Timeshare
European Consumer Claims (ECC) are a leading international claims firm with offices in Spain and the UK. The company incorporated in 2016 and quickly gained a reputation for making successful compensation claims against timeshare companies. The timeshare industry had been relying on illegal contracts for decades, despite laws enacted to protect consumers.
Many attempts to claim compensation from the resorts had failed, due to the time-consuming bureaucracy of the Spanish legal system. But in 2016, Canary Island timeshare giant Anfi-del-Mar was successfully sued by Norwegian client Tove Grimsbo for €40,000, setting crucial legal precedents. ECC then began taking errant timeshare companies to court and to date has won tens of millions of pounds in compensation awards for their clients.
The biggest complaints about timeshare resorts are:
- Dishonest/misleading/high pressure sales
- Massive depreciation in resale value
- Out of control annual cost increases and
- Restrictive contracts
Up to this point ECC’s timeshare division Timeshare Advice Centre have successfully claimed almost £30 million in compensation for their clients.
Holiday Parks
In recent years, UK holiday parks have started accumulating similar negative media coverage to that suffered by the timeshare industry in previous decades. There are around 400,000 holiday park unit owners in the UK, approximately the same as the number of timeshare owners.
Many of the sales personnel involved in the timeshare business left that industry when consumer laws tightened up, and some of them switched to holiday park sales instead. The sales methods were similar, there were less legal restrictions, and the cost was higher, meaning better commissions.
The main reason ECC understood that they were well positioned to help was because the consumer complaints were very similar: Again:
- Questionable sales integrity
- A resale value that plummeted to a fraction of the buying cost when the owner (or their beneficiaries) needed to sell
- Annual site fees and costs that increased well beyond inflation
- Contracts that restricted which service providers the lodge owner can use for improvements, repairs and utilities. The restrictions around selling the caravan were also (in our legal partners’ opinions) unfair
This was another holiday product sold in unfair and potentially illegal ways. ECC realised that they were perfectly positioned to help people mis-sold by UK holiday parks. Starting in 2024 they launched multiple national radio campaigns and dedicated a significant proportion of company resources to developing this area of the business.
ECC’s holiday park department Holiday Park Advice Centre clients have enjoyed early success, with multiple out of court settlements and a recent £180,000 high court win. This is only the beginning and the pipeline is looking extremely promising, with multiple additional successes expected in the short and medium terms.
Retirement Community Properties
The other two ECC divisions are holiday related. Leisure products really. So how does experience with these sectors qualify European Consumer Claims and their legal partners to challenge bad actors in the retirement community property sector?
Hopefully the pattern should be familiar by now: Retirement Community Properties (RCPs) are also:
- Often sold misleadingly/dishonestly
- Particularly in regard to resale values, and…
- …running cost increases
- There are also myriad complaints relating to restrictive contracts
These factors are the common thread running through all three ECC divisions. Our legal partners specialise in claiming compensation when these consumer laws have been breached.
RCPs are generally sold at a much greater price than timeshare memberships or holiday park units, and understandably so. These are more than regular properties. They are a place where our relatives expect to feel safe and have easy access to any help they need. It is an infinitely more consequential purchase than a timeshare or holiday lodge.
This means that while the legal challenges are similar, the ramifications are arguably far more serious.
ECC’s Retirement Community Property division Retirement Property Advice Centre are confident of equal or even greater success in this area.
CEO comment
Greg Wilson is the CEO of ECC and widely published expert in all three areas of consumer misconduct. “Whether it be timeshare, holiday park or retirement community property abuse, the corporate failures are the same,” confirms Greg.
“In our experience it usually comes down to greed and a constant drive for more profits at the expense of the consumer. Most firms try to operate this side of the law, but we deal with the cases where that line has been crossed.”
“With timeshare abuses,” continues Wilson, “there is extra legislation to help prosecute companies who acted illegally. With holiday parks and retirement community property developers we rely on existing legal frameworks such as the Consumer Rights Act. One thing is for sure: If someone has been treated unfairly with regard to their legal rights, then they can usually claim financial compensation, provided they enlist expert help.”