Marriott Spain compensation claim

[india]

In 1999, Marriott sold us an 80 year contract in Spain (as well as making other promises about availability/inventory in Europe) which has now turned out to be illegal. We were also told at the time that we could use the Marriott resale programme if we ever decided to exit MVCI. However, in our last 'presentation' at our resort in Spain, the representative advised us just to give it back to MVCI, if we were struggling to make it work for us.

There have been reports in the media covering Spanish compensation claims, including Marriott. There are many companies out there claiming to be successfully handling such claims but we are nervous about being scammed. For example M1 Legal and European Consumer Claims Ltd (ECC) are listed on the FCA Financial Services Register but it says that, "This firm no longer has temporary permission to undertake claims management business", i.e. their registration has lapsed - which makes us cautious. Are there any TUG members out there that have been through the compensation claim? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[bazzap]

In 1999, Marriott sold us an 80 year contract in Spain (as well as making other promises about availability/inventory in Europe) which has now turned out to be illegal. We were also told at the time that we could use the Marriott resale programme if we ever decided to exit MVCI. However, in our last 'presentation' at our resort in Spain, the representative advised us just to give it back to MVCI, if we were struggling to make it work for us.

There have been reports in the media covering Spanish compensation claims, including Marriott. There are many companies out there claiming to be successfully handling such claims but we are nervous about being scammed. For example M1 Legal and European Consumer Claims Ltd (ECC) are listed on the FCA Financial Services Register but it says that, "This firm no longer has temporary permission to undertake claims management business", i.e. their registration has lapsed - which makes us cautious. Are there any TUG members out there that have been through the compensation claim? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

This is the relevant section from the MVW 2021 Annual Report.
It is believed that an extremely small number of MVC Spanish resort owners have made a successful claim in recent years.
Many (most?) European based Timeshare Claims companies are latching on to this to coerce Owners into paying a significant up front fee on just the possibility of a successful claim.
Buyer Beware

 

[davidvel]

I don't know anything about the companies you are asking about. My suggestion would be to send a copy of the above Annual Report to Marriott and make your demand (refund of purchase price?) telling them you intend to file suit if they don't accept. If they don't, then find a lawyer who has successfully brought a similar suit in the past that won.

 

[Hindsite]

We were also told at the time that we could use the Marriott resale programme if we ever decided to exit MVCI. However, in our last 'presentation' at our resort in Spain, the representative advised us just to give it back to MVCI, if we were struggling to make it work for us.

Check your contract, if its like mine it just says that the resale office will open when the resort is 95% sold. There's nothing there about a buy-back clause. I've even got the sales leaflets marked up in the salseman's handwriting year after year showing us how much our ownership had increased in value. I never bought based on the alleged resale value and after a few years of me asking when the resale office was opening he finally shook his head and said no. Just because there is a resale channel via MVC , which there is, doesn't mean that they will accept your week when you ask, or that they'll give you anything for it.

If you've owned since 1999 and use it at all well you've got great value from it, so just give it back or pass it on to someone who wants it, when you are done. Its a membership with right to use and not an ownership, so you don't actually own anything.

Avoid the people touting that they can get you compensation. Ask on the owner facebook page for the resort if anyone has had direct experience of getting money back, and you'll probably find there are none, but someone might chime in to say they've paid sever thousand to the law firm, but have yet to hear back.

The risk in the MVW accounts is very generalised and doesn't seem to have resulted in a provision for the costs being set aside. If the risk changes over time then that may indicate a real prospect, but your decision is whether you want to take on the work to investigate and follow this for the many years it will take vs just giving back your ownership.

When I'm done with mine I'm going to put them up for adoption via TUG with some sweeteners to pay the future year and the transfer costs and hope that someone else will get the great value from it that we have.