Partner Article

Couple fight back at bottomless timeshare burden

Newcastle-based law firm TLW Solicitors has helped two pensioners escape a bottomless timeshare debt of thousands of pounds per year which would have been passed on to their children.

Dennis (70) and Mary Adamson (69) bought into two timeshares in Florida in 2000 and due to health issues, the couple have not used the properties since 2007.

Following their own unsuccessful five-year struggle to terminate the contract, stop increasing maintenance fees and recover their continued annual losses of almost £2000, the Adamson’s enlisted the help of financial mis-selling specialists TLW Solicitors who, within 10-months, won the case to release the couple from all contractual obligations and stopped the debt being passed onto their families.

Mr Adamson from North Yorkshire, said: “As we could no longer enjoy our timeshare properties in America they became a worrying drain on our savings so we tried to resell. We wrote to the timeshare head office at SPAS in Orlando and Cypress Point Resort who said they would try to resell our properties but we heard nothing.

“With the rising annual 5% interest fee for maintenance fees, we were finding this a real financial burden.

“Being unsuccessful ourselves, in November 2014 we approached TLW Solicitors who took on our case and by September 2015 we were released from the timeshare contract following an obligatory relinquishment fee. We are so relieved that we no longer have this cloud hanging over us and most importantly, that the debt will not be passed on to our families.”

Timeshares, also known as ‘fractional ownership’, became popular in the UK in the 1980s when waves of Brits snapped up shares in holiday apartments at coastal resorts.

They work by people buying a share in the property for a set number of weeks each year, usually paying a one-off lump sum. In return they get the right to use their annual weeks in the apartment, either for a fixed number of years or, more commonly, ‘in perpetuity’. On top of the lump sum, timeshare owners must pay annual maintenance charges, which often increase substantially each year.

Marc Davison, who dealt with the case from TLW Solicitors said: “Unfortunately experiences like that of Dennis and Mary are an all-too common occurrence in overseas property and timeshare investments.

“Contracts written “in perpetuity” are difficult to break. Many retired timeshare owners are locked into paying high annual fees for an entitlement to holiday properties they do not want from almost impregnable contracts with annual service fees which are rising massively each year.

“In many cases these are passed on to family members when the original purchaser dies.

“The problem is worsened because timeshare contracts are also notoriously hard to sell. The company that originally sold the timeshare may agree to buy it back, or a resale company might find a new buyer – but the price owners get is usually much lower than what they paid for it, if they get it sold at all.

“There can be a real element of fear in these matters particularly if people receive demand letters or have debt collectors knocking at the door attempting to collect unpaid maintenance fees that, if remain unpaid, incur vast interest, so we are delighted that in this instance we were able to help the Adamson’s and relinquish their contract.”

TLW Solicitors provides a comprehensive range of legal services across the UK to both individuals and business clients including professional negligence, personal injury, motoring offences and financial mis-selling.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Richard Crulley .