Timeshare peddlers have new tactics and are tantalizing unwary tourists into investing in resorts, with promises of part-ownership
British consumers about to set off on their factor 50 summer holidays are being warned to be on their guard against a potential new quandary in the timeshare market: the hard-selling of “fractional ownership” of resorts.
The UK European Consumer Centre (UK ECC), issued the warning and said it wants to hear from anyone caught up in this potential scam.
The TCA joins in with the concerned consumers groups that timeshare salesmen – a long-time nightmare for UK holidaymakers abroad, particularly in Spain – have switched tactics and are now trying to entice the unwary into investing in holiday properties and resorts, with the promise that they will own a fraction of its overall value.
On the market are such products as:-
A fraction of a point system
A fractional interest of a factional point system
A fractional interest of a sub lease
A fractional interest of a lease
The fraction interest of a freehold were someone else have blind trust interest
And a fractional interest in potentially nothing.
Finally a fractional interest in a fraction notion that you will have the fractional security that potentially a fractional interest will be winging its fractional way to your fractional benefit.
The actions of timeshare operator’s actions have been partly prompted by new European legislation that gives those signing up to timeshare schemes a cooling-off period of 14 days.
Even though the operators clearly stated they embrace change they have been working and beavering to get round the 14 day thinking time afforded consumers
In the past, holidaymakers have been ground down in boiler rooms and pressured into signing up to expensive timeshares and then sometimes found it impossible to get out of the deal when they realise what they had been sold.
Jed Mayatt, the UK ECC’s manager, says the hard sell of fractional ownership is an emerging issue for holidaymakers. “This is becoming a real difficulty in some resorts, with timeshare owners being told that if they buy more weeks, their investment can be converted to fractional ownership.
“The consumer is persuaded to buy more weeks, completes the paperwork, but gets nothing to show for it in terms of the deeds, etc. They have simply found themselves signed up to further weeks’ timeshare ownership.”
It’s truly appalling says the TCA! No matter what the industry say they will do, no matter what is promised and what is hailed. The underlying current is to lock down the pockets of existing timeshare consumers and when the poor cow is milked to death they try and go after the calf’s.
The UK ECC is appealing to Britons to make contact with them and express their experiences. “Once consumers have outlined the details of their problem, they will know whether they can help.
No doubt they will coordinate with the Citizens Advice who will take council from TATOC and the RDO and when the penny drops they will have stopped and moved onto another equally despicable product so that the fat cats can enjoy the champers and hampers life style.
Keep your hand on your pant again as captain paralytic and the legless pillion passengers start pulling teeth to get at those consumer credit cards.
Fractional ownership has been popular in the US and in Europe, where it has often been used to buy into ski chalets. Now it could be being marketed to consumers as a way of buying into upmarket resorts with deluded equity.
Mayatt says that while there are plenty of legitimate schemes of this type, some are nothing more than a new way to sell extra timeshare. It is a similar story for holiday clubs, he warns. “The dodgy ones trade on the reputation of the best operators – it’s impossible for those [people] on holiday being given the hard sell to differentiate,” says Mayatt.
“Under the terms of the new timeshare directive, consumers effectively have a 14-day cooling-off period. We are monitoring this aspect of fractional ownership over the coming months – in particular the summer – and are putting a call out to UK consumers to let us know if they have experienced this kind of trouble, and we will do our best to help them.”
The couple, who declined to be named because they are about to go into arbitration with the resort concerned, paid £20,500 for an extra week’s timeshare in Tenerife on the basis that this would convert their investment from timeshare into fractional ownership, meaning they would own a proportion of the resort.
Alas they were talking to a timeshare sales man or an ex timeshare salesmen who has changed his ways-seen the light and is now selling doggy investments -which are to most a delusion, but they might not require a 14 day cooling off period.
There is little point contacting the MP’S they are busy getting elected, so that they can pick up the phone from citizens with issues and direct them to the Citizens Advice who will in turn send them to TATOC who will assist them by sending them back to the resorts (they are members off). If those needy consumers see action fraud there is no problem they will consult with KwikChex and the Timeshare Task Force who are financed by the RDO and TATOC and they will send them back to the resorts.
As usual the salesman told our couple that it would consequently be worth more and be easier to sell on – but no paperwork has been supplied, and it now looks as though they have simply been sold a further week’s holiday access at the resort. “We were told we were upgrading our investment to fractional ownership, but it wasn’t true. We’ve been duped and we are desperate to get our money back,” says the woman concerned.
Piers Brown, who runs the website and exhibition business FractionalLife.com, says developers in Europe have increasingly turned to fractional sales as a way of shifting unsold developments and properties.
“With the overseas property market badly hit by the economic downturn, both developers and owners have increasingly been looking at fractional ownership. For consumers it makes sense because they no longer face all the costs of running a holiday home, at a time when prices are very uncertain.
“It’s imperative to make sure that you are being sold a ‘deeded interest’ in the property – your lawyers need to be checking this very carefully.
Meanwhile, if you are interested in buying into one of these schemes, you need to look closely at the annual upkeep charges. As many timeshare customers have found, it may well be cheaper simply to book a conventional holiday each year.
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