Silverpoint has been the butt of a lot of the recent court cases that we have been reporting about in relation to Timeshare fractional points and contracts made in perpetuity. However, it seems that they have landed themselves in even murkier water. Their Palm Beach Club was suffering from loss of owners over a period, and it was becoming unviable for them to upkeep the resort for the owners that remained. They have stated as much in their committee report in 2016:
“There are currently over 3,300 weeks of cancelled membership, close to 20% of the total weeks. The Club now consists of just less than 62% of individual members excluding the Silverpoint Vacations S.L. membership and it has been obvious to the Committee for some time, that this is not economically viable and to continue in this way will lead to a further downward spiral of financial difficulty for us all. The Club simply cannot support this level of unpaid weeks. This level of non-paying weeks could mean an additional burden to the members.”
So, what have RDO members, Silverpoint, done to resolve their problem? Turned the problem on their remaining Palm Beach owners!! Silverpoint had a meeting back in 2014 to start ‘relieving’ their remaining owners from their fixed week/s in Palm Beach. However, these owners were quite happy with their life long purchase of their timeshare unit in that specific resort. They have come to know Palm Beach as their second home, and were very much perturbed by the idea that they would be given another unit in a resort that was not known to them. One would have to question why RDO do not offer assistance to Timeshare consumers in this position, however the RDO, although continuing to stipulate that they work on behalf of the timeshare consumer and the resort alike, seem to back the resorts more than the consumer. In the end, if the resorts did not exist, the consumers would not, and neither would the RDO, a little vicious circle.
Mrs Dutton, one of Palm Beaches owners who owned several weeks is heading up a legal battle against Silverpoint and Resort Properties (whom the Spanish courts have declared are one in the same company) for some sort of retribution. Mrs Dutton and a group of similar owners are taking this to the courts, declaring that Silverpoint are in breach of fiduciary duties (their duty of care towards their customers along with breach of trust in relation to the assets that they have purchased in good faith). These owners have all purchased the time in a certain unit for what they believed the rest of their lives, but this seems to have been taken off of them without any consideration of the effect on the owners. Apart from losing their holiday home, they will be dispersed among other resorts, and of course not in the same location. They are then expected to continue paying their maintenance for the new unit, and continue as nothing had happened.
What are the benefits of moving these owners on for Silverpoint? This is where it becomes interesting, Silverpoint is doing this to liquidate their Palm Beach assets by means of selling the units on the open market. The majority have already been passed over to an estate agent and sold off, leaving not much play in Mrs Duttons’ court battle. Although, the outcome of this should be interesting, and could possibly have a domino effect on other timeshare resorts. That being said, there have already been meetings set on February 18, 19, and 20th for Silverpoints other resort in Los Cristianos, Hollywood Mirage to follow in the same footsteps as Palm Beach.
Silverpoint claim that the reduction of the apartments in Hollywood Mirage will benefit the owners in the long term, as they will not have to pay ever increasing maintenance fees, they explain in their committee report:
“The proposal would be that Silverpoint will swap weeks they own in the remaining units to allow members to be consolidated into fewer apartments to allow the release of the apartments identified. The idea going forward is then to remove a unit each time that 52 weeks of a specific type of unit are cancelled thus allowing the club to continually be right sized and have the appropriate maintenance fees. This will relieve the Club of a proportionate part of the burden of maintaining the entire resort.”
There will also be meetings held throughout the UK, and one in Brussels for any members that would like to attend and question the future of their membership in the resort. All members are welcome to attend.
The real issue here, is that the owners that were happy in the resort that they bought into in the first place, seem to be the losing party in all of this commotion. The owners that have been the most reliable, paying their maintenance, and using their unit are now left paying for those that didn’t in one way or another. It will be interesting to find out the outcome of Mrs Duttons’ case, and also to hear the outcome of Hollywood Mirages plea. Be sure to check back for an update, we will post any future news and outcomes here. In the meantime, if any members attend one of Silverpoints meetings, we would love to hear your opinion, and, or the content of these meetings. At the moment the only winner in these decisions seems to be Silverpoint.
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