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Just because you have signed a timeshare contract which contains expressed terms does not mean that those terms can be relied upon by the resorts.

You may later believe that those terms are unfair. If you seek guidance from a solicitor they may agree with you and if that belief is strong then you will be supported and have just cause to take the matter to court.

To be adjudicated as unfair means that those terms will not be upheld by a court and/or become binding on the consumer. In all disputes involving timeshare contract terms and conditions the consumer have the right to ask the court to test the terms contained in the contract as to fairness and in the background of the sales process?

In short resorts write the contract and put terms into those contracts which they believe are reasonable and fair however that in many cases is not the judgements of the courts, which look into the purpose and the consequences of the terms. If those terms are unfair, erroneous and unethical then the courts will exclude them from the contract and being unfair and the resorts will not be able to rely upon them in any defence to a consumer’s action.

If a terms or a collection of terms have been proved unfair and the judgement is recorded, many other consumers can use that judgements and apply it to their own dispute. If this becomes a reality then the resorts entire contract is as risk and what follows is enormous risk to the resorts business model. Therefore at all times the resorts have to consider if they lose one case the business model could implode.

The court will always have in mind that in every situation the salesman will have a desire to sell, and if that desire is fuelled by bonus and rewards then unfair expressed terms will by glossed over with misrepresentations which induces the consumer to accept the contractual terms. Every consumer is entitled to rely upon the representations and apply those representations as silent riders in the contract.

On many occasions the sales representative will have moved on to other companies and may not be around to challenge the statements of timeshare consumers, so it always best to keep this in mind if and when you challenge the express terms in the Timeshare contracts as your evidence might be the only evidence which the judge can rely upon.

If you think that any of the standard terms in a consumer contract are unfair you should  contact the TCA.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) closed on 1st April 2014 thus cannot provide advice or assistance to individual Timeshare consumers or traders.

For consumer advice, information on specific timeshare consumer rights, to make a complaint against a trader you can contact your Local Authority Trading Standards Service as well.

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The TCA exists to help consumers free of charge.

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