender a possible way out).”

David is not an affected borrower, I believe, and so has not received the standard letters from WB. These letters do not claim that we should have read the small print.

The first letter, under the heading “Why are we doing this?” states that “As a property investor, you will perhaps be aware of the changes that have taken place in the buy to let mortgage market over recent years.” A bit further it states that the cost of funding to mortgage providers such as WB Mortgage Company has increased.

This just does not follow, as I have posted earlier. I do not follow what is happening in the money markets, or know anything about WB’s funding. I assumed that WB had secured its funds prudently. I did not think that it was following the Northern Rock strategy of borrowing short-term to lend long term.

However, David does allude to the real reason that WB is targeting BTL borrowers in the section of his blog prior to Small Print – it is because we have no regulatory protection.

I was not aware of that until this problem arose. I think it is scandalous that we have no protection. I see another campaign ahead.