For a long time Silverpoint which was formerly known as Resort Properties has been misleading clients into purchasing multiple weeks of timeshare, with the promise of a return on their so-called “investment”.
The pitch was very simple, the clients were offered to buy 8 weeks of timeshare which the sales staff termed as “distressed”, these weeks were supposedly those that had been taken back from clients unable to meet their maintenance fees.
During the presentation the rep would explain that the package will cost £20,000, it will then be sold for £25,000 with Silverpoint taking £2,000 in commission and pay the client £3,000, this represented a 15% return on their purchase. Sounds good, the problem is this was only the beginning of a very costly cycle of purchases which has seen many people losing a great deal of money.
Around a year later the client would return only to find they now faced huge maintenance bills, they also end up at another presentation with a new rep, this one would tell them that the previous rep had sold them the wrong apartments. These studios are not selling and the client needs to purchase one or two bedroom apartments as it is these that people want.
They are talked into changing their “portfolio” to the better one, for a further cost of £10,000 plus, with the maintenance fee being waived for another year.
Again as time goes by, they are told that nothing is selling and that they need to upgrade their “portfolio” yet again. This rep would now say they can trade in their previous purchases and for a further cost of between £17,000 and £25,000, they can buy into the Paradiso Membership. The maintenance fees will only be £500 p.a. They are also promised that when the resales start in 2 to 3 years time they will double their initial outlay.
There is also another twist to this tale, in order to get around the timeshare laws, Mark Cushaway and his team came up with another scheme, The Company Participation package. This is where the clients are transferred from the Paradiso membership and sold “shares” in the company Club Paradiso. These sales are also now subject to legal action, so it is only a matter of time before we see these cases coming before the courts.
This not only happened in Tenerife, Silverpoints Malta based operation, Azure Resorts did exactly the same thing.
Many of these sales were also financed by loan agreements with Barclay Partner Finance, all conveniently arranged by the sales staff. These are also subject to legal action in the UK, most notably by Edwin Coe LLP a leading law firm based in London.
In the following video one client taken in first by Resort Properties and then Silverpoint, recorded his meeting with the then sales manager David Taylor and posted it on youtube, in this recording you can clearly hear the promises being made, with what can only be described as a plea to stop the court action this client was taking. Just listen to the garbage that Taylor spouts about the Data Protection act and that Silverpoint are a different company, yet the CEO is still Mark Cushway and David Taylor is still the Sales Manager.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oNdi4NT4O8
Many of these clients are now involved in court cases to get their money back, these are now proving to be very successful. In the past year alone, there have been around 42 rulings made by the Supreme Court against Silverpoint.
The Lower courts in Tenerife are also finding for the clients on an almost daily basis, yet the industry still insists that these cases are not happening. Only last week there were two more sentences from the Supreme Court. (PDF files of the cases below).
Silverpoint Supreme CourtSentence 106-2018
Silverpoint Supreme Court Sentence 108-2018 Silverpoint Supreme CourtSentence 106-2018
Once again these cases were brought by the Lawyers Miguel Rodriguez Ceballos [Nº 2814 ICALPA] and Eva Gutiérrez [Nº 4350 ICALPA] of Canarian Legal Alliance, both very experienced lawyers in the field of timeshare law.
Both clients had their contracts declared null and void with the return of all their purchase prices with double the amount of the deposit taken within the cooling off period.
The timeshare law was put into place to protect you the consumer, the timeshare companies have for years been flouting them and it is now that the tide is turning in favour of the consumer. You have the full protection of the law and the courts are proving this by finding in favour of the clients and this is costing the industry dearly.
If you have had dealings with this or any other timeshare company and want to know if your contract is illegal, or if you have a valid claim then contact Inside Timeshare and get it confirmed one way or the other. There are many companies springing up that will say that you do have a case, even if you don’t.
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