That form constituted an advertisement.
Did you disclose to KBC that you wanted "some" (but not absolute) certainty regarding the maximum rate you could be charged? A regulated service provider can only make a judgment as to the suitability of a product on the basis of what is disclosed to it by its customer.
You said yourself that KBC didn't offer you a selection of product options so the highlighted text would not appear to be relevant.
I disagree that a reasonably prudent and observant borrower would not have understood the meaning of the phrase "standard variable rate" (as opposed to a tracker rate) in 2006 or that the phrase is in any way confusing. You are obviously free to disagree on this point.
In my opinion, it is simply not tenable to argue that anybody would have ever thought that a variable rate that made no mention of any margin over any reference rate actually referred to a tracker.
I completely disagree with this...
You can be sure that if the ecb rate kept rising then the banks would respond that "variable rate" related to a tracker mortgage.
They go with the simpler flier or advertisement of the day.
No matter what way you try to spin it, "Variable Rate" is an ambiguous term.
I remember the advert and it was very specific about tracker mortgage and it may have mentioned apr. It did not mention standard variable rate.Fair enough but it was a generic advertisement rather than a recommendation that was tailored to address any particular customer's individual requirements.
I really can't agree that consumers, in general, would have been unaware of the difference between trackers and other variable rate loan products during that period. There are plenty of threads on this forum from that period on this topic and the Central Bank ran a high-profile TV advertising campaign - remember the guy on the bus?
In my opinion, it is simply not tenable to argue that anybody would have ever thought that a variable rate that made no mention of any margin over any reference rate actually referred to a tracker.
I remember the advert and it was very specific about tracker mortgage and it may have mentioned apr. It did not mention standard variable rate.
I reckon you need to have a full file to understand what the argument is.Are you saying the ad for the fixed rate products stated that a borrower would default to a tracker at the end of the fixed rate period? That's certainly relevant and if that's the case you could definitely argue that the terms of the product were misrepresented to you.
However, I really don't think you would ever convince a court that the parties understood a "standard variable rate" to refer to a tracker, in the absence of any mention of a reference rate or a margin over that rate in the contract. Banks were definitely continuing to offer traditional variable rate mortgages during that period.
Ok, so you're not actually saying that there was any advertisement that suggested that a borrower would default to a tracker rate at the end of their fixed term but rather that, back in 2006, everybody (lenders and borrowers) would have understood a reference to a "standard variable rate" to be a reference to a tracker rate of some sort.
Is that the argument?
Home alone tonight, so had a look through documents.
Interesting to see the original offer document states that the mortgage is an Annuity Home Loan Variable Rate mortgage and the apr at time of offer was 2.95%
No mention of any other rate details except that it is subject to the special conditions - its in the special conditions that the rate will be 0.95% above refi rate.
So even in their own documents, the "standard" variable rate was the documented rate subject to any special conditions.
Remember, the fixed rate terms were "in addition" to terms and conditions already agreed.
Also, initial correspondence with iib when applying for the mortgage gave me three options to choose from - "3 year fixed, 5 year fixed or variable rate of 0.95% above ECB rate."
No other variable rate was offered - because the "standard variable rate" at that time was an agreed percentage above ecb.
IIB did not disclose that the company's "standard variable rate" was not the variable rate provided as the "standard variable rate" of the day as per mortgage offer, advertising and documents and was in fact a very specific rate that they did not publicise at the time, nor offered at the tine, nor gave a definition of at the time.
Letter of offer Nov 2005, drawdown January 2006.What year did you take out the mortgage with IIB?
We first drew down in Jan 2007, fixed for 3 years.
We 'rolled off ' onto standard variable and as far as I was concerned at the time that was that.
The emergence of this flyer coupled with a work colleague informing me that he got his tracker at the end of a fixed term in 2009 from KBC has got me curious .
Is there anything specific in my paperwork I should be looking for?
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