West Bromwich Building Society Tracker Margins Legal Action

I’m merely expressing a personal opinion as to why many others have not signed up to the class action. The threat of calling in the loans will probably be a considerable worry to some and should not be underestimated.

Those that are already signed up will presumably, like myself, have considered & accepted the risks which have been well covered on this forum for the last few weeks.

Reply to the comment left by “Norfolk n’Chance” at “15/12/2013 – 20:12“:

With respect to your concerns there will be two possible scenarios which will play out in practice………

1. You will win the case and assuming you do, West Brom would find it difficult even impossible to call in loans after the fact. If they tried to it would be seen as retaliatory action by the lender which would not be supported by any court.

2. You loose the case and you will simply be on a rate which West Brom want you to pay and are happy for you to pay.

These will be the two possible positions.

I maintain the Class Action is going to win.

Reply to the comment left by “Norfolk n’Chance” at “15/12/2013 – 20:12“:

Just to add to my comments,

Putting this is further context…..

You will also appreciate the infamy West Brom will suffer after the win by the Class Action.

You should then raise the following question….

Will West Brom risk attracting further infamy by targeting borrowers of the class action by calling in loans after the win?

I hope I don’t have to answer it for you 🙂

Therefore the veiled threat by West Brom to call in loans is a hollow threat designed to scare you into inaction and acceptance of what is, in and of itself, an unlawful hike.

How can WB target those that have signed up, they cannot find out who has if you don’t announce it ?

Reply to the comment left by “ian ” at “15/12/2013 – 23:11“:

Ian,
Think about the question you have just asked.

You are wrongly implying that someone needs to announce something here on this forum.

Now think about the list of people who are part of the Class Action which is part of the Court Action.

You should already have the answer in your mind, which is the answer to the question you just put to this forum.

Reply to the comment left by “Norfolk n’Chance” at “15/12/2013 – 20:12“:

There has been speculation til the cows come home why more affected borrowers have not signed up for the action? There have also been many posts about the risk of WB calling in mortgages. You and I accept the risk is worth taking. I just don’t buy the idea that many waiverers continue to hold back purely based on this fear.

Much more likely many affected borrowers undoubtedly still don’t know about the action sadly, despite the massive publicity effort. My “personal opinion” though is that many still remain of the wrong and warped notion that they can ride to success FOC on the coat tails of those of us who have contributed. They are in for a nasty shock when we win.

While not long ago we did need more financial contributors to the action, now we don’t so whatever reasons anyone has for still holding back it is their loss not ours.

No need to speculate any more.

It would be nice if coverage was greater in the main press. But I have to say that sometimes despite the very great efforts of those here and myself, it sometimes can be just impossible to convince personal finance journalists on the main papers to write about some issues.

Just yesterday, in the Sunday Times Money section, Anna Mikhailova was writing a guide to SVRs. In it she referred to base rate trackers as a better alternative… but no mention of what WBBS and BoI and other lenders have been doing to try to renege on tracker deals.

A good example of how things can fester for ages is the annuities scandal. This has been an outrage for years but only now, following the publication of an official report, have the journalists got off their backsides and started writing about it.

Sometimes, that is just the way it is.

Having been interviewed by a good many of the main press personal finance journalists over the years, I am more than aware that most are young, are not home-owners and are definitely not landlords.

Many therefore often struggle to empathise with or even understand the issues involved.

However, one day the journalists will certainly come to write about West Brom and the BoIs action. That day will be when these lenders lose the court case, as we think they surely will.

David Lawrenson
http://www.LettingFocus.com
Private Rented Sector Consultancy

Reply to the comment left by “David Lawrenson” at “16/12/2013 – 10:00“:

and speaking of the Times Money section, guess who is top of the rankings for ‘The Best Mortgages’ – its your friend and mine the West Brom with a 1.48 Fixed!

I did make the point to Mark some time ago that it was going to be very difficult to get this story into the “nationals” in any big way because the banks and building societies are very big advertisers. That’s not the only reason but it is a contributing factor.

Once we have Counsel’s opinion the story stops becoming a “financial/banking” story between a bank and its “commercial” borrowers as they see it and, hopefully, becomes a story about unfair charging which could affect every borrower in the land.

I think we will have more luck with the daily and Sunday Press at that time and I have a few irons in the fire!!!!

Our West Brom mole donated £100 to the market fund this weekend. How cool is that? !!!
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