Get rid of your timeshares!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get how timeshares work

If you inherit it, you are responsible for the annual fees (usually thousands) even if you don't use it.

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.

I don't hear any benefits here. What's the point?

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.

My ILs did the same. They offered it to us for our honeymoon as our wedding gift and I said under no circumstances were we honeymooning at Disney World (probably got things off on the wrong foot, haha). Then every year they say we can use it with the kids but when I price it out we're still spending a fortune. I told them they could take the kids but they're not interested in that even though they're 9 and 7 and easy now. So it goes unused.
They also bought a plot of unimproved Florida swamp, think Glengarry Glen Ross, to "retire" on. They're retired and 70 now so I don't think anything will ever be built there with prices so high now.

[Anonymous]

Timeshares are nothing but a scam. I recently stayed at the Marriott vacation club Grande Vista Orlando over Christmas, and I paid $2100 (everything including taxes) for eight nights (seven days) on AirBnB. It was a 2BR, 2 baths, a full kitchen and a living room overlooking the golf course. During my stay, I met several people who own timeshares at the Marriott vacation club, and they paid a one-time fee of 30K plus a 4K/year maintenance fee. These timeshare owners might have to pay assetment fee, and the maintenance fee will go up in the future. That's a scam to me. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

I still have trauma from dealing with my parents and this was 25 years ago. My parents did buy with good intentions - forced vacations bc my dad wouldn't take them without the sunk cost. Long story but settling my parents estate was a mess (despite their belief the had planned - and they did). Anyhow, the timeshare was forgotten about until several years after their death. The estate was closed and we assumed they'd gotten rid of it before they passed. Imagine my surprise to receive a past due bill, addressed to my father only, at my residence - a place he had never lived. Seems the "deed" was in his name only, he died first. What a mess getting out of that! Agree with the PSA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still have trauma from dealing with my parents and this was 25 years ago. My parents did buy with good intentions - forced vacations bc my dad wouldn't take them without the sunk cost. Long story but settling my parents estate was a mess (despite their belief the had planned - and they did). Anyhow, the timeshare was forgotten about until several years after their death. The estate was closed and we assumed they'd gotten rid of it before they passed. Imagine my surprise to receive a past due bill, addressed to my father only, at my residence - a place he had never lived. Seems the "deed" was in his name only, he died first. What a mess getting out of that! Agree with the PSA.

What ended up happening? Did you have to pay any fees?

[Anonymous]

I inherited one when my husband died. He bought it decades ago with his ex-wife. They bill me for maintenance as she took her name off in the divorce. I don’t know what to do to get rid of it.

[Anonymous]

I would vote for whatever political party passed something requiring timeshares to cancel the contract and take back the deed/points on request. The whole system is predatory.

And it specifically preys on the elderly. My mom went in and asked them to take back her points, she told me they agreed to do so, and then when I looked at the paperwork she had signed a purchase of more points (we were able to cancel within x days).

[Anonymous]

I feel like SO many people in my mom's generation (70s) have timeshares that they signed up for in the 90s and early 2000s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still have trauma from dealing with my parents and this was 25 years ago. My parents did buy with good intentions - forced vacations bc my dad wouldn't take them without the sunk cost. Long story but settling my parents estate was a mess (despite their belief the had planned - and they did). Anyhow, the timeshare was forgotten about until several years after their death. The estate was closed and we assumed they'd gotten rid of it before they passed. Imagine my surprise to receive a past due bill, addressed to my father only, at my residence - a place he had never lived. Seems the "deed" was in his name only, he died first. What a mess getting out of that! Agree with the PSA.

What ended up happening? Did you have to pay any fees?

So to get into some of the background, but part of the crazy involved me ending up being the executor of my mom's estate bc the attorney who did the estate plan/will for my parents "had never had a client die before and didn't know what to do." I also had a number of siblings: one living overseas, one in the military, one going through a messy divorce (and thus no head space to deal) and one special needs/institutionalized. I was the only one in the area the estate needed to be probated in. Add to that a financial advisor who defrauded my parents (FA was convicted of securities fraud), I had a mess. The time share was the least of my worries. Anyhow after attempting numerous ways of getting rid of it, a friend/attorney suggested sending a quit claim deed to the HQ and county that the time share was located in. They wrote it up for me, I signed and filed...............and never heard another word. I'm not sure that what I did was actually correct or if the timeshare folks saw that I had an attorney and the government involved and let it go. I never got another maintenance bill so something worked. Either that or my dad has a huge past due bill that I'm unaware of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still have trauma from dealing with my parents and this was 25 years ago. My parents did buy with good intentions - forced vacations bc my dad wouldn't take them without the sunk cost. Long story but settling my parents estate was a mess (despite their belief the had planned - and they did). Anyhow, the timeshare was forgotten about until several years after their death. The estate was closed and we assumed they'd gotten rid of it before they passed. Imagine my surprise to receive a past due bill, addressed to my father only, at my residence - a place he had never lived. Seems the "deed" was in his name only, he died first. What a mess getting out of that! Agree with the PSA.

What ended up happening? Did you have to pay any fees?

So to get into some of the background, but part of the crazy involved me ending up being the executor of my mom's estate bc the attorney who did the estate plan/will for my parents "had never had a client die before and didn't know what to do." I also had a number of siblings: one living overseas, one in the military, one going through a messy divorce (and thus no head space to deal) and one special needs/institutionalized. I was the only one in the area the estate needed to be probated in. Add to that a financial advisor who defrauded my parents (FA was convicted of securities fraud), I had a mess. The time share was the least of my worries. Anyhow after attempting numerous ways of getting rid of it, a friend/attorney suggested sending a quit claim deed to the HQ and county that the time share was located in. They wrote it up for me, I signed and filed...............and never heard another word. I'm not sure that what I did was actually correct or if the timeshare folks saw that I had an attorney and the government involved and let it go. I never got another maintenance bill so something worked. Either that or my dad has a huge past due bill that I'm unaware of.

Ugh, what a mess. My in-laws have lots of timeshare points, and I'm sure will keep them until they pass on.

[Anonymous]

Were our parents the last generation to make stupid financial decisions? Timeshares, refusing to have honest money conversations (mainly, just where is it when the time comes), land purchases in Florida, etc.

Just wondering what our own children will find the equivalent to timeshares for us.

[Anonymous]

My wife's aunt tried to "gift" a timeshare to my wife's mother and thank god I found out about it before she signed anything or transfer.
After a heart to heart with GM, it turned out Aunt had grandmother cosign on other loans and not pay on them ruining grandmother's credit.
Grandmother was living with us and we ended up telling Aunt to cease all contact or we would expose to rest of family and get a lawyer if needed to enforce.
Its absolutely a high pressure scam. We went on one of their showings for "free tickets" and had to endure 3 hours of several different sales associates try every which way to get us to sign including emotional appeals/ personal sob stories.
Very, very rude to us when we didn't sign walking out door with theme park tickets.

[Anonymous]

We inherited one. Cost something like $5000 to get rid of it 15 years ago. I recall that my in-laws had put the 3 kids on the timeshare docs themselves as the beneficiaries so it wasn’t as simple as declining. We looked at trying to actually use it and none of the 3 kids could ever find a place/week that was appealing. Total scam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Timeshares are nothing but a scam. I recently stayed at the Marriott vacation club Grande Vista Orlando over Christmas, and I paid $2100 (everything including taxes) for eight nights (seven days) on AirBnB. It was a 2BR, 2 baths, a full kitchen and a living room overlooking the golf course. During my stay, I met several people who own timeshares at the Marriott vacation club, and they paid a one-time fee of 30K plus a 4K/year maintenance fee. These timeshare owners might have to pay assetment fee, and the maintenance fee will go up in the future. That's a scam to me. YMMV.

My inlaws have one down there, the marriotts are pretty nice and they offer getaways for fairly cheap. Agree way more expensive than they're worth. On the bright side I think my in-laws were able to sell 2 of their 3 weeks so the marriott ones must have some remaining value so not impossible to get rid of like somewhere timeshares.

[Anonymous]

Timeshares are great… to rent.
We rent them all the time from Redweek. Lots of good 2BR villas to fit my family of 6 in lots of different beach locations.