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New EU Directive Concerning Timeshare and Holiday Clubs

UK consumers who have entered into contracts with companies selling holiday club memberships in another EU country may soon find it easier to enforce their rights.

In an encouraging development for consumers who have been persuaded to enter into a contract for a holiday club or timeshare membership and have found it difficult to cancel their contract, the European Union adopted a new directive on 14 January 2009. The directive aims to close some marked gaps in the Timeshare Directive legislation that did not cover holiday club memberships.  Consumers were often left with no recourse against companies marketing such holiday club memberships in countries such as Spain and Portugal. Thankfully, the transactions of companies dealing with sale and exchange of such timeshare and holiday club memberships are now also covered. Certain aspects of the marketing, sale and resale of timeshare and long-term holiday products as well as exchange of timeshare should now be fully harmonised in all EU countries.

The most important issues that the new directive covers include:

• Full harmonisation of legislation in all EU states;
• More detailed rules on pre-contractual information;
• The cooling-off period is extended to 14 calendar days;
• The ban of deposits during the cooling-off period is included in the directive and includes any advance payment, provision of guarantees, reservation of money on accounts, explicit acknowledgement of debt or any other consideration to the trader or to any third party by the consumer;
• Specific payment provisions concerning long-term holiday product contracts; and
• Compulsory penalties of EU states in the event of traders' failure to comply with the national provisions implementing the directive.

The new directive came into force on 23 February 2009. EU states should transpose the directive into their national law by 23 February 2011. It remains to be seen whether the UK and other EU countries will implement the directive in time, previous directives have been passed into national law with some delay.

If you are a timeshare owner or member of a holiday club, please bear in mind the following advice:

• Timeshare and holiday clubs are not investments in real estate.
• It is unlikely that your timeshare or holiday club will rise in value.
• Some clients have been approached by telephone or by post by companies or law firms who say they have received contact details from a timeshare company or holiday club.  Whilst some operations are legitimate, there are a number of companies operating in a dishonest or illegal manner who prey on timeshare/holiday club owners and may ask for a considerable deposit from the timeshare owner as a 'security payment to enable the sale to go through'.
• A consumer should make sure that they understand what they are signing and the service being offered.
• Consumer bodies, UK Government departments such as the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR - formerly the DTI) and the wider European Parliament  are aware of a number of issues within the industry.

About the Author

This article was written by Daniel Scognamiglio of the holiday claims team at Blake Lapthorn solicitors.

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