Maintenance bills leaving your account, or a compensation award being paid in? The choice is yours

With most resorts sending out their maintenance demands in December, it's time to stop procrastinating.

Are you happy with your timeshare and it's associated expenses?

Or...

...do you want out? (And perhaps some compensation too.)

Great idea

Timeshare really was a smart buy for many customers during it's heyday in the late 1980s and 1990s. People might joke about shifty timeshare salesmen (and perhaps many of them are) but the product itself solved a lot of real world problems.

Before the internet, we bought our holidays from actual shops (gasp!). Back in 'pre-history' we went in person to select our holiday destinations, and more importantly the accommodation, from glossy travel brochures.

The hotel industry is a competitive one. Each hotel/complex naturally maximised their appeal by hiring top notch photographers to make their accommodation look as attractive as possible. They showed the best room, from the best angle and in the best light.

People arrived to find rooms that, while admittedly the ones in the brochure, were somehow smaller and shabbier in real life.

Timeshare offered the solution. A guarantee of luxury, not just at your home resort but anywhere else you went too. It was high pressure sales, but so what?

It was also more expensive, but better quality always is...

We signed up for timeshare in our masses. Better holidays awaited.

Past its prime

Timeshare delivered. Sure, you had to fight off 'in-house' reps who were waiting to pounce every time you came back to the resort, with offers of a free breakfast while they tried to upgrade your membership at great expense. But the holidays were, as promised, high quality.

Then around the year 2000, the internet happened, and the rest of the travel industry didn't just catch up, they blew right by.

Regular holidaymakers now got their information about resort quality from online reviews, so there was no longer a risk of disappointment on arrival. They could also book where and when they wanted from sites like Booking.com.

In the timeshare world, maintenance fees spiralled out of control and the commitment of having to pay whatever increases the resort demanded every year soured many owners' feelings for their membership.

Exchange systems don't even come close to the flexibility of booking a holiday online as and when you please.

Suddenly, instead of timeshare owners having the better deal and being grateful for their membership, many of them wanted out.

If you are one of those owners, you will know that getting out is pretty tough. The resort is relying on your annual maintenance fees, and will not give them up without a fight.

Perhaps you are also aware that people are receiving significant compensation awards for being mis-sold, but don't really know how all that works, or even if you are eligible.

Time to act

With maintenance bills on their way in a couple of months, now is the perfect time to decide whether you want to keep your timeshare, or get free from it.

Depending on your circumstances, you may be entitled to compensation as well.

"Timeshare companies in Spain and elsewhere have been ignoring consumer laws for decades in order to maximise their profits," says Andrew Cooper, CEO of European Consumer Claims (ECC). "If you feel there was anything wrong, false or underhand about the way you were sold your membership, then you could be in line for significant financial compensation too."

Your choice is simple:

• Keep doing what you are doing, and accept whatever limitations/expenses your timeshare imposes as conditions of membership
• ...Or call the experts and see what your options are regarding freedom and possible compensation.

If ridding yourself of your timeshare is something you are considering, then time is the enemy. The longer you procrastinate, the more maintenance you will pay.

More importantly, our lives are not infinite. If your holiday time is important to you, why spend another one in the constraints of timeshare, instead of the freedom of the open holiday market?

Get in touch with our team today to find out your best way out of timeshare membership.

Timeshare Advice Centre's legal team has realised over £25.5 million in compensation awards for our clients.

The average award is over £20,000. Is that a sum you would be happy receiving?