New laws have been introduced to protect people from timeshare and holiday club scams - but Shropshire solicitors are urging people to continue to seek advice before they get involved.

International Timeshare Refund Action – ITRA

On February 23 2011 a new law came into action to protect consumers of timeshare and holiday clubs as the existing Timeshare directive only applied to certain products and had a number of loopholes.

These loopholes were exploited by unscrupulous companies and individuals in the Timeshare industry; leaving consumers as the potential victims of numerous scams.

Linder Myers Solicitors, based in High Street, Shrewsbury, is in the process of raising a group action for all those who have been affected by issues with their timeshare or holiday club. The firm is assisting consumers in disputes with Club La Costa and the Petchey Group of Companies.

Solicitor Stephen Boyd today said: "Holiday Clubs fell outside of the protection afforded to customers by the Timeshare Act 1992 (later amended in 2003 and 2007). This means that if someone purchased a Holiday Club, they would not have the right to a cooling-off period that would have automatically applied if purchasing a traditional timeshare.

"There have been similar developments in relation to products described as "fractional ownership" or in products which are in reality timeshares, but which relate to boats, cruise ships, or aeroplanes.

"In 2008 a new European Timeshare directive was adopted and it was a requirement that all European Member States should bring this into law by February 23, 2011. The purpose of the directive was to clearly give consumers greater protection."

Key features of the directive are that holiday clubs are covered in the cooling off period, shorter Timeshare contracts are allowed, all types of holiday accommodation are covered including caravans or cruise ships, Timeshare can be resold by the consumers and the introduction of exchange services.

"Another issue that has been addressed by the new Directive relates to the resale industry," added Stephen. "In recent years there have been a number of complaints received by Linder Myers regarding individuals who have contracted with companies offering to assist them with the resale of their Timeshare.

"Unfortunately in the past this has been another 'scam'. This will change under the new directive to help to eradicate this issue for consumers.

"The new regulations will be enforced by the Office of Fair Trading and Local Authority Trading Standards Officers in the UK. Failure to comply with the directive could allow for consumers to bring a civil claim against the trader.

Consumers now have the time to take away any contracts to do with Timeshares and holiday clubs before parting with any money. We strongly advise that you take legal advice before signing anything."

Source: Midlands Business News

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