Fixed Rate not reverting to Tracker - Variable offered instead

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guerngirl

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I took out a tracker mortgage with KBC (formerly IIB) in 2006. I then fixed the rate in 2008 and the fixed rate form I signed said 'please note, rate will revert to standard variable rate after the fixed rate period has elapsed. please take legal advice prior to signing this form'. I signed off the form therefore agreeing to move to a variable rate ultimately.

In my original terms and conditions, there is a note saying that the tracker is effective for the life/term of the mortgage. Do I have a case for being reverted to tracker now instead of variable, since I believe the terms and conditions should override the fixed rate form?
 
Why would you think the terms and conditions would over-ride an amendment you made?
 
I read the below in the Irish Independent - the key point being that tracker rate was offered for the life of the mortgage, therefore the terms and conditions, I believe, should override the fixed rate contract...?: Mr Kissane, of Kissane Financial Services in Dublin, said mortgage holders who had trackers panicked in 2008 when the ECB rate jumped to 4.25pc and opted for fixed rates.
The homeowners were not told either verbally or in writing that they would not be able to return to the trackers.
Once the banking system collapsed, and lenders were suddenly hit with much higher borrowing costs, homeowners found they were being put on to more expensive variable rate mortgages when the fixed period came to an end.
This is despite the fact that most tracker contracts have a clause in them stating that the deal is for the [COLOR=#009900 !important]life of the mortgage, he said.
"Many homeowners ran for cover in 2008 when the ECB pushed its lending rate to 4.25pc. But they were never told that they could not go back to their tracker," he said.
The broker said banks may not have set out to deny people a return to a tracker, but once the wholesale markets moved against them they suddenly closed off the tracker option.
He said that up to 50,000 borrowers may be entitled to go back on to trackers.
In 2011 Bank of Ireland was forced to put more than 2,000 of its residential borrowers back on trackers and compensate them after the Central Bank intervened.
 
I wouldn't have thought you had any case. The example you provide is different to your case in that the borrowers were not told they were losing their right to return to tracker, you clearly were and signed agreement to that.
 
I'm not so sure you have no case here.
From my dealings with the ombudsman described here
(sorry cant post a link - its in this forum dated 16-03-2012, )
it was what was in the original contract that was the important thing and he went to great lengths about material changes to the initial contract and how switching to a tracker didn't over ride the conditions specified in the initial contract as to what was to happen on the ending of a fixed period.


Having looked at all of these cases i have never seen one where someone whose initial contract was not a tracker ever managed to make it back onto a tracker - id love to see one that did as this is where my appeal fell down- but the majority of them that started as trackers have been able to get back to trackers.
pat
 
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