We can’t give away our Loch Lomond timeshare – and fees are piling up
Probes a world of scams and scandals
E.B. writes: We are in the same position as the couple whose letter about the Cameron House Lodge timeshares on Loch Lomond you published in November last year. We have been trying to sell our £6,800 timeshare since 2010 and have even offered it for £450. This is the commission a resale firm wanted so we would not have received a penny. In 2013 we returned the ownership certificate to Cameron House, explaining we could no longer afford the annual fees, which had increased. We are now pensioners, 76 and 73 this year, but have received demands from debt collectors which we find distressing. THE Cameron House timeshare project appears to follow in the footsteps of the worst of the Spanish rip-offs. A timeshare that is sold as a money-saving way of guaranteeing cut-price family holidays for years to come gradually turns into a millstone around your neck.
As the benefits diminish, the annual charges rise. When you try to sell, you find to your horror that your timeshare is owned ‘in perpetuity’.
You must pay until you die and, even then, the company has the right to raid your estate for its fees, taking priority over bequests to your family.
Based on what you told me about Cameron House, I put a number of questions to its boss Allan Reich.
For a start, you say you were told in the beginning that the timeshare could easily be resold and that Cameron House would help with this. But in fact it has proved impossible. So surely this was mis-selling?
You have t old me you were assured no more lodges would be built on the estate, but more were built, spoiling your view and so devaluing your own timeshare. I asked Reich whether he agreed this would be a breach of contract.
Before you bought the timeshare, you were told annual fees would only rise in line with inflation. They have risen far faster than inflation, so is this also not a breach of contract?
You say you were told that electricity bills covered just your own lodge, but later they rose to pay for lighting in the grounds. Again, I asked Reich, would this not be a breach of contract?
Finally, you have told me you were assured that high quality fittings in your lodge would only be replaced on a like-for-like basis, but they were replaced by cheaper products. A whirlpool bath was taken out and a conventional bathtub installed. I queried this with Reich too.
Reich answered none of these questions, but a spokesman for his company told me: ‘ In 2015, we introduced a system to enable qualifying owners to exit from their legal obligations by paying four years’ maintenance fees – roughly £2,500 – and around 70 owners have since gone through this process.’
But here is a funny thing. In May l ast year, the Cameron House Owners Club, which is supposed to represent you but gives a better impression of representing Allan Reich and his interests, told you: ‘We do not accept back ownership of the lodge… there is no mechanism within the club’s constitution to hand back ownership. When you purchased the lodge, it was purchased in perpetuity.’
With the letter was a bill for fees of £2,868 – more than the roughly £2,500 which Reich himself told me would buy you out of debt.
When I challenged both Reich and the owners club, things suddenly started to move. Cameron House has now told me that the situation has been ‘resolved’.
You have told me that you are unable to say anything more, which leads me to believe that part of the deal is that you can only return your timeshare millstone if you stump up a lump sum of cash and swear never to reveal the details.
This is hardly the rosy picture painted when you bought into the timeshare. The company told me: ‘Cameron House does not have anything further to add to the comments previously provided.’
But the issue of forcing pensioners to pay a bigger and bigger slice of their reduced retirement income to cover annual timeshare fees, with the ever- present threat of charging more fees even after they die, is one that is not going to go away.
The system is rotten to the core. If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.