Money pit disaster of timeshare traps
Desperate to sell, clients pay refund agency with no result
GLEAMING hotels, clear blue swimming pools, palm trees and glorious sunshine – these holiday resorts look like a piece of heaven on Earth.
But for some owners of timeshares located at them they’re a seemingly inescapable hellish circle of never-ending annual fees at resorts they no longer use.
I’ve heard from a string of owners who are desperate to sell their weeks, paying International Timeshare Refund Action Limited (ITRA) to help them find a way out.
One customer is Christine Carmichael, who wants shot of an MGM Muthu Clube timeshare in Praia da Oura, Albufeira, Portugal.
Bought in 1999, its annual charges are now around £930.
Christine decided to sell when her husband George died in 2014, paying ITRA £4,580. Since she’s not on the internet, her daughter Laura is helping.
“So far ITRA have done very little, getting me to do most of their work,” Laura says.
“The last I heard was that my mother had signed some legal documents – and nothing more since. That was well over a year ago.
“My mother has since had demand letters for the payment of her annual fees.
“She simply cannot afford to pay these fees and she can no longer travel abroad.”
Colin and Gail Mackay wanted to sell their Diamond International timeshare in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands when the yearly management fee reached around £1,500 and they couldn’t get their preferred holiday dates.
“ITRA said that we would not get out of the agreement by ourselves,” says
Colin, from Newcastle.
“The agent stated that our children would still be liable for payment of fees after our deaths because the agreement was for 60 years.”
The couple paid ITRA £4,180 in May 2015, but they say: “ITRA’s only input was a standard letter that we modified.”
Julia and Michael King are trying to get rid of a Club La Costa timeshare in Tenerife.
“We paid ITRA over £5,000. This was over two years ago,” says Julie, from Loddiswell, Devon. “When I contact them they seem to palm us off saying that they are waiting for a court case, which supposedly was heard on December 18 last year.
“We have contacted ITRA to cancel as we were no nearer getting a result than when we signed up with them.” Another unhappy couple is Anthony and Maggie Holloway from Broom, Warwickshire.
They own two timeshares, one in Scotland, the other in Florida, and paid ITRA just under £5,000 in 2014 to dispose of them.
“After four years I am now informed that I still own the week in Scotland and am therefore liable for maintenance arrears of £742,” said Anthony.
“It has threatened court action via their solicitor for recovery of the arrears. I had been assured by ITRA that they would be taking charge of all demands being made by the management companies.”
ITRA, which claims to have helped thousands of timeshare owners, gives a PO box in Gibraltar as its head office.
It told me that all the cases I’ve cited are in the hands of partner law firms apart from Julia and Michael King’s, who told ITRA to stop acting for them.
The statement also explained that its business is being wound down because “ITRA’s principal, Mr Peter Utal, fell very ill two and a half years ago”.
Utal was behind Club Class Concierge, which was put into compulsory liquidation in the public interest in 2012.
It enticed people hoping to offload their timeshares to meetings where sales reps flogged travel club membership for £7,000 to £15,000.
We paid ITRA over £5,000 two years ago but they just palm us off