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Original Message:

Re: Re: My timeshare is paid in full, but I just don't want it anymore (by Brian L.):

richardr614 wrote:
SP - f you have been an owner for a number of years and your unit is not mortgaged, some reputable Resort companies have unstated policies of allowing you to deed your unit to the Resort company and, in return, you will be released from any further liability for maintenance fee payments. There is usually an admin charge for this process ($250 is what I was charged). The reason that the Resort offers this option is that they have collected money from you when you purchased your unit and over the years through your annual payments. Further, they should be able to rent or resell the unit you transfer back. They also know that most owners will only pay the maintenance fee for so long before they just stop paying and take the chance that the Resort company will not sue them. Although I don't have the data to support this, I don't think most Resort companies want to get involved in paying legal costs to try to collect the unpaid maintenance fees, particularly if the owner states that they are older and medically unable to travel to use the unit. An older owner is also less likely to be affected by the threat that the default on the payment of maintenance fees will negatively impact their credit score as most older owners are not looking for credit. One would also think that a Bank would not penalize a customer who, other than the non-payment of the fees on an unsellable timeshare, had a good payment record for all their other obligations.
There is absolutely no upfront costs to these companies to try to collect on their debt. They “sell” the debt to a collection company for 75-80% of the value. The collection company will send a couple of notices and then submit a lack of payment to the 3 bureaus. A collection notice on your credit report could be a 100-150 point hit depending on the amount of the unpaid record. These stay on your report for up to 7 years, although it should only take 2-3 years to build back 100 points if this was your only negative mark.

Not all timeshare companies will send your unpaid fees to a collection agency, but there doesn’t seem to be a good list of which ones do and which ones don’t. The best course of action would be to try to deed it back to the company or negotiate an exit plan if they don’t take deedbacks.

One thing is for sure, NEVER EVER pay someone upfront to “attempt” to get rid of your timeshare. Once they’ve taken your money, they have no incentive to do anything else.