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Re: Dumping your Timeshare (by Wendy K.):

Thanks for the information, Jay Jay. I also purchased a time share at the Occidental Grand Papagayo. I stopped paying on it when the property changed to "Adult Only" in November 2013. I'm not throwing good money after bad. I purchased at that resort because I wanted to vacation there with my family, and I upgraded to the 1 bedroom suite so that it would accommodate all my family. My position is that Occidental breached the contract by limiting my use of the property. I did not purchase a membership in a vacation club, although purchasing at that property gives me access to other properties in the Occidental Vacation Club. My contract specifically states that the contract is governed by the laws of Costa Rica. However, since I am refusing to pay the remainder of the loan, Occidental has put my account into collections with a company called Monterey in the United States. I have contacted a lawyer (the same lawyers who successfully won a class action suit against Wyndham), and they feel strongly that they could get this resolved. Naturally, that is going to cost me more money, and in the meantime my credit score is being negatively impacted by the collection notice that is on file. Interestingly, though, as soon as I tell a lender that the collection is being disputed, and that it is in reference to a time share contract, the lender just groans and disregards the collection notice. It seems that time share companies, in general, have such a bad reputation that other lenders don't take it seriously.

So where does this leave me? I would really like to work this out with Occidental, but they won't talk with me because the account is in collections. The collections company just focus on getting the money for their client. My only options appear to be to hire the pit bull lawyer who wants to pursue class action cases (and I'm sure they won't have problems finding other people who are not happy with their contracts with Occidental ), or pursue this through the courts in Costa Rica, or just live with the collection notice on my credit report (which really doesn't seem to be causing me any real grief).

If anyone from Occidental is following these posts, feel free to contact me. I'm willing to talk.