Sell or not pay

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Original Message:

Re: Sell or not pay (by Carvan A.):

Jayjay,

I categorically deny that your "post above came from a real estate law site" as it is obvious that you have at best paraphrased what you found. There is not one scintilla of truth to your allegation that a maintenance fee lien arises at the time of the timeshare purchase and is comparable to the vendor's lien that arises when one purchases their home. If you did get that off of a real estate law site then yes I do know more than they do.

My advice is and always has been that a failure to pay the annual maintenance fees can result in a foreclosure and that the foreclosure will adversely impact ones credit. What I have long advised on this site is to avoid the foreclosure by negotiating a deed in lieu of a foreclosure when a timeshare sale has proven unsucessful and financial circumstances prevent the payment of the maintenance fees. This deed back saves the resort money they would have spent in the foreclosure process and saves the credit of the timeshare owner.

I hereby challenge you to go to a qualified consumer law attorney in your area - not an internet site - and ask him/her the following questions:

1. Is the maintenance fee a personal obligation or "in rem"? Take copies of all the documents you signed at the time of the purchase of your timeshares.

The attorney after reviewing all documentation including the declaration will tell you the maintenance fee is not a personal obligation because you never personally signed a promise to pay the annual maintenance fees.

2. Then ask if the resort can legally pursuant to Federal Credit reporting laws report your failure to pay the annual maintenance fee to a national credit reporting organization.

You will be told that only personal obligations can be legally reported and that you have a cause of action against any rogue resort that illegally dings your credit for the failure to pay annual maintenance fees.

3. Then ask if there is any adverse impact upon your credit rating if you do work out a deal whereby you deed the timeshare back to the resort.

You will be told there will be none.

4. Lastly ask where the venue is for the litigation that is required to reduce your delinquent maintenance fees to a lien so that a foreclosure can follow.

You will learn that the venue is not in your home county but in the distant county where the timeshare is located. The expense of hiring a process server in your home county will add to the expense of the foreclosure and will be a factor encouraging the resort to negotiate a deed in lieu of a foreclosure

I welcome any validation from you secured from a qualified attorney that I am "doling out seriously wrong advice". If you can provide me validation then I will go quietly from this site and never post here again. Will you accept my challenge or just continue to hurl insults? I have made a successful living in this area of the law and I am confident that I am correct but I stand by my promise to leave if you prove me wrong.

I will not accept anything you pull from any of Redweek's competitors including TUG. I will accept only a brief written by a board certified attorney in consumer law using his/her letterhead in which the attorney responds to the questions posed above.