My timeshare is paid in full, but I just don't want it anymore

Hi Steve - it’s been a while since you wrote this post - did you abandon your time share and what happened?

Does anyone have experience with Palmera Vacation Club on Hilton Head? Points only membership. Paid in full but can no longer travel. Getting old and can't afford MF. Has anyone just stopped paying MF? What happened?

michelleg1004 wrote:

Has anyone just stopped paying MF? What happened?

Since it's just a club membership, likely they will terminate your membership, which is what you want. However, you will probably face a bunch of annoying collection calls and letters. It's possible, but not likely, that you will face a hit to your credit score or rating.

Don't have any of these big fears that they will go after your assets, take you to court, garnish your wages, etc.

Holiday inn time share is paid off. I just can’t pay maintain fee since my husband passed away. he passed away October 13 2023.i owe maintain fee and I don’t have the money to pay the back maintenance fees and and at the time we bought it, I was on disability and still am. It’s just changed over to Social Security since I turned 67 but I’d still don’t make enough money to pay all of that. How can I get out?

Plus the time that my husband bought it, I should not have even been signing those papers because I’ve been rated in disability, slightly retarded and also with MS

alicej56 wrote:

Holiday inn time share is paid off. I just can’t pay maintain fee since my husband passed away. he passed away October 13 2023.i owe maintain fee and I don’t have the money to pay the back maintenance fees and and at the time we bought it, I was on disability and still am. It’s just changed over to Social Security since I turned 67 but I’d still don’t make enough money to pay all of that. How can I get out?

Your best bet at this point is to just stop paying maintenance fees and then the unit will go into foreclosure and repossessed, which is what you probably want. The downside is that you will probably face a bunch of collection calls and letters.

Is it possible to gather enough owners and agree to sell the entire property? Do owners have that power?

Is it possible if all or the majority of owners agree to sell the entire property?

allisonp27 wrote:

Is it possible if all or the majority of owners agree to sell the entire property?

ONLY if a majority (the exact required percentage will be clearly identified within the “Termination” section of the Declaration of Condominium documents, as recorded in the appropriate County when the timeshare was first built) agree by formal majority vote percentage as reflected in the condo documents, to terminate the timeshare plan. If / after the required majority percentage agrees, the property can be sold off — after settling any liens, loans, tax debts, etc. Proceeds of such a sale will at some point be distributed equally among those interval owners whose account is in good standing (I.e., all fees fully paid up to date). Lawyers, of course, will also take a hefty chunk of money for handling the legal details of the timeshare property dissolution and sale before distributing any money remaining.

My mother has a resort at the Lawrence Welk in Escondido (San Diego) that is paid in full. She has paid a company to try and get out of the deed but they have told her that the only way is for someone to buy it from her.

It sounds sketchy as I thought people have a hard time giving timeshares away or gifting the deed to another owner?

Can someone share their experience?

estherf41 wrote:

My mother has a resort at the Lawrence Welk in Escondido (San Diego) that is paid in full. She has paid a company to try and get out of the deed but they have told her that the only way is for someone to buy it from her.

It sounds sketchy as I thought people have a hard time giving timeshares away or gifting the deed to another owner?

Can someone share their experience?

Her first mistake was to "[pay] a company to try and get out of the deed". Obviously that was a waste of money. But yes, the only way for her to get out of the deed is for someone else to take ownership. And yes, "people have a hard time giving timeshares away or gifting the deed to another owner" but it's not impossible.

She can ask the resort's Homeowners' Association if it will take her unit back. The HOA might charge a transfer fee and possibly the next maintenance fee to do so, but this would be a quick, simple, legal way of doing so.

She can advertise here on RedWeek or Timeshare Users Group (aka "TUG"; tugbbs.com) that she wants to give her unit away. Maybe even offer to the taker that she will pay the transfer fee and maybe even the next maintenance fee.

The other last-ditch effort if these fail is to just stop making maintenance fee payments and let the unit go into default and foreclosure.