At the end of last week we started our Letter from America with information provided by many of our readers on their attempts to exit or relinquish their timeshare, for many this has proved to be very costly. Many of these readers have given the same account, they paid a company many thousands of pounds to “exit or relinquish” the timeshare, only to find out that 3 years down the line they are not out and now owe thousands in maintenance arrears. Many are also facing court action by debt collection agencies.
In many cases it all starts with a cold call, in others the timeshare owner is seeking help and has either found the company on the internet or has been recommended by one of the so-called independent timeshare consumer advice sites. Many of these companies pose as law firms, paralegals and experts in timeshare exit, all to fool you the timeshare owner.
The initial offer is to get you “compensation” for being mis-sold, all on a no win no fee basis, but this is just the bait, before this can go ahead you first need to have the contract cancelled. Unfortunately this is what they are actually after and it does entail a payment upfront, in some cases upto £10,000!
So how is the “exit or relinquishment” processed?
Very simply it isn’t, the company will send a “unilateral letter of cancelation” or “exit notification letter”, all this means is that you have stated your intention to withdraw your membership. Along with this letter the owner is then told not to pay anymore maintenance, if the timeshare company sends an invoice for maintenance, just ignore it, you are out!
Eventually, as has happened to many of our readers who have sent in emails, they are now being bombarded with notices of huge sums in arrears, with the threat of being taken to county court for a debt. The timeshare company itself does not take the “debtor” to court, it is passed to a debt collection agency who do the legal stuff on behalf of their client, the timeshare company. One of the main companies that deal with this field is Daniels Silverman, who have a reputation for always getting paid.
As far as the timeshare company is concerned, you are still a member / owner and are liable for the maintenance, they have never accepted the letter of exit from the company that was paid to “exit” you from your timeshare. As we have stated in many previous articles, the timeshare companies do not accept or deal with theses “exit or relinquishment” companies, they will only deal with the member direct. They have their own systems in place for dealing with a cancellation, subject to certain conditions.
As for the compensation and claim on a no win no fee basis, well the chances of you ever getting anything back is very slim indeed.
We now look at another aspect of this problem, it is one that we have received even more emails from readers over the past few months, this is in relation to Silverpoint owners / members.
Many of the emails have been from readers who are on holiday in Tenerife, they have been approached at their resort by staff from Centaurus Mediations, no stranger to these pages. As we know Centaurus Mediations are working hand in hand with Silverpoint.
Other companies that have been identified working on this and similar schemes are Fullbrook Associates, of Stirling, Claims Solutions Group, of Aberfeldy.
So what are they doing?
Once again the main aim is to “cancel” the Silverpoint contract, along with the promise of a claim and compensation. Although the cancellation is likely to be done, after all they are working with Silverpoint, there will be no payout of any compensation. The whole scheme is just a ploy to cancel the contracts, once this is done then the former owner / member loses their chance and right of taking Silverpoint to court through the legal route to have their contract declared null and void and receive all their money back. Silverpoint know this and they are trying to stem the flow of court cases which are plaguing them.
Another aspect of the cancellations is the sale of another product, the main one that is coming to our attention is Keys Concierge. This is a “lifestyle product” (see link to previous article with many reader comments), which promises massive discounts on holiday accommodation, flights and a host of other products, all for the sum of many thousands of pounds to join.
http://insidetimeshare.com/keys-concierge-another-credits-based-lifestyle-company/
Then we have the “Company Participation Scheme” which we will be highlighting in a separate article in the very near future. Basically this is being aimed at those who originally purchased Resort Properties / Silverpoint “investment weeks”, these were packs of weeks attached to apartments, which after two years would be placed on the resale scheme to be set up. The promise was always the purchaser would receive at least 15% profit from the subsequent sale.
As we know, these resales never took place, the purchasers were always told that the market for what they bought was very poor and they would need to “upgrade to a better apartment and weeks”. This was the only way in which they could secure their “investment”, and so it went on.
The new scheme they call “Company Participation” is being touted as the only way to secure the previous “investments”, it is actually very similar, the difference being the apartments are being registered as SL companies, in the case of Tenerife, UK limited companies in the case of Twin Lakes Country Club.
http://insidetimeshare.com/silverpoint-the-story-moves-on/
Have you paid a company for the cancellation of your timeshare and are now receiving demands for maintenance arrears with threats of legal action, if so use our contact page and we will get back to you.
Have you had any dealings with any of the companies linked to Silverpoint?
Have you purchased the company participations with all the promises?
Do you still have any of the original investment weeks?
If you answer yes to any of these questions and want to know where you stand legally and what you can do about it, then contact Inside Timeshare and we will get back to you.
Remember, do your homework!
The post Start the Week: Exiting Timeshare and the False Promises from Exit Companies appeared first on Inside Timeshare.