Browse Month

July 2016

Irregularities in Anfi Tauro Beach Project

How much worse can it get for the Anfi Group? Just as we have seen even more rulings from the Supreme Court against the timeshares sold by Anfi, and the numerous cases being brought by the law firm Canarian Legal Alliance, we now have a new investigation. This time it concerns the Anfi project at Tauro Beach in the municipality of Mogan.

Anfi-Beach-Construction-3-1

La Provincia, a Spanish Daily published a story on 24 July 2016 that the Department of Sustainability of the Coasts and the Sea, which comes under the Ministry of Environment had dismissed the head of the Canary Islands Coastal Authority, José María Hernández Leon. It appears that his dismissal is based on serious irregularities found in the permissions granted to the Anfi Group for the project. This project is for the creation of a new beach, boardwalk and other facilities at the mouth of the Barranco de Tauro.

 

The Guardia Civil have challenged the legality of the authorisations granted to Anfi to occupy over 3km of the coast. SEPRONA, which is the Nature Protection Service run by the Guardia Civil have been conducting an investigation into the Anfi Group who are the promoters of the project since work began in February this year.

gc-seprona

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Anfi Group which is a partnership between the Lyng family and the Construction Company Santana Cazorla, have been given a 50 year tenureship of the area. With the project having an impact on several homes and a camp site which need to be relocated, but this has hit problems. Two reasons have been given for this, one is that the proposed relocation site would disconnect them from the community and that it also overlaps the site for the planned roundabout for access to the beach.

tauro homes

The partners themselves are no stranger to controversy, in the past there have been hints and allegations into possible corruption, although nothing was actually proven. Could this be the tip of another allegation? After all, for the Guardia Civil to be investigating it must be serious, only time will tell. (see link to previous article The Great ANFI Battle of the Partners)

 

We shall be keeping an eye on this case as it develops, La Provincia is renowned for chasing stories such as this and is widely read. For a more in depth report follow the links below, one is for La Provincia, the other is to the English translation of the story published in The Canary News.

 

http://www.laprovincia.es/gran-canaria/2016/07/23/destituido-jefe-costas-canarias-irregularidades/845420.html

 

http://thecanarynews.com/tauro-beach-investigation-underway/

 

http://insidetimeshare.com/great-anfi-battle-partners/

 

My Thought Today: End of July

Another month gone by and even more judgements from the Supreme Court, four within a week of each other, this means CLA have now achieved 15 judgements. CLA also announced a win at the courts in Barcelona, this was against Club Estela Dorada. Again it follows the Supreme Court rulings and the client was awarded over 29,000€ including legal fees and interest.  According to my sources there are around 100 waiting to be heard at the Supreme Court, so watch this space.

legal clipart

One of my American colleagues Irene Parker sent me a link to a comment on TrustPilot, a review website. It was from a customer who had a great Customer Service Experience (although it does not state if he is a Diamond owner or just a non owner booking):

 

“I must be the luckiest person in the world if you are to believe the other reviews on this site as my experience has been the complete opposite.

The agent I have been dealing with Lisa Whincap is probably the nicest and most helpful person I have ever had the pleasure to deal with.

I booked a Holiday then later found there was going to be some building work going on during part of our stay so I called and asked if I could change or cancel my holiday and Lisa could not have been more helpful and went well above and beyond to make sure I was entirely happy. Therefore, as far as I am concerned the customer service in their Spanish office is second to none and I would not hesitate hand on heart to recommend them to anyone I know as I got exemplary service.

Thank You (Shane)”.

 

https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/577158160000ff00096a4000

 

Irene has been writing for quite sometime on the difficulties of getting out of Diamond contracts she sent me this rebuttal:

 

People don’t get it. That’s great that Shane had a positive customer service experience, but if he spent $25,000 dollars or euros and had a heart attack or stroke tomorrow and could no longer travel, in all likelihood his only option would be to voluntary surrender his points (if accepted), despite many other timeshare resorts providing a secondary market. Who in their right mind would spend so much money on something with increasing annual fees and no exit.  Diamond then takes surrendered points and resells them for full value as part of their industry recapture program. When I called today on behalf of an 83 year old owner, the first thing I was told was a voluntary surrender is not guaranteed.

 

She points out that the problem is not one of customer service while on holiday at the resorts, it is a case of needing to be rid of the timeshare/membership when no longer needed. It is not only owners in Europe that have this problem, our cousins across the great lake have the same dilema. The only consolation as Irene put it to me in one conversation, is the way Spain is on the side of the consumer. Those in the US are now looking to see if they can bring in the same legislation on a Federal level. I suppose this does depend on who wins the presidential election!

floating house

On another matter of how the law works, it has been pointed out that some resorts / companies think they have found a new way around the floating week’s ruling. It appears they are now assigning a fixed week number (from the weeks that can´t sell) and calling them “Flexi weeks”. Although there is a week number assigned the owner is not tied to it, and uses it in the same way as the floating. So it looks like the legal eagles are going to be busy with this one in the future.

 

On the point of Mrs B and the Debt Collectors, the Financial Ombudsman has now taken on the case, so hopefully it will be resolved once and for all, without the need to go to court. Once again thank you for the support received by various legal eagles in the UK.

 

For those of you about to embark on your summer holidays, have a safe journey and enjoy yourselves, but do remember to watch out for the latest innovative idea from your resorts.

 

If you have any questions about any articles published or just want to know how to make the relevant checks on any company, Inside Timeshare is here to help. If you have any information about any article or company you have spoken to and want others to be warned, please let us know and we will publish it. Happy Holidays.

Basic RGB

What Is The Truth?

“Truth never damages a cause that is just” Mahatma Gandhi.

 

Last week beginning on 18 July 2016, TESS Limited, a paralegal company and member of the Institute of Paralegals, published several articles about Sellmytimeshare .tv and Monster Credits. In these articles they question whether this is resale or just another scheme to sell the product Monster Credits.

 

Inside Timeshare published an article “Is it Resale?” which was prompted by the TCA highlighting a piece by Harriet Cooke of The Sun Newspaper, this also questioned the claims of Sellmytimeshare.tv that it had helped so many people. This article was published 23 March 2016. This was followed by an article called “Testimonials: Fact or Fiction?” This article was prompted by a question from a reader if they could trust testimonials that appeared on websites.

 

What Inside Timeshare would like to say to you the reader, is look at these articles and then at the following links on the TESS website, then make your own judgements as to whether the truth has been served.

 

http://insidetimeshare.com/is-it-resale/

 

http://insidetimeshare.com/testimonials-fact-fiction/

 

http://tesslimited.co.uk/2016/07/18/timeshare-consumer-association-tca-is-now-directed-by-mr-mark-rowe/

 

Now considering that the TCA has highlighted these companies in the past, the question now, is what direction is the TCA going to take now, especially in light of the above link?

 

http://tesslimited.co.uk/2016/07/18/from-silverpoint-to-sell-my-timeshare/

 

http://tesslimited.co.uk/2016/07/19/sellmytimeshares-tv-dont-re-sell-your-timeshare/

 

Then on 20 July they published a transcript of a sales presentation, it was taken from a recording by a client. This was transcribed by the Ministry of Justice, therefore it is considered as evidence. It makes interesting reading.

 

http://tesslimited.co.uk/2016/07/20/monster-credit-sales-presentation/

 

The advisor actually states they don´t buy timeshare, that there is not even a market and people can’t even give them away on ebay. So why have these people travelled to attend these meetings if there is no resale market? Could it be another product is up for sale? Do they know what awaits them?

 

These articles by TESS do actually answer these questions, but I will leave it up to you the reader to decide who is telling the truth.

 

Timeshare is a minefield, trust is very difficult to determine, who do you believe?

 

The only answer is research any company that you may be contemplating doing business with, the information is out there. Some may be negative, but then look at who is publishing it. Is it a rival company? Do they have an ulterior motive?

 

If in doubt forget it, better to be safe than sorry.

 

If you have any information that you would like to share with others, Inside Timeshare will be pleased to include it, be it about any of these companies or others you have dealt with. Without your help and information it is difficult for others to make decisions, it could save others a lot of stress and financial problems.