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Estate Handling of a TS (by Mike N.):

carvana wrote:

Jayjay says "the estate is responsible for all liens and maintenance fees until the estate can sell the property. An estate includes 'heirs', I would assume."

Jayjay's assumption is wrong. An estate is a separate entity from an heir just as a corporation is a separate entity from the stockholder.

The estate is liable for the debts of the decedent at the date of death including timeshare maintenance fees. I have some experience in collecting estate debts and I know that all states have statutes that govern the probate of estates. Typically the executor or administrator files a notice in the legal section of a newspaper where the decedent died notifying creditors of their right to file a claim. There is a time period that will vary from state to state but typically is a relative short time frame during which the claimant (creditor) must file a claim. If the creditor misses that deadline he/she is out of luck for collecting that debt. Most timeshare resorts do not have probate recovery departments but if they do and do timely file their claim they must hope that it is paid. A timeshare mf is an unsecured debt and will be at the bottom of the priority list for the payment of debts. Many executors and administrators will ignore unsecured claimaints - I know from experience - and this requires the creditor to file a suit to reduce (convert) the claim to a judgment. This is time consuming and is usually not done by a timeshare resort. They will just foreclose on the property.

The heir who receives the timeshare as a bequest in the will and elects to accept the property is of course liable for future MFs.

The bottom line is that upon the demise of the TS owner, the executor files a notice in the local paper (which the TS resort will probably not even notice). Then if the resort does not put in a claim after x number of months or years, the resort cannot collect the MFs. If the resort does file a claim it may get the $$, try to get a judgment against the estate, or foreclose on the property. That brings me to some other questions.

1. Can a resort forclose on a property if they do not hold a mortgage on the property? 2. Wouldn't it have been much easier for all, if upon the death of a TS owner, the resort took back the property? 3. If the resort doesn't in some manner take possession of the TS, what happens to it, does it go into a TS "Black Hole"?