A retired couple who lost thousands of pounds after being mis-sold a timeshare have been awarded £16,200 in compensation.
John and Roni Richardson, from Wye Valley in Wales, bought two weeks a year of timeshare at a resort in Gran Canaria in for £15,000 in 1995.
Initially thinking they had bagged a good deal, the pair were shocked to find they had to pay a huge number of hidden fees over the years they were not told about.
They also claim the company that sold them the contract did not explain it was a timeshare, something John said would have rung alarm bells due to their poor reputation.
Roni, a former counsellor and management consultant, recalled how she and her husband were on holiday in Gran Canaria when they were ‘accosted on the street and taken by this young woman to the complex’.
She added: ‘And it was a beautiful complex. It was stunning and after much persuasion, which took all day, eventually at 5 o’clock in the evening we decided that we would go ahead – even though, at that point in time, we didn’t realise that it was a timeshare.’
John, a former civil engineer, added: ‘They actually assured us it wasn’t.
‘We would never have knowingly bought timeshare because of its reputation.’
Timeshares began back in the 1970s as a way of filling apartment blocks that would otherwise be empty.
The premise allowed people to book a holiday on specific dates at a specific location (and often a specific apartment or room number) every year and promised stability as people wouldn’t have to worry about their preferred dates or rooms being taken by anyone else.
But holidaymakers were often restricted to how and when they could use their timeshare and had to pay annual fees for maintenance and homeowners’ association membership.
Plus, they were often issued additional fees they hadn’t been made aware of when first buying their timeshare.
John said: ‘[The biggest problem for us] was really the burden of the continual maintenance fee which was going up and up and up, and nothing that we could control. And that was very difficult.’
They were also dismayed to discover their children would have to keep paying for the timeshare after John and Roni’s deaths, even if they didn’t want it.
Many time share contracts are now deemed illegal and a number of legal firms have offered owners the chance to seek compensation.
Several years ago John and Roni were approached by a fake compensation firm and the couple sadly ended up losing £8,000.
Recently, however, although sceptical after being fooled before, they applied for compensation via the Timeshare Advice Centre, part of European Consumer Claims.
This time, thankfully, it was legitimate and they were awarded £16,200.
Asked how it felt to receive the news, John said: ‘I was very happy to get the call, but we’d had a horrendous week with Roni in hospital getting a pacemaker put in, defibrillator fitted – so I was a bit shocked as it were! “Is it really for real? Or could it, yet again, be a scam?” But no, it wasn’t!’
‘I’ve already spent some of mine,’ Roni said. ‘I’ve bought myself a nice leather rocking, swivel, reclining chair – and I’ll be spending some more when we go on holiday next week.’
John, meanwhile, joked: ‘And I shall try to keep hold of mine and not have it frittered away!’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
