| Back in September, we told you about this lawsuit… …where Westgate is accused of violating the Military Lending Act. (MLA) The MLA protects military families from predatory lending. For example, the law prohibits creditors from requiring servicemembers to pay an annual interest rate greater than 36% on any covered loan. The law also requires that creditors provide servicemembers certain information and disclosures before issuing a loan. Under the law, any agreement that violates the act is void from the moment that it was signed. This lawsuit against Westgate say it knowingly violated the MLA: “The standard form Agreement fails to properly disclose the accurate finance charges as defined by the MLA, fails to provide the standard written MLA disclosures, and because the original creditors do not provide oral disclosures, the Agreements fail to provide a method to obtain the oral disclosures as required by the MLA and the Code of Federal Regulations.” You may not be surprised to know… …Westgate is NOT the only timeshare company that fails to comply with the MLA. There also is a lawsuit filed against Bluegreen Vacations and described by The Military Times: “According to the lawsuit, Emmanuel and Tamarah Louis allege that they were sold an illegal financial product – a product that Congress determined poses such an acute risk to American service members, to their financial well-being, to their morale, to the military operational readiness, and to national defense, that it should be illegal to sell to members of our Armed Services.” The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) even jumped into the fray with a “friend of the court” brief, to support the legal rights of the couple to sue Bluegreen Vacations to invalidate a contract that they allege violates the MLA. The FTC says its brief “argues that Mr. and Mrs. Louis have a legal right to challenge the [Bluegreen]contract in court… Specifically, they claim that the contract contains an illegal mandatory arbitration clause and that it failed to provide required disclosures regarding the annual percentage rate of interest for the loan (known as the Military Annual Percentage Rate)…” We have heard countless examples of the deceptive sales practices undertaken by timeshare marketers… …but the deliberate financial manipulation of our active U.S. military members by timeshare companies just feels like an even more despicable act. Shame on both Westgate and Bluegreen! Feel free to write their CEOs and tell them you don’t approve of the way their companies treats our soldiers! David Siegel is the CEO of Westgate. His email address is: david_siegel@wgresorts.com Alan Levan is the President and CEO of Bluegreen Vacations. His email address is: alan.levan@bluegreenvacations.com The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) represents timeshare companies in Washington, DC. Jason Gamel is the President and CEO of ARDA. Maybe he should hear how these sales tactics impact the lives of real people, not just the bottom line of timeshare companies. Let’s email him at jgamel@arda.org. Or… here is a list ARDA published of its VIPs across all its member companies. Maybe you can find your timeshare company executive and share your story with them too! Tell us your timeshare horror story, too. Send it to us at info@timesharefacts.com. PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
