Julie Jordan
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It is very simple. For those members making a claim, their claim is based on their current contract. ANY change to that contract could have an adverse effect on their claim. Even if Anfi could not use the contract change to defeat the claim, you can bet Anfi would try to use the contract change as an excuse to make further applications to Court increasing the delays in the claims going through and further delays in receiving court awarded payments.
In any event these proposed changes, even if voted for by the members and Anfi Sales on 23 June, can only be the first stage in resolving Anfi’s issues. They might stop new claims based on ‘in perpetuity’ but, without each ‘happy’ member agreeing to sign a new contract with Anfi as well and thereby waiving their rights to make claims in the future, I cannot see them stopping new claims based on floating weeks or payment within the cooling off period. For new contracts sold after the date the Constitutional changes are effective Anfi will have to ditch the floating system and their illegal sales techniques which require payment on signature to keep their new contracts legal.
It will be interesting to see if all the ‘happy’ Anfi owners are willing to sign new contracts which will ensure that, even if their circumstances change in the future, they will not be able to make claims. Will they put the interests of Anfi Group before their own interests without a good deal more in terms of ‘compensation’ – whether that is financial or a guaranteed buy back scheme or a free exchange programme so they can swap their ‘fixed’ weeks
Another thought – if I was an owner at Gran or Emerald and I had paid at least as much for my contract as an owner at ABC, Puerto or Monte, I would be asking why I am also not being offered a rolling 50 year period of occupation at no extra cost. At the moment those contracts expire after 50 years and the owners will have to buy another contract when they expire, unlike their counterparts at ABC, Puerto or Monte who will get a free extension.
I’m sorry Wolfgang but there is a difference. What a member of this Club posts on Facebook is their affair and it is true we cannot control what goes into the public domain this way. JLCA are fully aware that their advice may be shared.
But when a member posts the advice on this Forum and it conflicts with the advice given by the Committee and the liaison representatives it causes us problems. A decision was made to post the liaison representatives’ advice to support Resolution 1 as it applied to the ‘majority’ of members not suing Anfi at the moment. JLCA did not consider a vote in favour or any change to the contracts (which is the effect of any change to the Constitutions) to be in the interests of members making claims (their clients) so they advised their clients accordingly. They have duty to provide the best advice to their clients. As a liaison representative yourself and former Committee member of the German Club I would have expected you to appreciate the difficulties we have in reconciling the opposing interests of all our members.
I agree Lisa – there seems to be a suggestion going around the liaison committee representatives, and promoted by Anfi itself, that the Anfi ‘problem’ is all the fault of the claimants and their ‘greedy’ lawyers. It should be noted that we did not create the ‘problem’ – we all signed contracts which we were assured were legal and believed the promises that Anfi Sales made us. As it turns out many of those promises were pie in the sky and the contracts turned out not to be legal at all. And as Angus has reported, Anfi cannot admit that it was in the wrong. How can any of this be our fault?
Wolfgang
I agree with Emrys and Angus – the solution is and has always been in Anfi’s hands. It is not for those who are making claims to make significant financial sacrifices for the sake of other happy owners.
I’d also like to point out that by posting JLCA’s advice in full on this Forum you have undermined the credibility of this Club and our Committee in a most unhelpful way. We have a difficult problem to address here in reconciling that our majority ‘happy’ members and minority ‘unhappy’ members – who are ALL fully paid up members and entitled to our support – have diametrically opposing interests as far as the SGM voting is concerned.
I have deliberately not posted on the Forum either my personal views on this issue or JLCA’s advice in full, so as NOT to contradict directly the decision of the European Clubs and the liaison representatives on the Anfi resort committees to advise members to vote for Resolution 1. There was no need to do so as those of our members who are clients of JLCA have heard from them directly and can make up their own minds as to how they wish to vote.
I do not understand what you are trying to achieve by your post?
Hi Keith
Gran Anfi contracts are only for 50 years so there is no necessity to change the Gran Constitution. However this means that, even if Resolution 1 were passed for ABC, Puerto and Monte, there would be no option to have a free recurring 50 year term on your Gran contact – it will end at the end of the first 50 year period of occupation. If you or your family still wanted to own at Gran then, you would have to buy a new contract.
Since the Supreme Court decisions in 2015 floating weeks have been confirmed as illegal and this applies to both your Monte and Gran floating weeks. This means that you could make a claim and get those contracts set aside if you wanted to. If you do not want to do that, then you can carry on using your floating weeks as you have up to now, unless and until Anfi seeks to change your contracts. Any changes to your contracts have to be agreed by both parties, so if you do not want to lose your floating weeks, don’t accept any new contract that Anfi may offer you.
For those that want totally legal contracts and are willing to swap to fixed weeks, my best guess is that Anfi will allocate you the inventory week and apartment that apparently is already linked to your contract in Anfi’s own internal records. This may be identified on your Membership certificate if you bought recently. So you could find out that you have any week and apartment. I would hope that Anfi would provide some kind of free internal exchange programme so new fixed week owners could bank unwanted weeks and swap them for another week banked by another owner. However Anfi have not given any information about whether or how they intend to do this, so this is speculation.
Hi Andrew
I agree with Wolfgang’s response:
- the option can be exercised in 2047 by whoever holds your contract at that time. You can and probably should add your children to your contract before then, if they want to take on Anfi and the financial liability that goes with it – they would then be jointly and severally liable for the maintenance fees if you don’t pay them.
- So, in 2047 as the then ‘existing owners’ they will be entitled to exercise the option. Just make sure you leave them a file with all this information in it, because there is no indication Anfi will be alerting members to exercise their options – in fact it might be in Anfi’s interest if members did not exercise the options because then Anfi could re-sell the weeks/points. Anfi also do not wish to incur any additional costs so they may not bother to alert members to their rights to exercise their options.
- As to what happens if you leave your Anfi timeshare contract in your will: Anfi timeshares grant contractual rights to use holiday accommodation at Anfi – they do NOT grant you any property rights, e.g. such as a tenancy or a lease. This raises the legal issue as to whether a contractual timeshare contract is a ‘personal’ contract which dies with you, like an appointment at the hairdressers. Unfortunately there is no decided UK case law confirming the position in relation to a contractual timeshare contract.
- As Anfi contracts and Anfi Club Constitutions and Rules specifically include a right to bequeath your Anfi timeshare on your death, this supports an argument that they are not intended to be ‘personal’ contracts and therefore that they survive your death, just as Anfi Sales told you they would.
- If you have not already made a will you really should do so, as this will ensure that your family have as few difficulties as possible dealing with your assets, including your Anfi contract, after your death.
- Providing you own no other property in Spain, e.g. an apartment or villa or a Spanish bank account with a healthy Euro balance, it is not necessary for you to make a separate Spanish will to deal just with your Anfi timeshare. However, if you do hold other Spanish assets, you should definitely seek advice from a Spanish lawyer about making a Spanish will to deal with your Spanish estate when you die. Do not assume that Spanish laws of inheritance on intestacy are the same as English ones.
- You can transfer your Anfi contract to someone else as a gift during your lifetime. Anfi contracts and the Anfi Club Constitutions and Rules include a contractual right to transfer them to any other person who is willing to take them on. Transferring the contract will also transfer the maintenance obligation. The person you gift your Anfi contract to may be a member of your family or someone completely unconnected with you.
- If you have died and left the contract to someone in your will, this person would be the ‘beneficiary’ under your will. If you do not make a specific bequest of your Anfi contract in your will, it will pass to the beneficiary who receives your residuary estate, i.e. the person who gets everything else after all the specific bequests.
- If your children want to inherit your Anfi timeshare from you it is simpler to transfer it to them during your lifetime, whether outright or by making them joint owners of it with you, so that they then become the sole owners after your death. This option also obviously makes sense if for health, finance or other reasons you are no longer able to use your Anfi timeshare yourself.
- If you do not transfer your contract during your lifetime it will be passed on by will or on intestacy and the transfer of the contract to a new owner will have to be arranged by those administering your estate.
- To exercise your contractual right to transfer your contract you must be up to date with your maintenance payments. To effect the transfer, Anfi will require you to complete the form of surrender and request for transfer on the back of your Membership Certificate and will then issue a new certificate in the name of the new owner(s), which may still include you if you are just adding your children to your contract. Anfi require the parties’ signatures to be witnessed by a solicitor in the UK. There may be a modest cost to you in arranging this. Anfi also levy a fee to register the transfer of ownership on their system. Obviously keep a copy of your original membership certificate before you send it off to Anfi.
- The legal effect of a transfer is a ‘novation’, which means that the original contract is cancelled and a new contract between Anfi and the new owner(s) is created and transfers both the benefit, i.e. the right to use the timeshare, and the burden of the contract, i.e. the obligation to pay the maintenance.
- The new novated contract should comply with current Spanish timeshare law but, in the past Anfi have tended not to make any changes to update the contract. This may change in the light of the recent claims and you may find that they try to transfer you to a fixed week or allocate you points instead of a floating week. Do check the new Membership Certificate carefully to make sure all the details are correct and you are happy with any changes. Mistakes have been known to happen and, the longer you leave it before contacting Anfi to get it put right, the more difficult it may be to get these corrected.
I hope that helps? Best regards Julie
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This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by
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This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by
A member of this Club who is currently at Anfi for two weeks and left the UK before his voting papers arrived has let me know the following:
“I have had a call from customer services to say that since I arrived this week and am staying next week they will issue me a duplicate set of [voting] papers next week. “
So if you are at Anfi now and did not get your voting papers before you left home, it is worth calling in at Customer Services to ask for duplicates.
However you vote it is really important for all members to vote so as to ensure that Anfi Sales do not hold sway by using their block vote.
Hi Liam
There is a list on Anfi’s own website – login as a member and go to Member Benefits/AVC weeks/points, as applicable – scroll to the bottom and there is a link to shops and restaurants that offer discounts on this page https://media.anfi.com/pdfs/avc/176.2CS.pdf
David
Wolfgang may be right about bi-ennial weeks because I do not believe you get a Membership Certificate and therefore no vote.
As regards your claim, JLCA are advising their clients not to sign any new contracts, but this is being mis-interpreted as advice not to vote on these proposed Resolutions to change the Club Constitutions.
The situation is that Anfi Sales can exercise all the votes for weeks that have not been sold. Therefore it is very important that all owners exercise their right to vote or Anfi Sales will impose their views with a block vote.
JLCA will be issuing more detailed advice to their clients and you should hear from them again shortly. They will advise their clients how to vote to protect their own best interests and protect their ongoing claims.
Sadly in your case, without a vote you may be at the mercy of other Anfi owners as you will not be able to influence the outcome.
The Monte Constitution allows for a SGM to be called on 14 days’ notice but this is a minimum not a maximum notice period. Anfi could easily have given a longer notice period and allowed everyone a little more time to consider their proposed changes to the Constitutions.
In defence of JLCA please note:
- we have a very favourable deal with them – compare their charges to those of CLA for example
- they need to keep their costs low in order to provide this service to us at the cost charged
- there is no value in them emailing you unless they have news for you – no email means they have no news for you
- when your case goes to Court it may take a few working days for the lawyers who attended Court e.g. at pre trial review, to report back and for translations into English of those reports to be prepared to send to you. So please allow up to a week to hear from JLCA as to the outcome of a pre trial review
- JLCA provided you with a login and password to their online client system so you could check for developments on your claim whenever. Please check this before contacting them.
- If there is news JLCA will contact you
- JLCA have no influence over which Court your claim is allocated to or how quickly that judge makes and releases their decision. Remember we are dealing with provincial Courts off mainland Spain – their Court admin may not be as efficient as we would expect it to be. JLCA cannot change that.
- JLCA do not have access to this members’ Forum so moaning about them on here will not reach them and only provides fodder for the likes of Anne Johns who repeats negative posts on Facebook to promote AnfiGB, the rival Anfi owners’ club started by ex AnfiUK committee members after an historic falling out several years ago.
- If you have a genuine concern with JLCA’s service please raise it with them directly. As Angus says it is far better to do this before you go to Court. It serves no purpose to wait until the Court date.
Hi Barry
Just to clarify your query. Your contract with Anfi comes to an end when your claim is finally resolved by the Courts, including all appeals made to the High Court in Las Palmas or the Supreme Court in Madrid. So if you continue to pay your maintenance throughout this period you can continue to book or rent out your weeks or deposit them with RCI. See my other posts for things to consider when renting out or depositing with RCIJLCA’s initial advice was that we should continue to pay maintenance for the whole duration of our claims but they have recently reviewed that advice and now consider that if we no longer wish to use our weeks/points we can safely stop paying maintenance AFTER we have a first instance Court decision in our favour. This of course means that Anfi would not take a booking for any year where maintenance was not paid.
In your case Barry you can still book your 2017 week or points and use them, rent them out or deposit them with RCI. I’d get on to Anfi pdq and get your week on the rentals page to recoup your 2017 maintenance. With luck you will get your decision before your 2018 maintenance is due (end January 2018) and then you can decide if you want to continue paying and using your Anfi contract until any appeal is resolved. At the moment Anfi are appealing all decisions against them.
I hope this helps?
We have not yet been able identify the Facebook ‘mole’ but we are working on it. He or she only reports negative comments from this website on Facebook to promote the other Anfi owners club. I doubt very much that there will be a report that our members are starting to receive payments from Anfi. 👍🏻
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This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by
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This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by
JLCA have always advised AnfiUK members not to consider signing new contracts with Anfi without taking legal advice as they could affect a member’s potential claim.
Hello Gillian. I am just waiting for JLCA to approve my summary of their presentation and then will add their slides and the summary to the Forum. I have chased them but they are manically busy at resent with claims. Best wishes Julie
It’s so easy to jump to the bottom of the thread – on a Mac just click CMD and the down arrow.
Yes Lisa JLCA did clarify – this is set out in another post on here, I think. But I will summarise below.
You will remember they initially advised that to keep our contracts live we should pay maintenance and were entitled to use our weeks until our claims were finally resolved – i.e. until all Court hearings including appeals to the High Court or even the Supreme Court have been dealt with.
JLCA have subsequently reconsidered that advice in the light of Anfi’s policy to appeal everything. They have confirmed that the above advice still applies until your claim has been heard at first instance, i.e. the first full hearing and a decision has been made by a Court that your contract is null and void, even if Anfi appeal that decision.
However, once you have a Court decision, it is up to you.
If you want to continue to visit Anfi until your claim is finally concluded (or rent out your weeks) then you should continue to pay your maintenance each year and Anfi will be obliged to let you book weeks and/or get guest certificates. It shouldn’t make any difference to availability for floating week owners – but who can say for sure?
Alternatively if you get a first instance decision during 2017 you could decide not to pay 2018 maintenance and not book anything or use a fixed week.
I hope that helps?
We will shortly be emailing all members registered to attend the AGM links to all the Committee and liaison representatives’ reports. Please read (and print, if required) them BEFORE you come to the AGM. They are also available to you now on the website. Go to My Club, click on Meetings and then select the link for the AGM 2017 at the top of the list.
We will not be reading them out at the meeting – far too tedious – but there will be opportunities to ask any questions you have relating to the reports as we work our way through the AGM agenda.
At the end of the AGM there will be time for a general discussion where you can raise any other comments and questions that you have.
Looking forward to an interesting weekend with AnfiUK friends.
JLCA have now allocated appointments to everyone. If you are expecting an appointment and have not heard from them, please contact Emma as soon as you can to confirm the time of your appointment.
The AGM is free to members BUT PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE COMING !!!!
If you are intending to attend the 2017 AGM please make sure that you have registered with me and Mark Earthey beforehand. The Club provides a pre-AGM lunch for members – those who have not registered will not receive tickets for the lunch. We also need to ensure there are sufficient chairs for everyone in the meeting room where JLCA will give their presentation in the morning of Saturday 18 March and the AGM meeting and group discussion will be held in the afternoon. If you have not registered to attend these events, there may be standing room only. 🙂
The only cost of the AGM is for members staying overnight at the hotel or attending the Gala Dinner on the Saturday night.
Looking forward to seeing lots of you next weekend.
Hi Marion, You would be better to put your post on our “Wanted” thread – it will get more views from people with weeks to sell. See My Club / Club Forum and in the middle of the page there is a link to the “Wanted” thread. Best regards Julie, Committee Secretary
Attention all members who requested an appointment with JLCA at the AGM weekend
If you have contacted JLCA to arrange an appointment with José-Luis Campillo on Friday 17 March at the AGM and have not received an email from Emma Belgum today 3 March, asking you to contact her, please do so as soon as possible.
JLCA have availability on the Friday afternoon from around 1pm to 5pm. Emma needs to know when you will be arriving at the Hotel so she can allocate the appointments as best she can to accommodate you all.
Please email Emma on e.belgum@jlcalawyers.com.
If you are meeting JLCA and intend to stay on for their presentation and/or the AGM on Saturday 18 March, PLEASE register with us by returning the form attached to our AGM email of 4 February. We really do need to know who is attending, so we can provide enough chairs and food at lunchtime for everyone. We also need to prepare voting cards for you with your unique voting numbers on them. Thanks
The Liaison Committee reports and AnfiUK Committee reports are starting to come in now – these are available to you on the website. Go to My Club, click on Meetings and then select the link for the AGM 2017 at the top of the list.
More will be added over the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out. Once they are all there I’ll post on the Forum and we’ll email all members registered to attend the AGM.
Numbers are looking good again for this year. Book now to make sure you get a room and don’t forget to also book for the Gala Dinner and let the hotel have your menu choices.
Please see Richard’s ABC report on the My Club/Meetings link for the AGM on 18 March – this confirms the ABC pool will be renovated next year.
AGM reminders
Numbers are filling up for the AGM again so if you are thinking of coming this year please make sure you let us know in good time so we can order you a lunch and provide a seat for you at both meetings – JLCA’s presentation and the AGM itself.
Also the hotel is a good size but there are not an infinite number of rooms, so if you want to stay at the hotel and take advantage of the discounted room rates, please book as soon as possible.
Those joining us for the Gala Dinner on the Saturday night also need to let the hotel have their menu choices and payment in advance.
And finally – even if you cannot join us this year – PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send a reply to your AGM invitation either exercising your right to vote by email or post or appointing a proxy to vote in your place. A proxy must be someone who will be attending the AGM and any member of the Committee would be happy to be your proxy if you do not know any other members of the Club. (One way to remedy that is to come to the AGM of course!)
Looking forward to the weekend of 17-19 March and meeting AnfiUK friends old and new.
