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Marriott

End the Week: Court Round-Up

Well, it’s Friday again and the end of another week with Inside Timeshare. We finish with a quick round-up of the latest court news, once again this news would not be complete without the appearance of our old friends at Anfi and in contrast, there is some news about Marriott. There is also some news regarding the various administrations of companies being conducted at the Mercantile Courts, more on this next week once clients have been informed.

The week began with yet another appeal at the High Court Number 5 of Las Palmas, where the judges confirmed both of the Norwegian client’s contracts with Anfi are null & void. This also confirmed the original ruling by the Court of First Instance that included the 69,105€ for the original purchase, along with a further 53,656€ in respect of illegally taken deposits.

The High Court also confirmed the payment of legal interest and legal fees.

This was followed the next day with another Norwegian client having their First Instance victory confirmed by the High Court.

The original judgement declared the contract null & void, the repayment of 44,371€ plus legal interest and legal costs. The total included the 17,316€ which is double the amount taken illegally as a deposit.

Anfi as usual was not satisfied with the judgement of the court and again launched another frivolous appeal. Every case we see coming out of the appeal court is a defeat against Anfi, so given the situation they are in, why are they wasting so much money with these appeals?

Moving now to a completely different attitude, on 4 October 2021, The Court of First Instance Number 3 of Marbella, issued their verdict in the case of a German client against MVCI Management and MVCI Holidays.

The court ordered the contract null & void plus the repayment to the client of 25,688€. Just three weeks later, Marriott has deposited the funds with the court and the client will soon receive this into their own account.

What a difference to Anfi!

Another sentence against Marriott has been issued by the Court of First Instance Number 7 of Marbella, in favour of another German client.

Along with the contract being declared null & void, the court awarded the client to be repaid by Marriott 24,571 plus legal Interest. No doubt we shall be reporting on this case in a few weeks if Marriott keeps up with their practice of paying without enforcement proceedings.

These cases were prepared and the clients represented in court by the Lawyers of Canarian Legal Alliance.

That is all for this week, for the time being Inside Timeshare will only be publishing a few articles each week, if anything of importance comes up it will be published.

Have a great weekend and join us again next week.

Start the Week

Welcome to the start of another week with Inside Timeshare, we ended last week with a warning of yet another fake law firm rearing its ugly head, Servicios Legales Barcelona. As we explained, this name has been used to completely confuse any consumer who attempts an internet search, as in Spain it is a general term for “legal services”. One piece of information was the bank account details, a Royal Bank of Scotland account in the name of a private individual. What could be better proof of a scam?

We begin with some news which we came across over the weekend from the US, as we know it is the season for the annual maintenance fee bills, which many owners/members dread each year. The same question is always asked, how much have they increased?

Well, at the moment most don’t know, but one increase in the timeshare owners/members costs has been announced. RCI (Resorts Condominiums International), is increasing their “exchange” fee for next year.

Obviously, this news is from our friends in the US, so at present, we don’t know if this will also apply to European owners/members, we suspect it will.

There are also other fees involved with RCI membership and usage, so it will be interesting to see if any of these change as well.

These links below explain how RCI works and in the second link they also show the other charges that you may encounter.

https://www.go-koala.com/timeshare/resources/what-is-rci-and-how-does-it-work

https://www.timesharesonly.com/blog/rci-exchange-fees/

There also appears to be a lot of discussion on some US forums regarding the Hilton acquisition of Diamond, once again the focus is on the sales agents and what they are telling members in order to “upgrade” them.

It now seems the discussion is gaining ground with Hilton members, unsure of how all this is going to affect them, with reports surrounding sales agents’ tactics beginning to mirror those of Diamond.

Apparently, Hilton may be launching a non-deeded trust-based product, whereas at present they are deeded. This also appears to mimic Diamond products and according to our information will be using “Event of a Lifetime” to up-sell existing members.

As Inside Timeshare receives further information we will be publishing an article on this subject, it may just give our European readers some insight as to what they may expect.

After publishing Friday’s article, late news arrived about another Marriott case, this time it was from the Court of First Instance Number 8 of Palma de Mallorca.

The presiding judge declared two contracts illegal and therefore null & void, ordering MVCI Management and MVCI Holidays to repay the German client a total of 68,262€.

In his sentence, the judge ordered the repayment of 44,870€ for the purchase and also ordered a further 23,262€ in respect of the illegally taken deposits. As we know all the courts are following the Supreme Court ruling on the repayment in double the amount of any illegally taken deposit. The court also awarded the client Legal Interest on the full amount.

The case was prepared and presented on behalf of the client by Canarian Legal Alliance, it now remains to be seen if Marriott deposits this amount with the court without the need for any enforcement proceedings.

Inside Timeshare welcomes your comments & questions regarding any of the articles published, if you also want to know about the validity of any company that has contacted you or you have found, or just want to find out if your contract may be illegal then please use our contact page.

Start the Week: Update Fake Law Firms & News from the Courts

Welcome to the start of another week with Inside Timeshare, apologies for the lack of articles last week, this was due to unforeseen circumstances. Over the past few weeks, we have been publishing warnings about the FAKE law firm operating out of Tenerife, known as The Litigious Abogados Family, further information has confirmed that they are all indeed linked and are also linked to scams perpetrated years ago. Last week was also very busy on the courts front, with more news of Anfi appeals being dismissed and also two new Marriott cases ending in favour of the client.

We begin with our Fake law firms, Olmo, Logra and JR Abogados, well these are actually not fake law firms, their names and websites have been stolen and are being used by the criminals to give themselves credibility.

This is nothing new for this lot, we have seen them use Presidents, Ambassadors and eminent Judges among others on their own websites over the years, what is new here is the fact they are using genuine law firms.

Going back to 2016, Inside Timeshare published (click link) Solutions Group, Still Going?

It was the result of information received that they had begun operating again after a time in the shadows. They came under various names, but the one prominent feature was the email address they used,  [email protected] and the website which is no longer operating www.consumeract75.co.uk

Their name began to appear a couple of years after this article in conjunction with our fake law firms. Former “clients/victims” of Solutions Group were contacted regarding “a court case against their timeshare company”, which had been filed with the courts in Tenerife.

The “client/victim” has been awarded ex-amount of compensation and the “new” law firm “instructed” by Solutions Group will get your money for you. Just a matter of some taxes, court fees etc to deal with first.

Our first article showing the link was for CUC Abogados was an update in 2019, (click link) Update: CUC Abogados & Solutions

There was further update in February 2020 where Solutions “claimed” to have won in court (click link) Solutions Claim to Win Case

Full story on CUC Abogados 

https://insidetimeshare.com/?s=cuc+abogados

It has now been confirmed by several readers who have had contact with all three new “law firms”, that it is a result of their initial dealings with Solutions Group, that their case has been taken to court and it is guaranteed you will be paid out. After all, going by all the other “cases” they have won, the timeshare company pleaded “guilty”. Oh, look, a flying pig!

So our conclusion is that they are all one and the same people, or two different groups working together using data from previous scams. Either way, they have your data and will exploit it as best they can so beware of the “wonderful” news you are about to receive in a cold call.

If you have been contacted by these fraudsters and were also a “client/victim” of Solutions Group Tenerife, please get in touch with Inside Timeshare, your information may be useful.

Moving on to the courts, last week the High Court of Las Palmas once again dismissed and rejected appeals by Anfi Sales and Anfi Resorts, against the judgement handed down by the Court of First Instance.

The first appeal involved a Norwegian client, whose contract was declared null and void, with the court awarding 16.030€ in respect of the purchase prices plus a further 22,900€ for the illegally taken deposits. They were also awarded legal interest and legal costs.

The High Court confirmed this original sentence and the case is now back with the lawyers for filing with the Mercantile Court.

The second High Court ruling for the English client is a great result, at their original hearing the Court of First Instance had no hesitation declaring the contract null and void and awarding the client 24,158€ plus legal interest.

Obviously, Anfi once again appealed to the High Court, but so did the lawyers of CLA.

The Court of First Instance had not included the payment of double any deposit taken illegally, which was clearly established by the Supreme Court as a way of sanctioning the timeshare companies.

The High Court agreed, awarding a further 15,861€ and also included legal costs, as for the appeal by Anfi, well, once again it is a loss.

Moving now to Marbella, where the Court of First Instance Number 8, has found in favour of German clients against MVCI Management (Europe) Ltd, MVCI Management SL and MVCI Holidays SL.

The court not only declared the contract null and void, but awarded 23,292€ for the purchase of the contracts plus a further 36,000€ in respect of illegally taken deposits. The client was also awarded legal interest and legal costs.

In the same courthouse but in Court Number 3, the judge declared another Marriott contract null and void and the repayment of 9664€ Plus legal interest.

All these cases were prepared and presented to the court by lawyers of Canarian Legal Alliance, we now wait to see if Marriott once again submit payment to the courts without the need for enforcement.

That is all for today, if you would like further information on your timeshare contracts and you would like to know your rights and options if it is illegal, please use our contact page and Inside Timeshare will get back to you.