No joy from council after saddled with ‘dodgy’ builder

“I can no longer afford this and would like it cancelled as soon as possible. The contract was signed by my parents, pensioners who didn’t know what they were getting into. I took over the contract from them as they weren’t able to cancel it and it became a burden for them. Neither I, nor my parents, have ever used their services.”

“Several years ago, my wife and I got invited to a presentation for winning a ‘random holiday’ that we entered in the mall. To cut a long story short, money gets taken out of our account monthly for a product or service we’ve never used.

“The one and only time we did try to use it, to get ‘cheaper flight tickets’, they could not assist us. We tried to get out of it a few years ago, and cancelled the debit order, but were then threatened with legal action. We are desperate. We have sleepless nights about this BS.”

“I don’t know why it took me so long to figure this out: it’s a scam. In December 2016, my Vodacom 4 on shop 1 on Coin Timeshare 6 on FlexiClub 1 on Loot.co.za 1 on Life Discovery 2 on Match 1 on Loan Primeg 1 on Solar MassMart 1 on Coricraft 1 on fiancée and I came across this ‘amazing investment opportunity’.

“We saw an advert for a resort after spending a weekend there. We contacted the resort and they sent an agent to our house to assist us in explaining the investment options. We were sold. We signed the contract on the same day.

“A few days later, my gut told me I had made a huge mistake. The agent told me we couldn’t get out of it. We’re currently paying R6 282 a month for this. The securing deposit was R20 070. We badly need assistance to get out of this contract as we can’t afford it. It literally takes all our disposable income and now we must rely on credit cards.

“I honestly didn’t mind making these sacrifices but, the more I read about timeshare, the more I regret buying into it...”

National Consumer Commissioner Ebrahim Mohamed didn’t hold back his disdain for the industry on Thursday either, when he announced a new public inquiry into the industry.

“The National Consumer Commission has always held the view that complaints from timeshare consumers are valid and warranted.

“We adopted this view based on our assessment of individual complaints over 1 on ADT 2 on RCS Legal Lifestyle 5 on Options Binary 1 on developer Website 1 on Shop 1 on Scoin Telkom 1 on college Fedosa 1 on NHBRC 4 on Forbes Alexander 1 on time – thousands of them, may I add – which have been lodged against holiday clubs and their value chain roleplayers over the past nearly two decades, since I joined the former Office of Consumer Protection,” he told media at a briefing in Pretoria.

“Myriads of allegations have been levelled against roleplayers of the… industry, and these are serious allegations, some of which fly in the face of the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act… It’s disgusting, in my view, that captains of this industry can turn a blind eye to the relentless pain and suffering of consumers for such a long time.”

That it has been: two years ago, the NCC attempted – and failed – to lodge an application with the National Consumer Tribunal after its probe into three major holiday clubs. It says it withdrew because of technical “defects”, however, the Vacation Ownership Association (Voasa) says it’s because the commission was ill-prepared.

Mohamed explained on Thursday: “We were legally challenged by these clubs.”

Now, the NCC has appointed a three-member panel to lead the inquiry. The panel will include three attorneys: Diane Terblanche, executive chairperson of the National Consumer Tribunal; Aubrey Ngcobo, a property law specialist; YOUR recent article regarding the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) refers. The council needs to act against this dodgy builder.

We have unfortunately been using an untrustworthy builder/developer for the past three years who has flagrantly been circumventing council regulations during the course of his development/build on our site (four clusters).

Three are complete and one is still being built. We have been living in our new cluster for 18 months now and the snagging has still not been completed.

Further, we still don’t have four separate electrical or water meters yet, so we’re unable to open correct accounts with the local council.

A further two clusters on our site have more and Zandile Mpungose, a contract management specialist.

The panel will be working with the NCC’s technical task team in conducting the inquiry over the next six months across the country, by engaging with consumers, roleplayers, regulators and others.

“Once completed, the panel will submit a comprehensive report to me which I will assess and, together with my team, make a determination on how to take the process forward. This could include a variety of recommendations to the Minister of Trade and Industry for certain legislative reforms.”

Voasa has come out strongly against the announcement.

In a statement, it said that, while it continues to offer its “full support” and had met last month with the deputy commissioner to discuss its role and participation, it was ”dismayed” by the statement that the industry has turned a blind eye to the plight of consumers.

“We would like to place on record that, in 2008, Voasa representatives met with the NCC, then called the Unfair Business Practices Committee, on numerous occasions to propose amendments to the legislation in order to assist consumers. However, despite these meetings recently been occupied and all of us still do not have Certificates of Occupation yet. (The developer claimed, when I asked for a certificate, that he didn’t know about this requirement.)

Accordingly, we can’t insure our house structures. If they were to burn down tomorrow – tough luck – we would not be covered.

He doesn’t even acknowledge communications, let alone respond.

This developer is now doing a further four different cluster developments on various sites in Bryanston in addition to ours, no doubt using the same template. In addition to the disregard for legal requirements, he is operating almost like a Ponzi scheme – doing basics, and not finishing up, and then relying on obtaining new and proposals, no progress was made to amend the legislation.

“Furthermore, in 2014 Voasa cautioned the NCC that the investigation into three major holiday clubs was being handled incorrectly and would ultimately lead to a waste of the consumer’s time and taxpayers’ money.

“During July 2015, Voasa submitted an amended Code of Conduct for the industry to the NCC for review and approval.

“This Code of Conduct addressed various issues as raised in the aforesaid investigation. To date, the NCC has not acknowledged nor commented on this document.

“We believe every effort has been made by Voasa and its industry captains to remedying (sic) any challenges faced by consumers and the vacation ownership industry,” said Voasa spokesperson Alex Bosch.

The association also disputes that there have been “thousands” of complaints, as “no such record has been produced to support this”; however, having spoken to consumer journalists at other media houses, complaints are indeed rife, not taking into account those sent directly to the NCC. developments to keep a cash flow of sorts going.

It will no doubt end up very ugly, soon.

Back to the topic of the NHBRC and your articles.

I have visited their offices in Sunninghill on various occasions for advice/assistance on how to proceed further on our particular fiasco, and have left dismayed and disillusioned on every occasion.

Your articles, however, give an inkling of hope.

We would now wish to try and put (some of) our gripes in writing to the NHBRC and are truly hoping that you could give us a “heads up” with regard to how we could possibly get to the correct department.

Great columns in The Star (my wife and I miss your restaurant reviews).

Consumer law expert, Trudie Broekmann has reservations: “While I agree the enquiry into the timeshare industry is important and a matter for the National Consumer Commission, I think the issues are already fairly clear and I wonder whether any substantial new information about the malpractices of the industry will come to light during the enquiry.

“I have been contacted by more than 50 clients who have had trouble cancelling their contracts with holiday timeshare providers... It is not necessary for consumers who have contracted with the industry to remain in these onerous contracts – a consumer attorney can by sending a single letter to the timeshare companies, cancel the contracts (or demonstrate that they are void).

“The drawback that the NCC faces, is that it can implement only the CPA, which may not resolve the issue of whether a contract in perpetuity is valid (at least until a court has ruled on this). The common law and the Property Timesharing Act, when used in conjunction with the CPA, provide a solid legal basis for demonstrating that most of the holiday timeshare contracts are void.”