We are receiving enquiries from Seasons Holidays owners who have been offered £1,000 to surrender their fractional/Keys ownership early and are asking whether they should accept the offer.
Our advice at present is not to rush into a decision.
We are not advising all owners to reject the offer; individual circumstances and contracts vary, and for some owners, an early release from future liabilities may be valuable. Equally, we do not believe owners should accept simply because £1,000 is presented as a certain payment and Seasons has emphasised the prospect of continuing and increasing Service Charges.
The important question is not simply “Is £1,000 worth having?”
It is:
“What am I giving up in return for £1,000, and what are those rights potentially worth to me?”
What accepting appears to mean
Based on the correspondence we have seen, accepting the offer would mean giving up your remaining rights under the ownership, including future holiday entitlement and your entitlement to a share of the Net Sales Proceeds when the relevant property is eventually sold.
In return, Seasons would pay £1,000 and release you from future Service Charges and other membership liabilities.
If you have outstanding finance connected with the purchase, Seasons has stated that the £1,000 exit does not extinguish that separate finance liability.
Why we have concerns about the information being provided
Acting on KwikChex’s advice, one owner has already attempted to obtain information from Seasons before deciding whether to accept the offer.
The owners explained that they understood their Keys contract was likely to provide holidays and/or rental returns, together with a substantial payment at the end of the term or potentially a further period of holidays.
Seasons declined to provide those figures, explaining that future rental returns and eventual property values cannot reliably be predicted.
We agree that future rental income and property sale prices cannot be guaranteed. However, that was not what the owners were asking.
They specifically asked for an illustration using existing figures and for the current, rather than future, value of the underlying properties.
This creates a concern for us about whether owners are being given sufficient information to make a properly informed comparison.
The original offer draws attention to the financial disadvantages of continuing, particularly future Service Charges and the fact that these ordinarily rise. Yet when owners have sought information to help them assess the potential financial benefits of continuing, Seasons has declined to provide it on the grounds that future outcomes are uncertain.
This potentially moves the issue beyond the question of whether £1,000 represents good value.
Under the consumer protection provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act), a misleading omission can arise where material information is omitted, hidden, provided in an unclear manner, or provided too late, and is likely to cause the average consumer to make a different transactional decision.
Importantly, “material information” includes information the average consumer needs to make an informed decision about the transaction.
The concept of a transactional decision is also relevant here, as consumer protection law is concerned not only with the original decision to purchase a product. It can extend to subsequent decisions about whether and on what terms to retain or dispose of it.
We are not at this stage saying that the £1,000 offer or Seasons’ response necessarily constitutes a breach of the DMCC Act. However, we believe there is a legitimate question as to whether owners being invited to surrender potentially valuable contractual rights are being provided with sufficient material information to make a properly informed decision. This is particularly relevant where the offer highlights the potentially increasing financial liabilities associated with remaining an owner. In contrast, information that might help an owner assess the potential value of the rights and benefits they would surrender is not provided.
KwikChex believes owners should have as much relevant information as reasonably possible before making such an important decision.
What we recommend owners do
Before accepting, we recommend that owners consider asking Seasons in writing for sufficient information to understand both sides of the decision.
We particularly recommend checking the actual settlement documentation carefully, as the offer refers to the £1,000 being paid in “full and final settlement” and states that, thereafter, there would be nothing further owed by the owner to Seasons “or by us to you”.
Owners should therefore establish precisely what that means before signing anything, including whether the agreement merely terminates future membership/fractional rights, or contains provisions that could affect any existing rights or claims arising from the original purchase or subsequent dealings with Seasons.
Owners should also consider their own circumstances
For somebody with a relatively short period remaining, potentially valuable maturity rights and manageable Service Charges, the calculation could be very different from that of an owner with many years remaining, substantial future charges and little interest in continuing to use the product.
Similarly, owners who believe their product may have been mis-sold, who financed their purchase, or who were given specific representations about rental income, property value, maturity proceeds or exit should be particularly careful before entering into a full and final settlement without understanding its effect.
The KwikChex position
We are advising owners to make an informed decision based upon their individual circumstances and, crucially, upon a proper understanding of both the liabilities they would escape and the rights and potential benefits they would surrender.
We are also continuing to gather evidence concerning these offers.
If you have received one, please retain the original offer, all correspondence with Seasons and any subsequent acceptance or settlement documentation. If you have asked Seasons for further information, we would also like to see the questions you asked and the answers you received.
This evidence will assist KwikChex in assessing whether owners are being provided with sufficient information to make well-informed decisions about surrendering their ownership rights, and whether there are broader consumer protection issues that should be brought to the attention of the relevant authorities.
General Advice and further assistance
We consider the information above to be KwikChex General Advice, which is provided free of charge. We also recognise that the £1,000 Early Exit Offer is likely to be just one of many issues that individual Seasons owners may need or wish to consider regarding their ownership. These may include the circumstances and representations surrounding the original sale and any subsequent purchases or upgrades, rental arrangements and returns, Service Charges, maturity and property-sale provisions, finance, previous exit representations and other subsequent dealings with Seasons.
Owners may want to discuss their broader circumstances and the options available to them in more detail. KwikChex can explain the different forms of assistance available, and owners can then decide whether they require anything beyond the free General Advice. Owners who aren’t subscribed to our Direct Assistance service and who would like to discuss their Seasons situation are welcome to contact KwikChex by email at info@kwikchex.com.
For owners who are already subscribed to the KwikChex Direct Assistance Service and have received the £1,000 Early Exit Offer, please send us a copy of the offer and any related correspondence with Seasons. We can then add this to the evidence being collated regarding your circumstances and, where relevant, incorporate it into the wider evidence that KwikChex is presenting to the appropriate authorities on behalf of participating owners.
