Once again we report on what basically appear to be the extremely underhanded tactics from Bristol based timeshare company Seasons. TCA email and enquiry lines have been red hot with complaints from Seasons lodge owners at the prestigious Slaley Hall resort in Northumberland.
About a year ago TCA became aware of a scheme hatched by Seasons for lodge owners to relinquish their ownership in exchange for a sum ranging from £7,000 to £10,000, to make this clear; Seasons were not offering to pay this sum, quite the reverse, lodge owners had to pay this sum! In exchange all future maintenance fees were waived and “free” holidays over a limited period.
So desperate are Seasons, we hear that this sum has been reduced to £1,000, in our opinion that’s still £1,000 too much. If Seasons so desperately wish to remove timeshare owners from the resort, should it not be they that pay the owners to “buy back” their ownership rather than the other way round. More on this later.
Skulduggery
Over the years owners of these lodges paid many thousands of pounds to buy the right to holiday at Slaley Hall, most of whom entered long term contracts and are now finding these very same contracts could be cancelled at the drop of a hat. How can this happen we hear you ask, this is where it gets interesting. The Slaley Hall Lodges timeshare club has a committee and a constitution that lodge owner Helen Knight (one of the independent committee members) explains was created to protect the lodge owners.
“There are seven voting members on the committee,” clarifies Helen 62, a retired teacher from Lancashire. “Deliberately an odd number to protect owners. The constitution allows Seasons to control three of the seven committee positions with four for independent owners. This balance is designed to safeguard owners’ interests from nefarious tactics by management companies or other entities.”
“However, Barry and Sharon Hurley, directors of Seasons Holidays PLC, appear to have got around this by their son, Jack Hurley, becoming a lodge owner. Seasons then used the timeshare weeks it owns to block vote Jack onto the committee as one of the 4 ‘independent’ owners. After that, they installed him as chairman of the committee. And now Seasons has announced that it is motioning to dissolve the owners club and its constitution. It has also advised that if this is carried, then all lodge assets will be liquidated.”
Helen continues, “basically, if Jack Hurley votes the way we assume he will (in his parents’ interest), then the club will be terminated and everyone who paid tens of thousands of pounds for a lifetime of holidays will be left with nothing.”
“Seasons has not organised the club AGM (Annual General Meeting) as is required in the constitution. Instead they have requisitioned an SGM (Special General Meeting) instead.
“The last AGM in November 2020, which Seasons organised by itself, was by Zoom with all lodge owners muted, including the committee members, so nobody could speak out.”
“My father bought the lease of our lodge just before he died, for myself and my siblings, so that we could have somewhere to meet up once a year and remember both my parents and past happy times. Reminiscence is good for the soul,” adds Helen.
Where to now?
That’s a really good question. Needless to say the TCA PR team have jumped into action with a press release that may be viewed following this link:
As you will see, apart from the input from Helen there are other disgruntled owners and more emails are arriving as we write. Whilst in general the timeshare industry is not recognised for its consumer friendliness, the proposed action of Seasons places them firmly at the top of the TCA wall of shame. Below is a comment received as this article is being penned:
“Like the many others I bought it many years ago and hoped my whole family could enjoy it. Since having grandchildren they have loved coming here and we are all really saddened to think we will not be able to in the future. I do not have the money to appoint solicitors, even if that would help. So if you are able to help I would be really grateful.”
We will be watching closely for the dissemination of information after the so called Special General Meeting takes place on 17 December 2021, until then, if you are affected please do get in touch.
Stop Press
As this action is dynamic, further information is forthcoming all the time. Recently we received a copy of a letter issued by Slaley Lodges Ltd which goes some way to clarify the position; a copy may be downloaded here:
From this letter we can conclude that if the motion is passed to wind up the members club then the lease agreements will be sold and the resultant sum of money will be distributed to the balance of members still in possession of such leases, the terminology used is “a share of the net assets” This begs the question, what is the value of gross assets and after expenses what will the net be?
When you think you can buy one week of timeshare in a splendid resort in Las Vegas on a perpetual basis for $1, makes you wonder how much a one week lease in Northumberland will yield. That said, the sale value of individual lodges could be very substantial indeed. A quick check on Google reveals 2 bedroom lodges in Cheshire that are certainly not to the same level of those at Slaley are selling for £224,950, we will leave you to do the maths.
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