ABOUT ITRA International Timeshare Resale Association Ltd was formed in 2002 as a self – regulatory trade body, set up to monitor and improve the level of service and commitment to timeshare owners, resale brokers and other organisations connected with the timeshare resale market. Over the past 7 years ITRA has successfully… •
promoted best practice trading to member resale agents
•
assisted member resale agents to network with one another to aid client resale opportunities
•
provided useful information to both member agents and consumers
•
acted as a mediator between consumers and member agents when disputes have arisen.
On the 16th July 2009 an extraordinary general meeting of the committee of ITRA (International Timeshare Resale Association) was held to discuss the future of the timeshare resale marketplace. During this meeting it was concluded that the timeshare resale market is in rapid decline to the point now where it has been estimated that the chances of a successful resale are around 1 in 1000 and even those that do manage to transact a successful resale will only receive around 20% of their original purchase price at best. With these findings ITRA no longer felt that any agent could justify the provision of a resale service and subsequently the services of ITRA in its former capacity had become obsolete. Therefore it was with regret that we announced that we would be terminating the then current operations on 1st September 2009.
The New ITRA. International Timeshare Refund Action Our objective has always been to support the consumer in timeshare disputes and over the years of operating has entered into dialogue with thousands of timeshare owners from which we have discovered a pattern of abuse, deception and even fraudulent issues that have been systematically perpetrated by many of the major timeshare industry players to the detriment of owners. Over the past 3 years ITRA has with the support of its members and sponsors who have funded the investigation of these issues we are now pursuing the coordination of a claim to the courts on behalf of timeshare owners who can justify due cause for refund compensation, distress and damages on the grounds that their timeshare purchase was not of merchandisable quality.
Legal Claims Over the past 5 years ITRA has with the support of its members and sponsors invested in seeking financial restitution on behalf of timeshare owners, past and present who maintain and believe that they have been fraudulently misrepresented by various organisations in respect of the purchase and ongoing use of their timeshare so as to render it virtually valueless and untenable. ITRA are now pursuing the coordination of a claim to the courts on behalf of timeshare owners who can justify due cause for full compensation, distress and damages on the grounds that their timeshare purchase was not of merchandisable quality. Having realised the extent of the problems faced by timeshare owners, in June 2007 ITRA arranged a meeting with Counsel to discuss the merits of forming group litigation order (GLO) against the parties who have deemed to mislead and cause distress to timeshare owners. Having studied the findings of our preliminary investigations, Counsels opinion was that the case had merit and that further enquiries should be pursued. The report has established that there are a number of reoccurring themes shared by distressed timeshare owners which are listed below In light of this confidence, ITRA appointed a specialist law firm to conduct further investigation and pursue the GLO on their belief that their costs would be covered by winning a compensation claim, on a fully insured and funded No Win – No Fee basis. ITRA IS ASSESSING POTENTIAL CLAIMS FOR... Problems with obtaining a selected balanced exchange from exchange companies The worldwide exchange system offered by the exchange company that was associated with the developer in the original presentation and sales agreement was the client’s principal reason for purchasing. There were strong allegations and evidence that the exchange company unlawfully utilised the weeks in the inventory bank for their own benefit, thus reducing the availability of prime inventory to its members. Year on year escalating maintenance fees (way above that of inflation) A secondary factor for the client purchasing from the developer or his agent, was the superior quality of the resort and the economics of the realistic annual maintenance fee charged. It was the understanding of the purchaser that annual management fees would only rise in line with inflation. In the majority of resorts, management fees have been unjustifiably hiked to many times the cost of inflation to a point where there has become a clear breach of contract. Exorbitantly high interest rates charged by finance companies introduced by marketers. Historically, actual interest rates were usually hidden from the purchaser but were around 28% (roughly four times greater than a conventional bank loan) It would appear that since new finance legislation was introduced three years ago, the main current lender to timeshare and Points purchasers dropped their rates to 18.9%. Still exorbitant and most of the owners we have interviewed cannot recall the interest rate they were charged.