A British couple have come up trumps after a lengthy battle against Silverpoint. They originally purchased six apartments back in 2009 for £25,000 from Resort Properties (Silverpoint) and left a deposit of £1000 with the sales representative at their first meeting, the one in which they agreed to make the purchase. The representative led the clients to believe this would be a great investment, and that they would be able to sell the apartments on for a profit.
The clients returned to Tenerife in 2010, to finalise the payment and find out how their investment was progressing, only to be told that they had dropped in value, and they were fed some story about recuperating the value of their portfolio by the sales representative. To do this, the clients were to buy an affiliation to Silverpoint’s ‘Club Paradiso’, the clients went ahead and did this paying another deposit and the final balance of £23,934 sometime later.
The clients walked away from the meeting somewhat disheartened, but thought that they still had an investment, although not the original one that they had thought. The clients tried to enjoy their holidays through Resort Properties in the following years, but found themselves more and more disappointed with the product and service that they had purchased, they believed that it did not fulfil the purpose that it was purchased for, and they had been duped.
The clients decided to take Resort Properties to court in the mind that they had been misled in their purchase. It was a lengthy battle that started in the civil courts in Tenerife which was won by the resort, and ended up being appealed in the Supreme Court in Madrid. In which the judge ruled in favour of the clients, declaring their contract null and void. This was on the basis that the clients had purchased a product that they were led to believe was an investment, which turned out to actually be a timeshare. In Spanish law, a timeshare cannot be sold with the pretence that it is an investment.
The clients won £48,934 as well as all legal fees and taxes. This is a very similar story to the retired lady from Catterick Village we reported on last week. If you feel that you may have a claim, get in touch with us, and we will endeavour to help in any way that we can.
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