The UK Mortgage Prisoner Action Group is today launching a legal bid through law firm Harcus Parker to win compensation for the extra interest they have paid as a result of being trapped on high rates.

The group says that more than 200,000 former Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley borrowers are trapped paying “excessively high interest rates and other unfair charges”.

FCA estimates put the number of mortgage prisoners lower at 120,000.

Some borrowers have had their homes repossessed or paid tens of thousands of pounds more interest as a result of being stuck on rates over 5 per cent. 

Neville Heron estimates that he has paid £32,000 over the odds as a result of being trapped on a high standard variable rate, while Jill Hulme says she has paid £20,000-£50,000 extra for the same reason.

Speaking on BBC Two’s Victoria Derbyshire programme this morning, Hulme said: “It has been a terribly desperate, anxious, stressful time for the past 10 years.”

Harcus Parker partner Damon Parker told the BBC that lenders have a duty to offer borrowers a fair rate.

He said: “And we say that our clients have been unfairly treated because they’re paying too much… at a time when every other mortgage customer is paying unprecedented low rates.”

“It’s not fair to charge people just because they are collateral damage caught up in a nationalisation.

“Some people have got into terrible financial situations. Some people have been repossessed.”

Speaking on the programme this morning Parker explained the firm would be suing “the people who are collecting these high rates”.

He said the action had a “good hope” of winning compensation for the amounts overpaid and securing “reduced rates in the future”.

Rachel Neale of the UK Mortgage Prisoner Action Group, is urging anyone who would like to join the claim to visit Mortgageprisoners.com.

She says: “I believe we have got a really good chance of success as we have been treated so unfairly for so long.”

The law firm is understood to have filed notice of a claim on behalf of Northern Rock borrowers today and expects to issue proceedings in Spring 2020.

After this it expects to take action on behalf of borrowers who took out their original mortgages with Bradford & Bingley, Mortgage Express and others.

The law firm is acting on a no-win no-fee basis and would take a 35 per cent cut if the claim is successful.

UK Asset Resolution declined to comment.