Northern Rock\u2019s \u201cmortgage prisoners\u201d are to sue TSB\u2019s subsidiary, Whistletree, in a bid for compensation over alleged inflated interest rates on their loans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Almost 2,500 borrowers are involved in the legal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They claim after selling their home loans to Whistletree, they were charged much higher rates than those on TSB\u2019s standard variable rate (SVR).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TSB\u2019s SVR is 7.25 percent, while Whistletree\u2019s equivalent is 9.54 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The borrowers are part of a larger group of about 47,000 households whose loans with Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley were transferred after the banks collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many loans were interest-only, some had self-certified incomes, and others exceeded 100 percent loan-to-value (LTV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This makes it difficult for these borrowers to secure more affordable mortgage deals, earning them the label of \u201cmortgage prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2016, around 27,000 mortgage holders have been transferred to Whistletree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than two-thirds have switched to a different mortgage or closed their accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, those still on Whistletree\u2019s SVR have reportedly paid between \u00a315,000 and \u00a330,000 more than they had been on TSB\u2019s standard rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court proceedings started today (Tuesday, July 23) and are expected to last four days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Need Career Advice? <\/strong>Get employment skills advice at all levels of your career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n It will assess whether the separate SVR for Whistletree customers breached their original Northern Rock contracts and if the rates were set unfairly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The outcome, expected in the autumn, will determine the next steps for the borrowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rachel Neale, lead campaigner for the UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group, said: \u201cAfter six years of tough campaigning for justice, UK Mortgage Prisoners action group hope that Harcus Parker solicitors are successful in this aspect of justice for our members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAdditionally, we call upon government to right the broader wrongs that only legislative reform can bring about for mortgage prisoners in order to right the wrongs government knowingly enabled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow us on <\/strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>X<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a>, and <\/strong>Facebook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Northern Rock\u2019s \u201cmortgage prisoners\u201d are to sue TSB\u2019s subsidiary, Whistletree, in a bid for compensation over alleged inflated interest rates on their loans. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":62939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[414,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-business-news","category-business-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}