Post reply

Time Share Debacle (by Susan B.):

kristii6 wrote:

My question is, is there any recourse? It has now been 8 months since they defaulted on two loans and additionally they can not afford they maintenance fees, so they have not been paid for this year. How do I advise them? Who can we trust for sound advice? Will it be helpful to contact Bluegreen at this point?

I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier.

I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY AND NOTHING I SAY CAN BE CONSIDERED LEGAL ADVICE.

You've got two different cases here...the first is against Bluegreen and the second would be against the company that was supposed to help. Your main damages are with Bluegreen, so that is the case to pursue.

Some states don't require attorneys to have malpractice insurance and there are plenty of attys in those states that don't carry insurance. Don't retain an uninsured atty.

Your dream attorney is a licensed, insured, consumer law attorney that actually has experience with timeshares. There won't be very many attorneys that fit that niche, but it's worth trying to find one. Failing that, any licensed, insured consumer law atty would be acceptable.

It make take some work to find the right lawyer. Prepare a letter to email to dozens of law firms. Cut it down to a very short summary of the basic facts. This is a rough draft of what you might want to write:

My parents (include your parent's ages and state of residence at the time of their purchase) purchased a points based timeshare on DATE from Bluegreen in Gatlinburg, TN. The total cost of the first purchase was AMOUNT. They found it impossible to get the reservations they wanted. On DATE they met with Bluegreen to complain about the lack of availability. The agent told them they needed to buy more points.

On DATE, based on Bluegreen's omissions and misrepresentations of material, cost related facts, my parents purchased more points. The total of the second purchase was AMOUNT. They received their first maintenance bill since the upgrade and were shocked at the total. They cannot afford this increase in fees.

My father is on disability from a Government job due to a brain injury caused by a tooth infection that got into his blood stream & my mother works at Walmart. They can not afford to even take a vacation, and having double the points still did not help because hardly any of the timeshare locations had availability for 8 people as promised, and at all three vacation windows with family there were not any resorts available 6 months in advance in the points they now had.

We are searching for an attorney with timeshare experience who can take the case on a contingency basis. I have gathered all of the purchase documents and can provide them upon request.

Thank you for your time, SIGNED

This summary informs the attorney of everything he needs to know.

You may have to contact 60 attorneys before you find the right one. Start by emailing the biggest consumer law firms from your parent's state, then try firms in TN, and those located in the state that has Bluegreen's home office.

If an atty is interested in the case he will immediately ask you to send him all of the purchase paperwork. In anticipation of that, the sooner you locate those documents and scan them so they can be sent electronically, the better.

Don't read anything into the fact that almost all of those you contact will reject the case. That is normal and will have little to do with whether you have a good case. It's a matter of finding the right attorney, at the right time for that attorney.

Finally, feel free to contact me at sbharbision@gmail.com. I will help as much as I can.