26/01/2007

Reselling a timeshare

We recommend that you do not take any notice of proposals by resale firms, who request an amount of money as advance for all kinds of reasons (administrative costs, notary costs, fiscal costs, etc.). There’s a good chance that your timeshare will remain unsold, as the demand for timeshares is practically non-existent, but you will still have lost your money.

Be very careful when a firm “invites” you abroad to sell your timeshare. Not only will you have to pay the costs for the trip if you do not accept their proposal, but moreover they will try to convince you to sign up for “fantastic” holiday formulas (holiday programs, holiday cards, etc.). Many consumers have already been the victim of such organisations: their timeshare was not sold and they also lost a lot of money on the new holiday formula.

There are also so-called “cash-back” systems, where a firm will offer you an “exceptional” product. Among the various formulas the ones whereby the firm will propose a “placement” of a considerable sum of money, which will then be reimbursed to you after a certain amount of time, on top of the profits from the resale of your timeshare, is the most popular. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a miracle: often these firms abscond, together with your money.

In practice any money that you pay for the resale of your timeshare is irretrievably lost.

The purchase of a timeshare in effect boils down to paying in advance for your future holidays. If the maintenance costs did not rise too much, it is more interesting to use your timeshare as much as possible (even by subletting). If this is no longer possible for financial or other reasons, you are sometimes better off to stop payment of maintenance costs. Most contracts stipulate in their terms and conditions that the failure to pay maintenance costs will lead to you losing your rights to the timeshare. Often this is the easiest way to be released from your timeshare obligations.

Please be aware though that the failure to pay maintenance costs can be considered in some cases as the failure to execute your contractual obligations. In theory the firm can then take you to court to obtain compensation. But we have yet to hear of a foreign timeshare firm, which started proceedings against consumers, as the mere fact of withholding the rights of use seems a sufficiently heavy sanction.

For more information do not hesitate to get in touch with our European Consumer Centre.