Far and away the most common questions received by Timeshare Consumer Group are related to getting rid of one’s timeshare. Most individuals describe stories of purchasing their vacation property on impulse and as a result of high pressure sales tactics. The buyers learn later that the timeshare wasn’t what they expected…especially in regards to rising maintenance fees and surprising “special assessment” fees. The buyers attempt to resell their timeshare through various means but all of them prove fruitless.
We’ve found that when faced with a timeshare that becomes a liability, most consumers turn to one of two types of companies – the first are listing services, which place your timeshare on the resale market for a fee and do little else. The second type of company offers what is called a “title transfer” – you pay a fee, and the company takes the timeshare off your hands. Since we have gotten several inquiries about specific title transfer companies over the last few months, we thought we’d take a look into the seldom-plumbed depths of this industry.
What title transfer companies claim to do is arrange to transfer ownership of your vacation property to a business entity that can manage it better than an individual. Unfortunately nine times out of ten this premise is too good to be true. In many cases these companies are no better equipped to handle a worthless timeshare than the average consumer.
In our research, however, we have discovered that a handful of these companies actually do help timeshare owners disentangle themselves from ensnaring contracts. Other companies are essentially scams, no better than the timeshare resort representatives who sell the properties in the first place. But distinguishing between the two can be risky business.
For those of you who might be researching one of these companies, we offer this test. The following are 5 questions that you can ask a representative of a company offering to take your timeshare for a fee – the better the answers you get, the more likely that the company is worthy of your business.
Why do I have to pay an upfront fee?
Some companies may not refer to their upfront fees as actual “upfront fees,” and distinguishing a worthwhile price from a scam is critical. In timeshare resale a common fraud tactic is for an agency to charge timeshare owners an upfront fee without the promise that their timeshare will actually be sold – leaving the owner with both resale costs and the timeshare fees they had to begin with! Many of the listing companies we spoke of earlier fall into this category.
Other companies charge a fee and immediately upon receiving it begin transferring ownership of the timeshare out of the customer’s hands (the “title transfer”). Obviously the latter is a satisfactory explanation for these fees, although caution should be taken – read the contract to ensure that the company in question is prepared to legally transfer the timeshare. You also might still be responsible for maintenance fees on your timeshare while the transfer is taking place; however, a good title transfer service will make accommodations to reimburse these fees.