Firstly timesharing (multipropriété, but also called other things like interpropriété, polypropriété, pluripropriété, multijouissance and multivacances) isn’t as popular in France as in some other countries, e.g. Spain.
In France, timeshare owner’s purchase a right to occupy a property (jouissance) at designated times (fixed weeks).
Since 1986, timeshare properties have been owned by a limited company, such as a société civile immobilière, in which owners hold voting shares intended to give them a say in how a property is managed. Therefore the timeshare consumers in France are shareholders and not general consumers.
Does this alter the British consumer’s rights?
The creation of the company is for a purpose and that purpose is to maintain the resort for the benefit of all the shareholders who wished to buy the timeshare.
The managers are merely the savants of the collective consumers and the company is just a vehicle to ensure the resort and the value of the investment is maintained for the benefit of the shareholders. I say investment as that is how they were sold in the beginning. Of course that term is outlawed nowadays as timeshare is not an investment.
The shareholder agreement imparts on the shareholder a responsibility to pay (each year) a fee. That fee is so that the investment can be maintained for the investors. The investment is binary and is described as the free use of the resort they have shares in and the investment term yield.
It all sound good in theory however in practice it is utterly unworkable.
Let me explain
This design is utterly impractical as shareholders/timeshare owners are spread around Europe and further afield. The management companies are in control and generally operate independently, sometimes arbitrarily and often for their own purposes which can include inertly or unintentionally therefore imparting problems on the very shareholder which they serve.
The total lack of transparency of the companies and the voting rights have been the subject of many questions and a complete overhaul should take place to ensure that the needs and wants of the individual shareholder is maintained at all times.
There are a lot of timeshare resorts located in ski resorts, and as such when those original timeshare consumers bought into the resort they do so with a single purpose i.e skiing.
In some cases those ski resorts have closed, amended or shortened their seasons.
As a result the resort calendars stops the intended activities those consumer expected to be engaged in and which was the sole intended purpose.
As a result they are locked into a timeshare holidays whereby they can no longer do what they intended to do.
This is frustration of a contract which we reported on earlier and as such the companies should permit the timeshare shareholder to relinquish the obligation and in full.
I say this with some conviction as the timeshare in these ski resorts are blighted, worthless and unsellable as a result of actions by a third party.
Perhaps the good resort managers should consider this but alas they don’t.
Perhaps the resort managers should act in the interest of the shareholders and engage with them to fulfil the needs of the people who pay them but again they don’t.
As the resorts are closed then the shareholders at the resorts should be allowed out and those weeks sold to people who wish to have timeshare in the resort with a different purpose (other than skiing) but they don’t assist the shareholder they merely insist they still have to pay for something they never and I repeat never bought into.
Timesharing in France (also called ‘holiday ownership’, ‘vacation ownership’ and ‘holidays for life’) has earned a very poor reputation in the last few decades and there seems to no material alteration in the perception.
In recent years the RDO and satellite organisation have thrown copious amounts of money at trying to improve the timeshare image (as a whole) and to restore some respectability to timesharing (which include France). Unfortunately that money would have been better spent in doing something and instead of painting a picture which is unsustainable.
Holiday accommodation investment
Instead of being sold as a property investment (which they never really were), timeshares are now being promoted as a holiday accommodation investment or ‘vacation ownership’, i.e. you’re paying up front for many years (usually between 30 and 50) for holiday accommodation. The sales pitch claims that you end up saving money in the long run. This of course is wholly dependant on the maintenance/resort fees and as they rise beyond inflation it is often the case that the representations are un true.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk