01908 881058 info@timeshareconsumerassociation.org.uk Donate

Some public hearings are being held for disgruntled timeshare consumers. They are being given the opportunity to share their stories with the hope of developing a single piece of legislation that will be used to regulate the timeshare industry. The National Consumer Commission are carrying out these hearings to understand what the consumers are experiencing and saying.

The hearings started in Petoria and then moved on to Cape Town. They will then be moving on to Durban.

At the moment the issue that is at the forefront is that holiday clubs are refusing to cancel timeshare contracts and therefore consumers are being tied in for life and obligated to pay whatever the holiday club demands of them and even when they die it doesn’t stop! Their children will inherit this liability. There have been other issues raised in the hearings as well such as:

Limited accommodation being oversold which means that people who have spent their hard earned cash on this ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity, can’t actually book their holiday and yet they are still expected to pay fees and charges for the maintenance and upkeep of the holiday clubs. This is despite a 2014 SARS directive which states that levies cannot be charged to persons who do not have a title deed and who do not own a property.

Some of you reading this will be aware that the timeshare industry has been under scrutiny and has come under fire because of the way these opportunities are marketed and then sold to unsuspecting consumers who are coerced and convinced to buy timeshare that actually may not be suitable for them in the future. The difficulty is, the salespeople don’t talk about the small print, they don’t talk about the fees enough and they ‘sell’ you a dream that is a fallacy.

It has been admitted that the timeshare industry has always been badly regulated, and this is partly because different aspects of it are regulated by several different laws and organisations of the state.

The Commission’s aim is to get it covered by a single piece of legislation – and which will create a means for consumers to participate and have a voice in the affairs of holiday club schemes (timeshare).

The sad story is that consumers are sucked in and then are completely powerless to challenge, cancel or change their lot.

There are a lot of complaints coming from people who own holiday points as opposed to timeshare – and many of them were persuaded to convert their timeshare into points.

To those people the legal advice is simple – just cancel. Lifetime contracts have never been legal in this country, and are so-called “prohibited conduct” under the Consumer Protection Act.

You can cancel with 20 business days’ notice.

The public hearings will continue and will hopefully be a chance for many to tell their stories and share their frustrations is very enticing and as is should be. The Commission has also encouraged insider informants, their information will be handled discreetly and confidentially so that hopefully action can be taken and fair and correct regulations put in place for this industry.

 

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