Stouts Hill Club Rules

This week we have received a rather rude letter from the Financial Controller of Stouts Hill Timeshare Resort, Mrs Beverley Baxendine. Mrs Baxendine outlined Stouts Hill’s case for payment of maintenance fees and advised our client that we, Praetorian Legal, were ‘ill-informed and misunderstanding of their club rules’, the Stouts Hill Club letter ended with a threat of legal proceedings.

So, it would appear that the Stouts Hill Club rules enjoy a hierarchical status in the English legal system as when we presented Stouts Hill with our challenge to their timeshare agreement our client was advised you cannot do this under the club rules and furthermore we consider Praetorian’s representations irrelevant in consideration of our club rules. Well actually, they said we were ‘ill-informed and confusion of the Club rules’. They are absolutely correct on both accounts as we have no interest in the club rules as the club rules are untested before the court, as far as we know.

This response is however,  nothing more than we would have expected as it appears that the timeshare fraternity believe that their rules are so binding that they do not allow for a legal challenge or their rules prevent the parties to the agreement breaching them. Contrary to the principles of law, club constitutions and/or rules do not stop people violating the terms they were provided with initially and it is for the injured party to take action in damages to remedy the breach.

Consumer based agreements void of exit or termination clauses may be judged to be unfair if challenged and this also applies to heavyweight clauses like ‘in perpetuity’ clauses too. Timeshare resorts are accountable in law for their agreements and if a dispute arises and cannot be settled harmoniously then it is up to the injured party to take action to bring about clarity.

We are also finding that many timeshare owners have not been furnished with these so called club rules and constitutions and therefore the agreement is unenforceable per se.

We have invited Stouts Hill to take the appropriate action in this matter and will keep this Blog updated as to their actions.