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Top Income Support & Jobseeker's Allowance topic #6952

Subject: "time share holiday" First topic | Last topic
di
                              

generalist advisor, leytonstone citizens advice bureau, london. E11
Member since
29th Apr 2009

time share holiday
Wed 29-Apr-09 01:21 PM

i have a client who bought a time share holiday and would like to know how this would effect his benefit entitlement. The time share holiday is not refundable and can not be transferred and i dont know if this is worth any money. if anyone know about this, can u let me know.

  

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Replies to this topic
RE: time share holiday, ariadne2, 29th Apr 2009, #1
RE: time share holiday, nevip, 30th Apr 2009, #2

ariadne2
                              

Welfare lawyer and social policy collator, Basingstoke CAB
Member since
13th Mar 2007

RE: time share holiday
Wed 29-Apr-09 05:49 PM

I presume you have checked the agreement in relation to the first two points you have raised. I find it hard to believe that it is not transferrable at all - what is the law governing the agreement? In the absence of anything specified in the agreement it may well be the country where the property is. Heaven alone knows what the legal nature of the "right" the client has, whether a personal right only (like a licence, which would not be assignable).
If it literally cannot be transferred, even back to the grantor, it should realistically be viewed as having no value at all. You may be able to find out something about the timeshare company by googling it.
Most people we see in CABx with timeshare problems want out. Often the only thing to do is to write it off to experience. It's appalling how many people still get sucked into this.
Of course it may be perfectly respectable and he may love his annual visit there....in the rainy season or whenever....

  

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nevip
                              

welfare rights adviser, sefton metropolitan borough council, liverpool.
Member since
22nd Jan 2004

RE: time share holiday
Thu 30-Apr-09 10:19 AM

Timeshare arrangements are often fraught with difficulty and their legal status can be difficult to determine. The starting point is, in what country is the timeshare located? The agreement and the country’s legal system is, therefore, the starting point. For example, in some states of the USA, some kinds of timeshare interests can be interests in real property.

In Europe, however, timeshare interests are, in general, personal rights only (though see France, for example, for some limited exceptions). European law has traditionally considered timeshare interests as falling under consumer law but there is currently no real uniformity across EC states as to how the current EC Directive should be implemented.

The new EC Timeshare directive (2008/122/EC) due to become law throughout the EC in 2011 and which seeks to establish uniformity among EC states defines a timeshare interest as “a consumer right, lasting for more than 1 year, to use accommodation for more than one period of occupation”, requires that timeshares “must not be sold as an investment” and must specify “the law under which the contract is governed”. The consumer must be given a written contract, which must include “the exact nature of his rights”.

See: http://www.timeshare.org.uk/td8.doc

Legal advice should be sought as to whether rights are merely personal, whether they have real value and whether those rights are transferable for value.

  

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Top Income Support & Jobseeker's Allowance topic #6952First topic | Last topic