The Timeshare Regulations 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations implement Directive 94/47/EC of the European Parliament and Council (OJ No. L 280, 29.10.94, p. 83) on the protection of purchasers in respect of certain aspects of contracts relating to the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a timeshare basis.

The Directive requires member States to provide measures for the protection of purchasers of timeshare rights in immovable properties. The Regulations provide for new rights in respect of timeshare rights in buildings. The protection of purchasers of timeshare rights in caravans and mobile homes remains unchanged save for some very minor adjustments. To benefit from the new protection a purchaser must be an individual who is not acting in the course of a business.

The Timeshare Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”) has been amended and extended. Timeshare rights acquired as the result of share ownership and timeshare rights under collective investment schemes formerly excluded by section 1(3) of the 1992 Act are no longer excluded from the application of the 1992 Act. The application of the 1992 Act has also been extended to cover timeshare rights where the accommodation is situated in the United Kingdom and timeshare rights where the accommodation is situated in another EEA state and the purchaser is ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom (regulation 2).

A vendor of rights to timeshare accommodation in a building is required to provide any person on request with a document containing information on the property. Such information will become a term of the agreement if an individual not acting in the course of a business, who receives such information, subsequently enters into an agreement to purchase timeshare rights in the property. Subsequent changes to the information are only permitted in limited circumstances (regulation 3 and Schedule).

Advertisements of timeshare rights must refer to the possibility of obtaining the document mentioned above and state where it may be obtained (regulation 4).

An agreement for timeshare accommodation in a building must set out certain minimum information on such matters as the nature of the property, the price and recurring costs and charges (regulation 5 and Schedule).

The purchaser is entitled to have the agreement in the language of the country of his residence or the country of which he is a national. In addition, a purchaser resident in the United Kingdom is entitled to the contract in the English language (regulation 6).

A purchaser is also entitled to a translation in the language of the country where the property is situated (regulation 7).

If the timeshare agreement relates to accommodation in a building, the notice under section 2 of the 1992 Act will have to state that cancellation of the timeshare agreement will automatically cancel any related timeshare credit agreement (regulation 8).

The rights to cancel a timeshare agreement for accommodation in a building are extended. The fourteen day cancellation period is extended up to three months and ten days if certain information has not been provided to the purchaser (regulation 9).

Advance payments are prohibited during the cancellation period (regulation 10).

The vendor of rights to timeshare accommodation in a building will be obliged to inform any creditor forthwith on receipt of a cancellation notice which automatically cancels a timeshare credit agreement (regulation 11).

Certain of the new obligations on vendors are statutory duties subject to civil proceedings (regulation 12).

The provisions on offences have been consequentially amended as necessary (regulation 13) and there are further general consequential amendments (regulation 14).