Yes, it is that time again, the end of another month and what a month it has been. Canarian Legal Alliance has now had 36 Supreme Court rulings in favour of their clients, the latest was on 28 November.
In the latest ruling, again against Anfi, the British clients will receive £22,940 plus legal interest and legal fees, with their contract being declared null and void. Once again the Supreme Court reiterated their previous judgements that floating weeks are illegal.
This latest ruling comes just 4 days after the Supreme Court ruled against Palm Oasis /Tasolan, again the ruling was about floating weeks. In this case the Norwegian clients have been awarded 8,810€ plus legal interest and legal fees. Their contract was also declared null and void.
It does make you wonder why these companies are taking these cases, which have already been ruled over at the lower courts, all the way to the Supreme Court?
We know that Anfi, the RDO and others, still believe that the courts have got it wrong, but after 36 rulings in favour of clients, one has think are they just trying to delay?
It has to be pointed out that these rulings cannot be changed, the Supreme Court has unanimously found in favour of the consumer on each case, with lower courts now using them in their deliberations.
We have even seen this month the High Court Number 4 in Malaga using these judgements in the case against Leisure Group Ltd. In this case the CLA client has been awarded 12,390€ plus legal interest and legal fees. Their contract has also been declared null and void.
Canarian Legal Alliance has now spread its wings from the Canary Islands and over to the mainland. They have had success in the past at the courts in Fuengirola and also in Barcelona, this latest case in Malaga just goes to prove that any contract sold that is illegal will be ruled against no matter where. CLA are certainly becoming a force to be reckoned with.
We have again this month published articles on the changing face of the TCA, it must also be pointed out that several readers have also noticed that articles published here, are several days later appearing on the TCA website. The content has been juggled around a little, but it can be clearly seen from the style of writing where they did originate.
Inside Timeshare is to be honest, quite flattered that they are using our articles, the only problem is one of acknowledgement. When using articles written or published by someone else, it is normal practise to state where this came from citing the source and usually providing a link.
In another piece regarding the TCA, we published the article on incorrect information, this concerned their post on cold calling. In this they stated that “Cold calling in the UK is illegal as it is considered a breach of privacy”. As we showed in the article, cold calling is not illegal, but there are some very important a rules regarding how it is done. These were published along with a link to the Information Commissioner’s website for the full regulations. (see link below)
We also highlighted a problem regarding owners data, in this article and the follow up, we looked at the battle going on between the resorts / developers and owners, as to who controls / owns this data.
One of our readers, Edward, wrote part of the first article, here he showed how his resorts community of owners have been trying to use the members database to contact and inform owners of changes at the club. Even the Spanish Data Protection Agency believe that it belongs to the owners and the resorts / developers are only users and custodians of this information.
We all know that lists of members are sold on to others, as we stated in both articles, even Diamond have acknowledged employees and ex-employees have taken data and sold it on. We even explained that for many on the sales staff, keeping records of clients is like an insurance policy, to be used when they no longer have a job. Remember data is a commodity, it can and will be sold, it has yet to be proven if any of this data has been misused by owners committees, that I very much doubt.
Irene also published many articles this month, one was just after the presidential election, this was titled “Dialogue: The Way Forward”.
In this piece she explained how the divisiveness of the election equates to that in the world of timeshare, owners Vs resorts / developers. In the article we address the problem and the only solution, “Dialogue”. The need to work together to ensure that owners and the industry benefit, it is a long shot but somewhere along the line there must be a coming together, if not there will no longer be an industry.
In the article “Illness: Is not a Reason to Surrender your Timeshare” myself and Irene highlighted a very huge problem, that of the elderly and sick. This is a problem for owners on both sides of the great lake, we have seen this with the ongoing story of Mrs B and MacDonald Resorts. Owners unable to use or travel due to illness yet still paying maintenance and being unable to surrender their membership. In some cases they can, but the financial penalty is quite often a huge one, for instance, MacDonald Resorts want 4 years worth of maintenance, but this is not guaranteed, it is if they “allow” you out. (see link below regarding MacDonalds)
http://insidetimeshare.com/macdonald-resorts-reasonable-recompense-relinquishing/
Tauro Beach also came into the news again this week, with the announcement that the Canarian Government was revoking the concession awarded to Anfi Group for the Tauro Beach Project. This follows the prosecution of the former head of the Coastal Authority, the investigation into the Mayor of Mogan over the permissions and licenses given for the project. This will obviously cost Anfi a fortune, not just what they have already spent on it, but the cost of repairing the damage caused. The question is now who will foot the bill, the company or the members with increased maintenance?
So, that is November, it now remains to be seen what happens in December. Although with the Christmas and new year period, it will be a rather quiet month. Inside Timeshare would like to thank Irene and all the other contributors to the articles published this month. These contributions help to make Inside Timeshare more balanced, they also provide a great source of information which might just get missed.
If you require any information on any article published, or you have something we have missed, Inside Timeshare would love to hear from you. If you have a story you would like to share, contact us and we will work with you to publish it.
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