As promised, The Timeshare Authority is looking at the specific benefits for timeshare buyers brought about by the European Union’s timeshare legislation passed in October.

For starters, the timeshare industry is very important in Europe, representing an approximately $14 billion (US dollars) industry that employs some 40,000 people. And while timeshare laws were in place, aspects of timeshare regulation in Europe did not adequately protect consumers.

In summary, the new European Union timeshare regulations will:

• Cover all vacation ownership properties, including holiday clubs (see yesterday’s The Timeshare Authority to learn more about the problems of holiday clubs).
• Provide consumers comprehensive pre-contractual information enabling them to make informed choices.
• Cover moveable property like canal boats and caravans, and long-term products such as access to websites that offer big discounts on flights, hotels, and rental cars.
• Bans deposits or advance payments of any type, and …
• Create a unified 14-day cooling off or rescission period throughout Europe, in which a timeshare buyer will be able to withdraw from the contract without incurring costs.

Meglena Kuneva, the EU’s consumer commissioner says, “The new rules will ensure that the best possible protection is in place for consumers in the modern holiday market and that rogue operators will no longer be able to exploit loopholes in the law.”

As with any legislation, there are always critics. Sandy Grey, speaking for one timeshare association said, “These con merchants can spot the white knees and red faces of tourists a mile off – and for those holidaymakers that leave their brains at home, two weeks’ grace might not be much use. If they sign up in the first few days of their holiday it could be too late by the time they’re home and have a chance to think about it.”

National governments throughout Europe now have a maximum of two years to ensure the directive is incorporated into law. Until that then, and even when the new legislation is fully enforced, your best protection against timeshare fraud, scams, and misrepresentation is to take your time in making decisions, and never sign a contract that you do not fully understand.

If you buy timeshares in countries other than the United States, the laws of the country in which the timeshare is located govern your transaction. The only exception to this can occur when you have dealt with a sales office that represents timeshare in other countries, but the office itself is located in the United States and your contract closes in the United States.

European Timeshare Sales Slower than in Other Destinations

While timeshare as a concept got its start in Europe, timeshare sales never took off in Europe in the same way they have in the US. Although approximately 1.5 million Europeans have bought timeshares, the consensus is that some of them have been misled in making their purchase.

One major deterrent to European timeshare sales and industry growth has been an ambiguity – a bit of a loophole – that enabled a product known as a “holiday club” to work around Europe’s original timeshare regulation, (Timeshare Directive 94/47/EC) a law that was first passed by the European Union in 1994. Holiday clubs operated outside this earlier EU timeshare law by offering a product with only a three-year duration of ownership, because until October 2008, European Union law applied to timeshare products if they involved more than a three-year period of ownership. With the door wide upon for timeshare scams at unregulated holiday clubs it was often difficult for consumers to identify which European vacation ownership products were “safe” to buy and which ones to avoid.

As Harry Taylor, CEO of TATOC (The Association of Timeshare Owners Committee; the only elected consumers association to represent the interests of timeshare owners in Europe) explains, “The previous Bill was not flexible enough to cover such products as canal boats and as usual there were companies that were able to circumvent the law. For instance, the introduction of holiday clubs … Also there was the confusing aspect of there being different rulings in different countries. This new European legislation will remove any confusion and protect consumers whether they are buying in Spain or Greece.”

Saturday’s The Timeshare Authority will fill you in on more details about the newly passed European Union legislation. And be sure to read The Timeshare Authority blog for Monday, December 1, to learn more about TATOC.

Across America, people are sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner and time with those they love. In a day that has come to be about football, parades, and pumpkin pie, people sometimes forget that this is also a time for giving thanks. Whether you enjoy turkey and all the trimmings with your family and friends or you microwave your frozen dinner and dine alone, here are some thoughts that may cause you to reconsider just how blessed you really are …

(This information appears on the Miniature Earth and numerous other places on the Web.)

There is no doubt that 2008 has been a challenging year for many people. We have experienced changes in the US and the global economies that most of us never imagined we would see. Your bank account may be slimmer or your stock options worth less than they were a year ago, but even in tough times, most of us are far more blessed than we realize.

While celebrating Thanksgiving is uniquely American, the idea of pausing to spend time with your family and to count your blessings, is a wonderful tradition, beneficial across borders and boundaries around the globe … so from everyone at Sell My Timeshare NOW and The Timeshare Authority:

Happy Thanksgiving!

For timeshare developers, and certainly for timeshare buyers, regulating the ways in which timeshares are marketed and sold is one of the best things that has happened to the industry – but it has also created one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Yes, tougher regulations were desperately needed in 1977 when only three states in the United States had any type of timeshare regulatory laws on their books. And during the decade that followed, when thirty-eight states implemented new laws and the other twelve designated existing laws to include timeshares, industry standards and practices improved significantly.

But the downside to the tougher legislation is that timeshare developers and timeshare resellers now face the challenge of operating global businesses while complying with regulations that vary greatly from country to country, state to state, and sometimes municipality to municipality. For consumers, it means that one-size does not fit all when it comes to timeshare laws and practices.

Overview of Timeshare Rescission Practices in the US

In the United States, most states have sets of laws specifically to regulate timeshare sales and the timeshare industry while a few states apply the same laws to timeshares that they apply to other types of real estate. Almost all states now have a rule that specifically requires buyers be given a period of time during which they can legally change their mind about the purchase of a timeshare and during which they will forfeit no payments or deposits already made. This is the rescission period, and it was created to protect buyers. But buyer beware; the rescission period means different things in different places.

The length of time and the specifics of the cancellation period for the purchase of a timeshare varies greatly from state to state. Hawaii, Florida, Nevada, and South Carolina are top timeshare sales states in the US, but all have different laws regarding the rescission of a timeshare sales contract. In Hawaii, for example, current state law gives a timeshare buyer seven days to cancel a timeshare sales contract. In Florida, the Florida Vacation Plan and Timeshare Act affords buyers ten calendar days of rescission from the date the buyer signs the purchase contract. In contrast, Nevada gives buyers only until midnight of the fifth calendar day following the date of execution of the contract to back out, while South Carolina allows only four days, not including Sunday.

In nearly every US state, and in most countries, your cooling off or rescission period cannot be waived. Someone who asks you to sign such a waiver is acting illegally and is most assuredly trying to dupe you into believing you have no period in which to reconsider your purchase. And timeshare rescission laws only get more varied when you look at them on an international level.

Looking at the Big Picture of Timeshare Sales Laws and Rescission

In blog posts later this week, The Timeshare Authority will be looking at timeshare laws in other countries and particularly the very positive changes made by Members of European Parliament last month to make British vacationers (and anyone who buys European timeshare) better informed and less at risk when buying or renting timeshare or timeshare resales.

Watch for more on this in The Timeshare Authority on Friday and Saturday.