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.