Today Inside Timeshare once again highlights the plight of Mrs B and her sister in their battle against MacDonald Hotels and Resorts. As many of our regular readers will remember our story begins in 2015, when Mrs B employed the services of ITRA to extricate them from two timeshares, Oasis Lanz in Lanzarote and Dona Lola Club owned by MacDonalds on the Costa del Sol. These timeshares were duly transferred to a named person, with notarised documents showing this to be the case. As far as Oasis Lanz is concerned there has been no problem, they accepted the transfer, this cannot be said of MacDonalds.
Now MacDonalds has engaged the services of a law firm who has instigated legal proceedings in the County Court to claim “arrears” for a timeshare that Mrs B and her sister no longer legally own.
The claim is for £6328.18, court fees of £410, legal representatives costs £80, a total of £6818.18 before any interest is added.
The law firm engaged by MacDonalds is:
Condor House 10 St Pauls Churchyard London EC4M 8AL
The timeshare was purchased in 2000, while they were on holiday in Spain, after over 4 hours on the presentation they purchased two weeks in a 3 bedroom apartment at a cost of around £7000. At the time they were both in their 70’s and 60’s, now they are in their 90’s.
At this point, we must remind you our readers that the new Spanish Timeshare Law 42/98 had come into force, this made any contract over 50 years (perpetuity) illegal which is what their contract was. They were also as usual told that they were purchasing “property” and that it was an “investment”. As we all know this is totally false.
It should also be noted that MacDonald Hotels and Resorts did transfer all fixed week owners to their own points system, including Mrs B without their permission, which as we know Harry Taylor of the now-defunct TATOC wholeheartedly endorsed. The points system is also illegal under Spanish law.
They did use the timeshare for the first few years, then due to illness they were no longer able to travel, but they continued to pay the maintenance even though they were unable to use the timeshare. They paid this for over 10 years without fail.
After several attempts to sell the timeshare through the resort which came to nothing, they employed the services of ITRA at a cost of over £5000 in 2015.
Eventually, they received from ITRA documents to show the two timeshares had been transferred to a third party, his name address and passport details were also on the documents. After checking the electoral register it was found that this person did indeed exist at the address given.
Oasis Lanz accepted this and they have never received any demands for any maintenance fees. The same cannot be said for MacDonalds.
According to MacDonalds, they do not recognise the “sale or transfer” to the person named, that no member can “sell or transfer” their timeshare without going through MacDonalds. In other words, they hold the “monopoly” on the timeshares with no method of getting out.
Inside Timeshare has copies of all the documents showing the transaction and they are duly notarised by a registered notary in Spain and conform to Spanish law.
Since 2015, MacDonalds have been “threatening” legal action against two old and frail ladies who are also housebound, with Mrs B’s sister who is now very ill, are now making good their threats and issued court documents prior to court action.
The law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP are now the instrument of the MacDonalds bullying tactics and in the opinion of Inside Timeshare are not worthy of being called lawyers. Obviously they are only interested in receiving the substantial payments from this despicable and unethical firm headed by none other than Donald MacDonald himself.
MacDonald Hotels maintain that their contracts are subject to Scottish law and the jurisdiction of Scottish courts, unfortunately, the Spanish courts do not agree as can be seen in a previous article (see link below). This is a case which went to the Spanish courts in 2016, where the Spanish judge dismissed the MacDonalds claim of jurisdiction. The point being the timeshare resort is in Spain and the purchase was made in Spain, therefore Spanish law does have jurisdiction.
This point has also recently been followed in the Spanish courts in cases against Club la Costa and Diamond Resorts. Both of these timeshare companies claimed that as the companies are UK limited companies then UK law and jurisdiction applies, the courts have ruled that Spanish law takes precedence and has jurisdiction.
This particular case is one of the worst that Inside Timeshare has ever seen, out of all the timeshare companies MacDonald Hotels and Resorts are the worst, even the RDO (Resorts Development Organisation) the industry trade body has removed their membership. Now for the RDO to do this, things must be bad, after all, they did allow Silverpoint to peddle their “investments” without saying a word.
Inside Timeshare will keep you informed of this case and we are sure that the County Court will see the “evil” that MacDonalds is perpetrating and throw the case out.
If you have had a similar experience or have problems with MacDonalds, please use our contact page and let us know, Inside Timeshare knows that this is not an isolated case, that MacDonalds use these bullying tactics as a matter of course. It is time this company was brought to task.
https://insidetimeshare.com/start-the-week-macdonald-resorts/
