On Friday 7 October, the BBC programme Ripoff Britain highlighted the problems of a family who purchased a Club la Costa Fractional. The programme was hosted by Gloria Hunniford, who did state that some years ago she did take part in a promotion for Club la Costa.
The piece started with the lady explaining how they ended up buying the fractional, they were having some financial difficulties and the family business had to close, she then entered a competition and “won” a free holiday. As always with many of these competitions the “free holiday” in Tenerife came with a cost. They would have to attend a presentation with a sales rep from CLC.
They were invited to have breakfast and were then pitched the benefits of owning with CLC, the meeting took most of the day. Eventually after the rep had made it sound very enticing, including overcoming the problem of not being able to afford it, a deal was struck.
With finance arranged by the sales team the family entered into an agreement to purchase a 20 year fractional contract. The cost would be £18,180 with a finance agreement lasting 15 years, the interest rate was 12.1% per annum. This would give a total cost of over £51,000 not to forget the annual management fees of over £800 per year.
After some time the burden of paying over £285 per month for the finance began to take its toll, they asked CLC to allow them to hand it back and cancel the contract and finance agreement, CLC refused, the finance company also refused to lower the monthly payments. They now felt trapped.
ITRA (International Timeshare Refund Action) then came along, according to them they had a case and were eligible to join the ITRA class action against CLC. She attended a first meeting with the ITRA rep, but this was cut short as her husband was not in attendance.
After contacting Ripoff Britain, another meeting was arranged, this time a reporter from the programme posed as her husband along with a hidden camera to record the proceedings.
During the meeting the rep stated they did have a 100% claim against CLC being able to join the “no win no fee” action. All this without any questions as to how they were sold the fractional or even any paperwork being seen.
With the class action the rep explained what they would receive back, after the fees being taken out of the successful claim, the family would receive just around £10,000. Not a very large amount considering what they would be paying if they completed the finance.
Now in order to be able to be registered as a member of the class action, they would now have to pay ITRA for disposing of the timeshare. The cost £5100, this would be done using a deed agent, with the rep stating this was the only way to legally get out of the contract. He then went on to explain this would stop CLC passing the debt of 3 years arrears of management fees to a debt collection agency, this in itself would add considerable amounts to the debt. Once they paid ITRA the sum, they would have the debt canceled and they would no longer be liable for any management fees again.
This does all sound very good, until the programme spoke to a Trading Standards Officer. Even this officer thought the meeting was misleading, feeling that once you disposed of the timeshare no claim would be possible. This does make sense, if you no longer own, how can you claim?
Inside Timeshare has asked a firm specialising in this field if any claim would be possible once a contract is canceled, the answer was a resounding no. In order to be able to claim in court and have any refund the contract must still be owned by the person.
To see the full programme (this article is around 32 mins into the programme) follow the link below and use the BBC iplayer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wck32
If you require any further information on any any article published, contact Inside Timeshare and we will find it for you.
The post ITRA Highlighted on the BBC Programme Ripoff Britain. appeared first on Inside Timeshare.