ANFI - Cancellation due to mis-representation and false sales pitches!

[Norrie1981]

Lincolnites,

Have you had any further communication from Anfi yet? I am still waiting on their answer for why they are no longer part of RDO and that worries me. I have had my question sent to Maria and still no response yet. They have informed me that in cases where people do not repay there loan to Anfi direct then a European payment order will be raised through a local UK county court.

[lexiloo15]

hi all,

has anyone yet managed to untangle any of the crap that anfi come up with because i dont know whether im coming or going anymore?
As everyone else on this page we are battling anfi over non payment of our finance contracts with them this has now been going on and off for over three years i believe my last post id mentioned cbc inter national had been incontact despite an email we had sent to the three amigos,........i sent them another had an immediat response talking about possible downgrades well they did eventually come back with an offer aboutforty pounds less than we should be paying now but after afew more emails accusing us of not taking this seriously enough ....yeh ok! ihave now recieved a letter from someone signature not elegible stating we will be getting acourt summonsfor the debt its not acceptable and court will regard as breach of contract,failure to send suffient proof of circumstances to legal dept will move court action forward and that this will register debt in the uk and prevent us from obtaining credit in the future and if they are successfulthey can apply to have the amount deducted from our income or send in the bailiffs......? any thoughts anyone i am just getting more and mor confused with the whole thing and why are others grtting hit with european money orders whats the next step help please thanx in advance



regards
lexiloo

[eneri]

Lincolnites,

Have you had any further communication from Anfi yet? I am still waiting on their answer for why they are no longer part of RDO and that worries me. I have had my question sent to Maria and still no response yet. They have informed me that in cases where people do not repay there loan to Anfi direct then a European payment order will be raised through a local UK county court.

I think a European Payment Order only applies to uncontested debt. If contested the debt will need to be recovered by usual court proceedures. I'm sure Norme de Plume has written about this before but I can't remember which thread.

[Lincolnites]

Hi everyone, we have emailed Anfi a few times, citing the misrepresentation and explaining an entire change of circumstances that we are now totally unable to pay and have asked to walk away.  After a long hiatus, we have today received a letter from them as follows:

Our legal department has recently written to you regarding the increasing arrears on your account and it appears that you have not taken the required action.  We would remind you that you have signed legal contracts here in Spain which can and have been inforced through the UK courts.  As per the terms of the signed contract, Anfi Sales has the right to withdraw the deferred payment agreement and demand that the full outstanding amount is paid in full within 30 days.

As you have failed to bring your installments up to date, and you have not contacted us for assistance in reducing your payments as offered, we have no alternative but to move forward with recovery action.  This can be accomplished in a variety of ways:

*  Debt collection by a debt recovery agent based in the UK
*  Application for a European Order for Payment through your local county court which can lead to:
    -  Sums being deducted from your income through an attachment of earnings
    -  A charging order being placed on any property owned
    -  A court enforcement officer visiting your property to obtain payment/goods

In order to give you a final opportunity to resolve the situation amicably we invite you to contact us by Friday 1st February 2013. Should you do so, we can discuss the possibility of refinancing your outstanding balance, at the same time incorporating the arrears which have already accumulated.  We can even reduce the monthly installment should the current amount be unaffordable because of financial difficulties.

Karl Stones
British Collections Clerk

The position we are now in is that we work as foster carers, and I am a full time student.  We have no income other than that which we get from the local authority which is the children's money and not ours to do with as we will.  So they can't place an attachment of earnings order on us, as we don't officially earn anything.  We have had a serious situation which has meant that we may be about to lose our house, and are certainly having to sell to one of these "buy it quick" type people to get out of it.  I have explained all this to Karl Stones.  We have no goods of any value, well an old Telly and a very old and decrepit car, but other than that.. nothing of any value that they could take.   

What should we do in your opinion?

Many thanks, Lincolnites

[Norm de Plume]

Sit tight and do nothing. An ECP can be contested.

[martyboy02]

Hi Lincolnites

Did you ever challenge Anfi over the legality of te contract or selling techniques?

[Lincolnites]

Yes Marty I did, here was the response:

Thank you for taking the time to reply to us with such details. Whilst our sympathies go out to you and your families at this difficult time, we must once again reiterate the terms of your signed contracts and inform you that the agreement cannot be cancelled.
 
Firstly with regard to your claims of misrepresentation and the taking of a deposit, we must advise you that neither of these issues are grounds for annulment of the contract. Regarding the RCI exchanges, these are benefits of Anfi Vacation Club membership and do not form part of the terms and conditions of your contract. Your purchase was for a rotational right of use in Anfi Beach Club and any extra benefits such as exchanges, and bonus holidays are governed by the conditions of Anfi Vacation Club and RCI as mentioned on the attached document in point number 6. I would also draw your attention to point number 8 which very importantly confirms that you have not been given any representations which are not mentioned in your agreements, and after checking with our sales department they have confirmed that you were at no time advised that you would be able to obtain all inclusive exchanges without additional costs. It is understandable that you might have mis-interpreted the all inclusive options available through RCI as you will have taken in a lot of information during your familiarization visit.
 
It is very important to point out to you that your deposit payment was not paid to Anfi Sales but in fact to a trustee called Continental Trustees Ltd. who held this deposit in trust until your official cooling off period had passed. Only after you failed to withdraw from the agreement during the allowed period was this payment released to Anfi Sales. This was fully permissible at the time you joined and Anfi Sales did not break any law regarding this payment. You will be able to verify on your credit card slip or your bank statement that your payment was made to Continental Trustees and not Anfi Sales.
 
Our company lawyers have reviewed this case and have informed me that there are no grounds for any exceptions to be made to our cancellation policy. Whilst we understand that you may not want to visit Anfi again because of painful reminders, this would not be accepted by a court as a valid reason for you not upholding your obligations as set out in the signed contracts. Even if you decide never to return to Anfi in the future, your financial agreement must be adhered to until the agreed sum of money has been paid. As I have offered previously, we can either refinance your outstanding balance to make the repayments less or we can change your 2 bedroom annual membership to a cheaper product which would leave you with a lower amount owing to Anfi Sales.  If you want more information about any of these options, please let me know by return. If you prefer I can call you at an agreed time to discuss the choices available.
 
I look forward to hearing back from you.
 
Kind regards
 
Karl Stones                                                                                         
Anfi Group     

[martyboy02]

Have PM'd you

[glyndav]

We  have 3 wks at Anfi two 1 bed and one 2 bed and have not paid last yrs maintainence Worldwide Timeshare offered to dispose of our 2 bed for nothing with the buyer paying the outstanding fees and charges, Anfi accepted the buyers payment and transfer fee of 700 euros and our 2013 invoice from Anfi excludes the 2 bed now today we have had a phonecall from Worldwide saying Anfi will not release the week until the outstanding fees on the other 2 units we own are paid up, Talk about a bunch of crooks I can,t imagine that if you own 3 apartments or houses you would not be allowed to dispose of one as they are surely independant of each other.

[charlie1]

We  have 3 wks at Anfi two 1 bed and one 2 bed and have not paid last yrs maintainence Worldwide Timeshare offered to dispose of our 2 bed for nothing with the buyer paying the outstanding fees and charges, Anfi accepted the buyers payment and transfer fee of 700 euros and our 2013 invoice from Anfi excludes the 2 bed now today we have had a phonecall from Worldwide saying Anfi will not release the week until the outstanding fees on the other 2 units we own are paid up, Talk about a bunch of crooks I can,t imagine that if you own 3 apartments or houses you would not be allowed to dispose of one as they are surely independant of each other.

From the various postings I have seen I thought this was as bad as it got for Anfi. Then you share your story, I just wonder who is in charge of this outfit that is pressing a self-destruct button! Do they have a PR department as they obviously don't have a customer services department that works for their members and listens!! This is all a false economy grabbing what they can from their members and losing sight of the bigger picture. This is all now in the public domain as more and more potential owners do their Google searches, all this will be found.

[martyboy02]

Indeed a new low for Anfi.

Maria Hidalgo is the head of Customer Services, she is the one who admitted to me that Sales Staff exaggerate and said it was acceptable for them to do so.

Threaten Anfi with legal action.

Seek advice from the UK European Consumer Centre:

http://www.ukecc.net/ [nofollow]

and see what they have to say.

eep us posted. Cheers and good luck.

[glyndav]

Now had another letter from Worldwide Timeshare saying in order to proceed with the sale of  2 bed apartment  we have to phone Anfi Resorts to discuss the surrendering of ownership of our other 2 wk/s and to ask Anfi to send us an email to confirm that they will surrender our memberships for wk/s 13 & 21 and that they will finalise the transfer of ownership of wk 22 to the buyer. We don,t want to be in contact with anfi and feel they have no right to link all 3 wk/s together and they are actively preventing us from reducing our debt to them by refusing to allow the sale of wk 22 to go through. i would be grateful for any advice you experts on Anfi like Cotswolder could give us perhaps you could PM me.

[glyndav]

Well Anfi completely took me by surprise Emailed Maria Hildalgo and explained that they were contravening their own constitution by blocking the sale of an apartment she replied in less than 1 hr saying the sale would go ahead also with regard to the other 2 wks they could be relinquished at no cost by returning original certificates and letter of acceptance of disposal of wks back to Anfi. So a rare big thank you to Anfi for being so considerate.

[jcorrea-lawyer]

Dear Glyndav,
There is a lot that can be done regarding Anfi's contracts. It would be too long to explain here all the unfulfillment of their contracts. As my nick name says I am a lawyer and I live and have my practice in Gran Canaria. I have had many cases against Anfi based not only in the mis-representation sales but in the other breaches of the law. To be honest Anfi has won the majority of the cases, not all, in the "County Court", however the "Court of Appeal" is starting to change its opinion and ruling in favour of the consumers. A judgment of last September, for instance, stated that money paid to a Trustee was not legal. Continental Trustee Limited is Anfi's Trustee, a company run by M.J Murphy who is at the same time owner of Puerto Anfi, S.L. owner of the same club, Puerto Anfi. All the selling process is very smart, but not necessarily legal. There are clear breaches of the law.
Perhaps a way to negotiate your position would be to threaten them to take your case to court if they don't release your week. I know Mr. Rodríguez and the legal department and they are also aware of the "risk of litigation" and how judgment's decisions have changed lately.
If you send me a PM (or any that may need legal advice) I will be happy to help you.
Have a nice weekend,
Javier Correa

[glyndav]

Thank you Javier, as mentioned in previous post Anfi were very helpful and appear to have taken back our 2 wks at no cost and they have also finalised the sale on the 2 bed so at the moment thankfully we have no problems.

[jcorrea-lawyer]

Much better! ;-)