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ePaper created 2014-06-22, 15:43:25 | version 1.31.00
15The English Newspaper for Gran Canaria TheCanaryNews.com News, Views & Sunshine Summer 2014 Timeshare and holiday clubs A timeshare or holiday club membership can be a financial commitment for many months or years: before signing up you need to think about the taxes and bills involved, as well as insurance and transport costs. European Consumer Centres offer advice on the EU timeshare rules, including contract cancel- lation (cooling –off) rights. EU rights for timeshare buyers? Under EU rules, timeshare is where you buy the right to spend a set amount of time in a villa, apartment or similar in a given period (2 weeks a year, for instance) and where the con- tract lasts more than one year. In the EU, timeshare buyers have a strong set of rights under the EU Timeshare Directive. These include: The right to full information before you sign the contract, The right to contract cancel- lation within 14 days for any reason without penalty (a cooling-off period), If the trader has not provided the required information, the contract cancellation (cooling- off) period is extended to one year plus 14 days. Specific rules on payment protecting consumers: e.g. You must not be asked for any deposit, advance payment etc. during the cooling-off period. Is holiday-club membership covered by EU rules? Holiday clubs are similar to timeshares but many have been designed to circumvent the older EU consumer rules on timeshare, which only used to cover contracts of at least 3 years. Therefore, holiday-club agreements are often for less than 3 years. The current EU timeshare rules cover such ‘timeshare-like’ ser- vices, if the contract is for more than one year. [!] EU countries should have made sure their national laws are in line with the new EU law by February 2011, but some countries are late with this. If in doubt about what legal protection you have, get advice from your nearest European Consumer Centre.