People are selling them for $1 on ebay to suckers. |
| What a mess. Sorry for those who need to deal with this. |
The child does not have to accept the timeshare in an inheritance. Nobody can force you to accept a gift or inheritance. |
| Timeshares are a no. |
Is there a deadline? |
But a timeshare is just you buy a week at a place right? How is this any different that just renting a vacation rental for a week? I don't get it. |
You are a co owner of the property, responsible for maintenance fees. But, typically you have no say in the maintenance decisions and are not entitled to a specific unit. Sometimes you are entitled to be there for a specific week but most places have converted to a points system where you have to book way in advance. There are people who fully own a specific unit year round and can update and furnish it themselves, that seems OK. But usually when people say timeshare that's not what they mean. |
| The John Oliver episode on timeshares was eye-opening. My in-laws have bought into these and expect to pass it on even though we have no interest. My husband does not have the heart (balls) to tell them he doesn’t want it. I think they are too old/stubborn to figure out how to get out of it themselves. |
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People are complicating their life unnecessarily buying. Time shares are the worst, but we also had hard time with HYSA and life insurance that was left to a minor.
There is nothing easy about closing an estate. Even finding a lawyer was hard. |
I don't hear any benefits here. What's the point? |
Oh, but they sure try to convince heirs that they can't. Heirs can file a disclaimer in probate court. Unfortunately, the timeshare is still part of that owner's estate, so the obligations attached to it are passed onto the estate and thus dilute it for the heirs. You often need to hire a specialist to negotiate a deed in lieu to get the estate out of it. |
My in laws bought one because they basically wanted to commit themselves to a week at Disney every year. They did this when the grandkids were little. Now the kids don't want to go with them anymore. (Not our kids - my BIL's kids.) They got it cheap but it's not SO cheap to actually use. They tried to give it to us to use once but all the properties we could spend their "points" at were going to cost enough money that we felt like the juice was not worth the squeeze. TL;DR: I think people like the idea of being committed to a week of vacation somewhere warm and it seems like a bargain. Then it's not such a bargain and you don't want to go there anymore anyway. But you're stuck. |
I grew up vacationing in timeshares. It was an economical way for a family to stay somewhere - 2+ bedrooms, kitchen for meals, amenities like pool, art classes, fitness classes. All "free" in the sense it was a sunk cost once you bought in. You could swap around to different properties, unlike a family vacation home. And rental houses were not as much of a thing back then. Now I'm an adult with one kid and we can sometimes manage to use my parents' timeshare exchange but you have to book a year or more ahead and often the properties are not right where I want to be (typically outside major cities). VRBO is almost always a better fit for us. |
There arent any and they should be illegal. |
+1 They should absolutely be illegal. Giant scam. |