Many make mush as to the longevity of a company’s existence they strut self anointed complements says “look how long we have been established” and “see what our organisation has done in the past”. Utter crock!
We all know the pontificating which they adorn themselves with, yet it’s a complete falsehood and an attempt to hoodwink others and obtain undue favour.
Just because a new company has just set up does not mean that the directing mind are any less able than others. In fact they are ambitious and will move hell and high water to get a good name and cannot sit on the history of predecessors. Sponging of the good will other have created is an evil.
A company, organisation and/or enterprise is an anal and benign outfit. It’s an entity which is controlled by the minds which run it. If those directing minds change then the mission of the enterprise changes. SHARE CERTFICATES DONT SPEAK.
Directors are employed to think, speak and direct what the company does and says, and all the time.
Harry’s “Ant Hill Mob” took over TATOC in 2008
Below is a quote from Timeshare Talk
Take TATOC it was set up to do good it was needed, is needed and can become was an enterprise for the greater good of consumers.
“TATOC belongs to it’s members – not to the TATOC board. It is the elected committees who pay membership fees to TATOC and appoint directors to act and represent them as their Association.”
So there you have it in a nutshell. He who supposedly pays the piper calls the tune.
Unfortunately of course the committees do not pay the membership fees to TATOC out of their own pockets. The fees in simplistic terms are collected from affiliated resorts via a pro rata system of numbers of apartments and numbers of owners and are collected by committees from annual maintenance fees paid by all the resort members. The committees thus being cost effective collecting agents.
So already we can see that it is not just black and white. Then we have the question of who elects the committees?
There are some who suggest that there are many committees who are allied far too closely to the developers who are the original freehold owners and thus become the Founder Member.
In resorts that are developer managed and not sold out the Founder Member has the right to use the voting power of any unsold inventory as they are effectively paying the maintenance fees on it. Many members have no interest in sitting on committees and often do not even bother to vote at elections for committee vacancies so one block vote from a Founder Member can be enough to put another “pro developer face” on the committee.
So we have committees who it is said simply do the bidding of the managing company which is often to the detriment of the members and users.
How do we address this obvious problem?
The simple answer is by legislation. Again we have a problem in that past legislation has relied heavily on Developer and Consumer input. Developer input has historically campaigned for self regulation and thus loopholes were left which could be and have been exploited. The consumer voice via TATOC has for many years been weak and ineffective as funding streams to enable a greater voice via consumer led initiatives have been too reliant upon sponsorship from parties with a vested interest in maintaining systems heavily in favour of the companies running timeshare.
So we can see how this comes about. TATOC represent the committees “because they pay us”
The committees in a lot of instances represent the Developers and managers “because they elect us”
And when it all hits the fan the Developers say “Not me sir”.. “It was him on the committee who put the motion forward.”
In conclusion: The developers and resort managers have been allowed self regulation for 30 years and in the main they have abused it to the extent that the industries reputation is in tatters and at an all time low. They cannot be allowed a further period of self regulation as that will put the final nail in the timeshare coffin.
The only solution is for the powers that be to be strong enough to allow legislation to be brought in that is fair and workable for both companies and consumers.
The final questions have to be: Are there working solutions out there?
And the answer is. Of course there are, they are all over these forums in the form of the consumers voice. Are they fair and balanced? Do they take into account the well being of both companies and customers? Personally I think that they are fair and do present a balanced solution. One which we have not had for the last 30 years.
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