Back in the year 2000, Mr. Townsend from Cornwall purchased a fixed week timeshare of a one-bedroom apartment at Airtours Beach Club, Gran Canaria. It originally cost £8,211 but over the next 15 years he ended up having to pay over £20,000 in further fees as his annual maintenance bills rose by 110%. In 2016 he decided to stop using the property.
About European Consumer Claims
ECC European Consumer Claims, whose head office is based in Henley-on-Thames, exclusively work with M1 Legal, based in Málaga, Spain. ECC also have an office in Spain which allow their team to work side by side with the M1 Legal lawyers.
Clearly their partnership is a success as last week they also reported a €16,076 payout from Club La Costa to another set of clients, where their contract was found not to comply with Spanish law.
The Story…
M1 Legal are highly experienced in this field of law as they are currently in the process of submitting 1,500 timeshare cases to the Spanish courts and already have 985 of those submitted at a court value of over £21million and have achieved 195 favourable judgements totalling £3.1million.
Airtours originally assured Mr. Townsend that they were a British company and could therefore be trusted. When purchasing the timeshare, Townsend was provided with incorrect information and was led to believe that buying the timeshare would be a good investment to pass on to his estate. “I saw it as a holiday the family could enjoy after I was gone – they could benefit from quality 5 star accommodation with facilities such as a spa and a private beach,” said Mr. Townsend. “But that was not the case, I later found out I had been misinformed and felt trapped with no option to sell. I was also becoming increasingly worried about my family being held liable for the annual maintenance bills.”
The case against Airtours Sales España SL, contractual name Anfinpan SL, was heard in the Court of First Instance in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Mr. Townsend’s legal team were victorious in his case on the grounds of the contract being 46 years over the legal time period of 50 years and the contract wasn’t clear in when he could make use of the specified week he had purchased (week 38). Under Spanish law a contract over 50 years in length is considered to be in perpetuity which is illegal. Moreover, the accommodation was not registered with the land registry.
What Mr Townsend Said…
Mr. Townsend advises others in similar situations to use European Consumer Claims. “If anyone has a similar situation, my advice would be to go along to a meeting and see if you have a claim, and if you do, then you can take comfort in knowing that this company does pursue claims unlike others out there.”
The client of course felt hugely relieved to cut ties with Airtours and see the results of his claim. “In early December 2019, M1 Legal informed me that the Judge had passed final judgement, and shortly before Christmas, I received the sum of €20,202.”
Mr. Townsend would like to save some the money for his family and possibly go on a getaway too, now that he will be able to freely choose his own holidays!
“If there is anyone who is on the fence about pursuing a claim with ECC and M1 Legal, then I am happy to recommend them based on my personal experience,” said Mr. Townsend. “It is my understanding that my case was not easy and I would like to thank M1 Legal for pushing to get a positive outcome.”
Another recent victory against Club la Costa – you can read this HERE
European Consumer Claims ECC also reported to us another case of Airtours
M1 Legal received Another victory against Airtours in April 2019 when Walter & Nancy Shankley from Lanark, Scotland received €20,684 payout.
The Scottish couple came to visit after the victory in the Spanish courts against their timeshare resort for mis-sold timeshare.
Walter and Nancy Shankley – both in their 60s and from Lanark – said they were overcome with joy after the victory and were full of praise at their success by M1 Legal, the Malaga based team of lawyers specialising in timeshare contract law.
This was the third victory by M1 in judgements against Anfinpan S.L. better know as Airtours totalling €45,091 and in addition, M1 lawyers have negotiated a further five out of court settlements totalling a further €90,000.
The Shankleys, who have recently retired, said: “We are so happy to get rid of this timeshare.”
They paid £11,500 in 1999 for a July week in their two bedroom apartment but maintenance fees have tripled. “We were told it was our apartment for 99 years and we could pass it down to our family – but we just did not want to burden them with it,” said Walter.
The Story..
In September 2017 the couple saw an advert for European Consumer Claims ECC, the UK and Europe’s leading experts in helping to release people from unwanted timeshare contracts and making claims for people to get their money back. ECC assigned the case to their legal experts M1 Legal, based in Malaga. “They were very helpful,” said Nancy. “They said it would take 18 months and that is how long it took.” And Walter added: “As long as you are patient and do not expect things to happen in 24 hours, we would recommend them to anyone in the same predicament.”
Their case was heard in the Las Palmas court resulting in a judgement against Anfinpan S.L. who were trading as Airtours in their dealings with the Shankleys. The judge ordered their contract with the Shankleys to be declared null and void.
M1 Legal lawyer Patricia Criado said: “This is another important victory where the resort has not complied with the Spanish law. The main reasons M1 achieved this result was because the contract was in perpetuity which means no end date, also the building and land registry information were not disclosed.” She also said: “Our team aims to deliver the best results for clients within a reasonable timeframe. We were very happy with the result and are pleased that we can help consumers coerced into buying timeshares by unethical methods.”
Some of the M1 Legal Team with the happy couple.
From left to right: Cristina Rodriguez Luz, Jaime González, Walter Shankley, Nancy Shankley, Patricia Criado, Maria Luisa Gonzalez.
This story was featured in local and UK press also. This story is also in the public domain, you can view it by clicking this link
https://m1legal.news/shankley
Disclaimer
This article references European Consumer Claims (ECC) who for a brief period of several days were owners of the domain www.timeshareconsumerassociation.org.uk (although at no point did they own the registered company itself.) For more information about the ownership history of the TCA please click here.
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