Timeshare
Be careful of offers of free holidays, gifts, or prizes, often used by Timeshare companies, to encourage consumers to attend a timeshare presentation.
It is at such presentations that high pressure sales techniques are often used to sell holiday timeshare and consumers are often encouraged to sign on the spot.
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Unless you are seriously considering buying from the company concerned, do not go.
If however you do sign a timeshare contract in the UK, and you then change your mind, you have a cooling-off period of 14 days in which you can cancel the contract (and any related credit agreement) at no cost and be refunded any money you have paid.
The seller must not seek or accept any money from you during the cooling off period. You do not have this cooling off period if the timeshare is on a boat, for example a canal barge.
Increasingly, holiday makers are being targeted whilst already on holiday and in many other countries the cooling-off period is 10 days, whilst in others you might not have a cooling - off period at all. If you are unsure of your position, don't sign: wait until you get home and seek legal advice.
Factfile
- Buying into a timeshare means you buy the right to spend time in your own villa or apartment, at specific times in the year. Remember that you don't own the property itself, but the 'time slot'. You may have the right to swap the time in your apartment with time in a different apartment in another part of the world.
- If this seems attractive, remember you must also include transport and insurance costs, as well as yearly maintenance charges, and you might find it difficult to sell your timeshare in the future.
- Lots of companies sell timeshare by inviting you to presentations, usually with the tempting offer of 'awards'. Be aware that once you are at the presentation, you are likely to be subjected to high-pressure sales techniques, aimed at getting you to sign up - remember this, and think carefully before going just to collect your 'free award'. These often include hidden extra charges, anyway, such as booking or administrative fees for taking up 'free' holiday/flight vouchers.
- If you do sign up for a timeshare at a presentation in the UK and subsequently regret doing so, The Timeshare Act 1992 gives you a minimum of 14 days to cancel or 'cool off' (except if the timeshare is on a boat).
- If you are on holiday, be especially careful, because if you sign up abroad, your cancellation rights will be subject to the law of that country. If you purchase a timeshare while in another European Union country, you will have a ten-day cooling off period. During that ten days, the timeshare trader cannot seek or accept any deposit from you. If you do agree to a timeshare deal while in another EU country, you have the right to have a brochure and a contract printed in your own language.
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