Following a huge amount of speculation, Azure Resorts declared liquidation at the beginning of the year. Azure did not declare bankruptcy instead they declared a declaration of insolvency and provisional liquidation.
After becoming insolvent, Azure Resorts left behind owners with worthless timeshares, huge financial losses, and unaffordable loans to repay. Silverpoint and their partner, Barclays Partner Finance (BPF) sold unaffordable loans to people who attended lengthy and high pressure sales presentations and many of these people were persuaded into purchasing timeshares and taking out loans which had incredibly high interest rates, above 9%. They were told these timeshares would be an investment, which turned out to be false and a sales tactic to sell more timeshares to unwitting victims.
The vast mis-selling from the timeshare company has led to many unhappy timeshare owners and people desperately trying to get their money back and because of this Barclays Partner Finance have seen a flurry of claims against them. In November last year a group of timeshare owners joined together to sue BPF as the consumer credit arm of Barclays was still pursuing timeshare owners for their loan repayments, despite being told Azure resorts were being looked at for their unfair and mis-leading sales practices. The loans were issued by Azure resorts and Resort Properties with BPF underwriting the financing agreements.
Despite this, Barclays has said that the group of 200 claimants cannot bring a group action to the high court against them as the bank has to consider each claim on an individual basis and the high court is not the correct venue for such action. They further said that each case must have ‘specific factual evidence, including documentation and witnesses. In its defence filing Barclays said: “A generalised allegation that the claimants have suffered loss and damage is meaningless. Each individual claimant will need to establish that he/she suffered loss as a result of his/her reliance upon the misrepresentations.”
It went on to say: “Each claimant is required to prove in each and every case that the alleged misrepresentations were made and relied upon and that the claimants are entitled to the relief sought. BPF will respond to the allegations of misrepresentation and reliance in the context of individual claims as and when proper particulars are provided of those claims,” according to the defence filing. “Whether rescission is available to the claimants will depend upon the particular circumstances and facts of each case.”
The purchasing of these timeshares was made possible through a point-of-sale loan provided by Barclays Partner Finance (Clydesdale Financial Services). These loans made unaffordable purchases possible. Along with so-called ‘rental cheques’ which covered the first year or two of loan repayments.
The dubious affordability checks made by Barclays Partner Finance meant that clients became burdened with unaffordable loan repayments. With the promise of the so-called ‘Timeshare Investment’ not being re-rented or resold, this has left Azure Timeshare owners with a worthless timeshare and massive financial loss. The reality of the ‘rental return ‘was that clients were financing their own rental return by having it loaded into what they were borrowing from Barclays. So just given back their own money.
If you suffered due to being mis-sold a timeshare with Azure Resorts and Barclays Partner finance, please get in touch with us. Our expert legal team have dealt with these types of claims for many clients and successfully reclaimed their money plus interest. So, get in touch for a free no obligation discussion of your case.
