The TCA is trying to get to grips with the new and “ground breaking” Supreme Court ruling which came out of Spain Last week and its corresponding implications on other resorts and timeshare contracts.
Let’s take some stock and try and evaluate what this all means before everyone embarks on an adventure.
These are the question you need to ask yourself!
1. Did your resort take a deposit off you with-in the cooling off period (i.e. the first 14 days)?
If yes and you can prove it, you will qualify for a claim and that claim will result in the contract being deemed null and void.
You the consumer will be entitled to all your money back and twice the amount you paid as a deposit.
As you have maintained the resort through constant maintenance payments you will be entitled to claim those maintenance fees back.
Your claim could be very substantial indeed.
Now this is your money and your entitlement.
- My next question is did you pay for the timeshare contract by way of a linked loan/ credit card etc?
If yes then the bank/credit card company is on the hook for the entire amount of your compensation claim.
This rout is a lot safer if you had a linked loan. The chance of winning is the same but a recovery of your losses will be faster and less expensive.
Now what will it cost you to receive these sums?
Firstly
You can either pay someone by way of and upfront fee or you can engage a firm on a damage based agreement .
Those legal companies cannot have both that is called a hybrid agreement and they are banned in the UK.
If you’re legal company charges you an upfront fee and a share of the damages then that contract is voidable and that legal company should be admonished and all payments taken off them. It’s called exploitation.
If you do not have a linked loan then your claim should be transferred to Spain. Again UK legal companies can either render a fee or a damage based agreement. They cannot have both as explained above.
The damage based agreement might be the safest rout for consumers as if the resort goes insolvent or they don’t pay, those consumers who have engage on a damage based agreement will not be liable for the costs which have been expanded and/or incurred.
Clearly this rout attracts a certain amount of risk on behalf of the Legal Company offering the proposal, so percentages could be higher.
The TCA will obtain some quotes from its recommended legal teams, so as assist consumers to instruct ethical legal firms to recover their compensation
See next article re recover of compensation if you have bought a timeshare contract from another consumer who bought into this type of contract.
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