Interpretation

(1) In this Act unless the context otherwise requires, “affiliate”, in relation to a developer, means a person, body corporate or unincorporated body who or that controls, or is controlled by, or is in joint control with, a developer; “Board” means the Belize Tourism Board established under the Belize Tourism Board Act; “common areas”, in relation to a timeshare property, means all portions of the timeshare properly, other than timeshare units, to which the holders of timeshare rights and their guests have common access; “common property” in relation to, (a) a timeshare unit, means all furniture, furnishings, appliances, fixtures, equipment, and all other personal property, from time to time owned, leased or held collectively by or for the use of persons holding timeshare rights in the timeshare unit; (b) a timeshare accommodation, means all furniture, furnishings, appliances, fixtures, common areas, swimming pools, recreational 6 facilities and all other property, from time to time owned, leased or held by a developer of timeshare accommodation for the collective use of per sons holding timeshare rights and their guests; in respect of property and means a person, body corporate, unincorporated body, including an affiliate, who or that constructs timeshare accommodation on timeshare property for the purpose of creating, selling, leasing or otherwise disposing of timeshare rights to purchasers of timeshare units for reward; “escrow agent” means an attorney-at-law or an accountant appointed by a developer as an escrow agent who performs the functions of an escrow agent as provided in this Act; “exchange company” means a company operating an exchange program under this Act: “exchange program” means an arrangement performed by an exchange company allowing, among other things, holders of timeshare rights in timeshare units, either in the same or in different accommodations, to exchange their occupancy periods in the timeshare units; “managing entity” means a company engaged by a developer to manage a timeshare accommodation under this Act; “Minister” means the Minister responsible for Tourism; “multi-location plan” means a timeshare plan in respect of more than one timeshare unit, each of which is situated in different timeshare properties, under which holders of timeshare rights agree to occupy more than one such timeshare unit; 7 “offer” includes an advertisement, inducement, solicitation, or attempt, in any manner or form, aimed at encouraging a person to acquire timeshare rights other than as security for an obligation; “purchase money lien” means a lien on a timeshare unit that is, (a) taken or retained by a developer from a purchaser in order to secure the payment by the purchaser of all or part of the price related to the acquisition of timeshare rights by the purchaser; or (b) given by a purchaser to a person who provides financing to the purchaser to enable him to buy the timeshare rights in a timeshare unit; “purchaser” in respect of a timeshare unit, means a person, other than the developer, who purchases, leases, or otherwise acquires timeshare rights in the timeshare unit; “Register” means the Register of Timeshare Accommodation maintained by the Registrar under section 4 of this Act; “Registrar” means the person appointed as Registrar under section 3 of this Act; “sales agent” in respect of, (a) a developer, means a person, company or unincorporated body who or that, for compensation or in expectation of compensation, (i) disposes or offers to dispose of timeshare rights to purchasers; 8 (ii) leases or offers to lease timeshare rights to purchasers; (iii) offers timeshare rights to purchasers; (iv) obtains listings of accommodation and units for the purpose of making offers to (v) provides any other information with intent to offering timeshare rights to prospective purchasers; (b) a purchaser, means a person, company or unincorporated body who or that buys or offers to buy timeshare rights on behalf of and on the instructions of the purchaser; “sales agreement” means a written agreement as provided in section 16 of this Act executed by or on behalf of a purchaser and a developer, specifying the rights and obligations of the purchaser and the developer in respect of the acquisition of timeshare rights by the purchaser in a timeshare unit; (a) means any accommodation used for human habitation, situated in Belize, used or intended to be used, wholly or partly, by purchasers, all of whom have rights to use, or participate in arrangements under which they may use, that accommodation or accommodation within a pool of to which that belongs, for intermittent occupancy periods of short duration; 9 Provided that a period shall be of short duration if it does not exceed a period prescribed by the Minister by Order published in the Gazette; (b) includes membership vacation clubs, fractional interests, membership residential clubs, and other right-to-use time sharing plans; Provided that the Minister may, by Order published in the Gazette, amend paragraph (b) of this definition; (c) does not mean a hotel or tourist accommodation defined in section 2 of the Hotels and Tourist Accommodation Act, Cap. 285, or a strata lot, or a unit entitlement therein, regulated under the Strata Titles Registration Act, Cap. 196; “timeshare documents” include, (a) any document that creates, specifies, defines or governs the rights and obligations of a purchaser and a developer in respect of a timeshare unit; (b) any document that creates, specifies, defines or governs the rights and obligations of purchasers or purchasers and the developer, in respect of timeshare accommodation, and common property in respect of timeshare (c) any timeshare plan; and (d) any sales agreement; “timeshare plan” means a document selling out, 10 (a) the rights and obligations of a purchaser of a unit in a accommodation, including the time and duration of occupancy by the purchaser; (b) the price for acquiring timeshare rights in a lime share unit, specified in respect of the duration of the occupancy, the common property, and the common property within the timeshare property; “timeshare property” means land on which timeshare accommodation is situated; “timeshare unit” means a self-contained unit designed for separate occupancy in a timeshare accommodation. (2) For the purposes of this Act, references to a developer shall include, in respect of periods of time after the developer has fully completed the construction of the timeshare accommodation, the owner of the timeshare accommodation. (3) For the purposes of this Act, references to a purchaser shall include, in respect of periods of time before the time the purchaser has signed the sales agreement, the prospective