6,000 West Brom BS borrowers get mortgage refund

[Michael Browne]

Borrowers whose monthly payments doubled when their lender increased the rate on their tracker mortgages are hoping a Court of Appeal ruling might allow them to claim back thousands of pounds.

 

About 6,000 West Bromwich Building Society customers are expecting refunds after last week’s ruling that the lender was not justified in changing the rates for buy-to-let landlords on tracker mortgages.

 

In December 2013 the lender increased the rates, despite the fact that the Bank of England’s leading Bank Rate, which tracker mortgages are typically expected to follow, had not changed at all.

 

These borrowers will now receive a refund and be returned to the lower rate. The lender is expected to pay out £27.5m.

 

But West Brom was not the only lender to increase rates for its tracker borrowers

 

Thousands of customers of the Bank of Ireland, which provides mortgages sold by the Post Office, and Skipton and Manchester building societies were also affected when those lenders increased rates on their tracker or mortgages or other loans subject to rate caps.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/after-6000-borrowers-get-mortgage-refund-could-you-be-due-money/