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Clarification / Correction

[Q=bog7] I was told that the ultimate responsible party to pay any maintenance fees that have been unpaid is the original owner. Be careful how you exit your contract.[/Q] I don't know what you were told or by whom, but a more precise and more accurate statement would be that the [b]current[/b] official owner of record is ultimately responsible for any and all maintenance fees until such time as the ownership at issue is lawfully transferred to a new legitimate owner and that transfer is then acknowledged and accepted as legitimate by the resort (you can't just transfer ownership to your pet lizard, for example). In deeded ownerships, transfer of legal responsibility occurs only when a new deed is prepared and the current owner ("grantor") transfers ownership and the new deed is officially [b]recorded[/b] in the name of a new, legitimate "grantee" (again, pet lizard is not a legitimate "grantee") and the resort acknowledges the transfer and the new "grantee" as legitimate. RTU contracts, in which no deed actually exists to begin with, transfer of maintenance fee responsibility occurs once a new person takes over a transferable RTU contract and that transfer is [b]recognized and accepted[/b] by the developer as being legitimate (once again, no pet lizards as new contract holder). Said recognition and acceptance of RTU contract transfer usually occurs only after the resort / company successfully collects a mandatory contract "transfer fee", whose amounts vary widely throughout the timeshare industry.