Donating our timeshare

I haven't had any luck selling our timeshare so I am looking into donating the stupid thing.

We've slashed the price and to be honest, I work outside the home, have two small children and just do not have the time to invest in getting this thing sold.

My husband is fine with just holding onto the darn thing and our maintenance fees(which just went up) are due this month and it irritates the crap out of me!

I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA,

Sarah

sarahc93 wrote:

I haven't had any luck selling our timeshare so I am looking into donating the stupid thing.

We've slashed the price and to be honest, I work outside the home, have two small children and just do not have the time to invest in getting this thing sold.

My husband is fine with just holding onto the darn thing and our maintenance fees(which just went up) are due this month and it irritates the crap out of me!

I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA,

Sarah

=========== I contacted them to see about donating my father's TS, but they would not accept it. However,It’s worth a try to contact them and see if they will take your unit.

When you donate a timeshare, the charity is not actually taking the unit. Instead, you are giving the organization the right to try and sell your unit; when sold, the title/deed transfer occurs. During this time you are still liable for all maintenance fees, taxes, etc. Whether or not the charity accepts the unit depends on whether or not it can be sold. Unfortunately if YOU can’t sell it, then the charity probably can’t sell it either.

If you decide to go this route, check the terms and conditions carefully. First, there cannot be any liens on the unit. If an organization accepts your donation, and they cannot sell it in a certain time period, it will be “returned” to you. According to the Donate for a Cause website, they will list the unit for four weeks. Others may list it longer.

What is the name of your resort, and which season do you own? Other RedWeek posters might be able to give you an idea of whether or not it has rental value. Have you tried bidshares or ebay to sell your unit or have you tried renting your unit?

Finally another donation option is to donate your annual week to a local charity that may be having a fundraising auction. While you won’t get rid of the TS this way, you should be able to deduct the value of the week as a charitable contribution. Depending on your tax bracket you might save $200-$300.

Good Luck Mike

sarahc93 wrote:

stated in part: I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA, Sarah

============================================

As Mike has already experienced and reported, Donate for a Cause actually rejects more offered timeshares than they accept. The acceptance / rejection evaluation is actually done by Resort Closings, Inc., a closing company in Bozeman, MT which is apparently co-located with DFC. While they maintain a published list of "will never accept" timeshares on their site, the fact is that they will also reject many others which are NOT on the "will never accept" list. In short, don't assume that the absence of your facility on their published list means that they would accept it -- t'ain't necessarily so.

Unless a charity is confident that they can turn a particular timeshare into cash quickly and expediently, they generally want no part of it. That's completely understandable, of course, since a "donation" which is of no financial value to them is hardly a welcome "gift" and does not help them to advance their program or mission in any way.

sarahc93 wrote:

I haven't had any luck selling our timeshare so I am looking into donating the stupid thing.

We've slashed the price and to be honest, I work outside the home, have two small children and just do not have the time to invest in getting this thing sold.

My husband is fine with just holding onto the darn thing and our maintenance fees(which just went up) are due this month and it irritates the crap out of me!

I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA,

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

We show that you have received two inquiries for your timeshare. If you didn't receive these inquiries in your regular email box please go to your Messages here on the RedWeek.com website. A copy of them will be there. I just wanted to make sure you knew about these.

Thanks, Marty

marty8084 wrote:

sarahc93 wrote:

I haven't had any luck selling our timeshare so I am looking into donating the stupid thing.

We've slashed the price and to be honest, I work outside the home, have two small children and just do not have the time to invest in getting this thing sold.

My husband is fine with just holding onto the darn thing and our maintenance fees(which just went up) are due this month and it irritates the crap out of me!

I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA,

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

We show that you have received two inquiries for your timeshare. If you didn't receive these inquiries in your regular email box please go to your Messages here on the RedWeek.com website. A copy of them will be there. I just wanted to make sure you knew about these.

Thanks, Marty

Marty,

I did receive those inquiries and they were both scams.

sarahc93 wrote:

I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA,

Sarah

www.donateforacause.org will take some timeshares but not all. There's a list on their website of what they will definitely not take and other criteria would more than likely be supply and demand of the week you own even at a resort they may take. It's definitely worth the time to check them out as they are legitimate.

sarahc93 wrote:

marty8084 wrote:

sarahc93 wrote:

I haven't had any luck selling our timeshare so I am looking into donating the stupid thing.

We've slashed the price and to be honest, I work outside the home, have two small children and just do not have the time to invest in getting this thing sold.

My husband is fine with just holding onto the darn thing and our maintenance fees(which just went up) are due this month and it irritates the crap out of me!

I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA,

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

We show that you have received two inquiries for your timeshare. If you didn't receive these inquiries in your regular email box please go to your Messages here on the RedWeek.com website. A copy of them will be there. I just wanted to make sure you knew about these.

Thanks, Marty

Marty,

I did receive those inquiries and they were both scams.

We don't have anything negative for either of these members so please email support@redweek.com and be more specific on what made you feel that they were both scams.

Thanks, Marty

marty8084 wrote:

sarahc93 wrote:

marty8084 wrote:

sarahc93 wrote:

I haven't had any luck selling our timeshare so I am looking into donating the stupid thing.

We've slashed the price and to be honest, I work outside the home, have two small children and just do not have the time to invest in getting this thing sold.

My husband is fine with just holding onto the darn thing and our maintenance fees(which just went up) are due this month and it irritates the crap out of me!

I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA,

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

We show that you have received two inquiries for your timeshare. If you didn't receive these inquiries in your regular email box please go to your Messages here on the RedWeek.com website. A copy of them will be there. I just wanted to make sure you knew about these.

Thanks, Marty

Marty,

I did receive those inquiries and they were both scams.

We don't have anything negative for either of these members so please email support@redweek.com and be more specific on what made you feel that they were both scams.

Thanks, Marty

============ Marty, if you determine that the two inquiries to Sarah were in fact scams, could you put the copies of the email, company names, etc in this thread (or another) to alert others who read this forum. Thanks Mike

mike1536 wrote:

marty8084 wrote:

sarahc93 wrote:

marty8084 wrote:

sarahc93 wrote:

I haven't had any luck selling our timeshare so I am looking into donating the stupid thing.

We've slashed the price and to be honest, I work outside the home, have two small children and just do not have the time to invest in getting this thing sold.

My husband is fine with just holding onto the darn thing and our maintenance fees(which just went up) are due this month and it irritates the crap out of me!

I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA,

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

We show that you have received two inquiries for your timeshare. If you didn't receive these inquiries in your regular email box please go to your Messages here on the RedWeek.com website. A copy of them will be there. I just wanted to make sure you knew about these.

Thanks, Marty

Marty,

I did receive those inquiries and they were both scams.

We don't have anything negative for either of these members so please email support@redweek.com and be more specific on what made you feel that they were both scams.

Thanks, Marty

============ Marty, if you determine that the two inquiries to Sarah were in fact scams, could you put the copies of the email, company names, etc in this thread (or another) to alert others who read this forum. Thanks Mike

Hi Mike,

If it's an obvious scam, I might consider putting something on here but my gut is telling me that the chances of the two emails that she received through RedWeek.com both being a scam is highly unlikely. Neither person that emailed her have been sending out a whole lot of emails either which makes me wonder too. To my knowledge, Sarah hasn't contacted us yet.

Thanks, Marty

sarahc93 wrote:

I haven't had any luck selling our timeshare so I am looking into donating the stupid thing.

We've slashed the price and to be honest, I work outside the home, have two small children and just do not have the time to invest in getting this thing sold.

My husband is fine with just holding onto the darn thing and our maintenance fees(which just went up) are due this month and it irritates the crap out of me!

I heard about where you can donate your timeshare www.donateforacause.org. Has anyone done this and what was your experience like? TIA,

Sarah

I looked into the donating process and I got nowhere because they want you to totally own it without payments. They do not want pay anything on the unit. They just want everything free and clear and pay nothing in return.

joycee31 wrote:

I looked into the donating process and I got nowhere because they want you to totally own it without payments. They do not want pay anything on the unit. They just want everything free and clear and pay nothing in return.

Yes, a timeshare has to have a free and clear title, no liens and all maintenance fees have to paid to date before a charity will consider taking it ... and even then if the timeshare is not marketable they will reject it.

jayjay wrote:

joycee31 wrote:

I looked into the donating process and I got nowhere because they want you to totally own it without payments. They do not want pay anything on the unit. They just want everything free and clear and pay nothing in return.

Yes, a timeshare has to have a free and clear title, no liens and all maintenance fees have to paid to date before a charity will consider taking it ... and even then if the timeshare is not marketable they will reject it.

It sounds like "WE" are screwed. I am sick of my timeshare as well and just want to get rid of the darn thing. Other than ruining my credit, what's the worse that could happen if I simply stop paying for the darn thing and simply let it rot in space ?

joycee31 stated, in relevant part: >> I looked into the donating process and I got nowhere because they want you to totally own it without payments. They do not want pay anything on the unit. They just want everything free and clear and pay nothing in return. << ===============================================

That's completely understandable for a "donation", since if you still owe money on the timeshare, then an attempt on your part to "give" your exisitng debt to someone is not really a "donation" or "gift" at all --- it's actually just an attempt to transfer your debt to someone else. Who wants to voluntarily accept someone else's debt, whether it's an individual or a charity? (Answer: nobody).

Any timeshare "donation" is only of use, interest or value to a charity if they can quickly and easily turn it into cash in order to advance the underlying mission of their particular charitable enterprise. They obviously can do that ONLY if it's a product with NO exisitng debt of ANY kind AND if is a timeshare that can be promptly sold in the open market for at least SOME cash.

joycee31 asks in part: >> Other than ruining my credit, what's the worse that could happen if I simply stop paying for the darn thing and simply let it rot in space ?<< ================================================

The "worst" would probably be an agressive collection agency calling you day and night, at home and at work, chasing you for defaulting on your contractual obligation. Aside from just resulting in a "bad credit report", if the dollar value of the bad debt warrants such action, liens could be filed in court against other property which you own (home, car, boat, etc.). Such filed liens could potentially make it impossible for you to ever sell those items with clear title without first satisfying the filed lien (possibly plus interest and reimbursement of lien filing costs). Also, the creditor could go into court and ask for a court ordered "garnishment" of your pay directly from your employer paycheck until the debt is satisfied. The latter procedure varies considerably from state to state, but generally involves a judge deciding whether to authorize such an "attachment" and the amount of money to order withheld and sent directly to the creditor.

In any event, just walking away and hoping for some sort of magical disappearance of your lawful, contractual obligation is definitely not a strategy which I would either personally recommend or even momentarily consider.

Another option...contact your resort and see if they will take back the deed. We were able to do this with my parent's TS. Good Luck

mike1536 wrote:

Another option...contact your resort and see if they will take back the deed. We were able to do this with my parent's TS. Good Luck

=================================================

This is certainly a good suggestion for a timeshare that's already fully paid for (although not all resorts will cooperate), assuming it has little or no marketeability. However, "deedback" to a resort is generally not an available option if there is outstanding contractual debt involved --- as appears to be the case with joycee31 above (if, in fact, I interpreted her posts correctly).

ken1193 wrote:

mike1536 wrote:

Another option...contact your resort and see if they will take back the deed. We were able to do this with my parent's TS. Good Luck

=================================================

This is certainly a good suggestion for a timeshare that's already fully paid for (although not all resorts will cooperate), assuming it has little or no marketeability. However, "deedback" to a resort is generally not an available option if there is outstanding contractual debt involved --- as appears to be the case with joycee31 above (if, in fact, I interpreted her posts correctly).

========= Thanks for clarifying that point.

Quote:

joycee31 asks in part: >> Other than ruining my credit, what's the worse that could happen if I simply stop paying for the darn thing and simply let it rot in space ?

If you don't give a hoot about your credit rating then you can certainly do the above, however, depending on the resort's foreclosure procedure ... they CAN take you to court, garrnish your wages, force you to pay all back maintenance fees and force you pay court costs ... it just depends on the resort.

In your case, however, since your loan is not paid off you would also be hounded by whatever loan company the resort is aligned with due to nonpayment of the loan balance. Your case would be a double negative whammee to you.

Buying a timeshare is like buying any other big ticket item (car, boat, house etc.) ... once you sign on that dotted line you are responsible for any and all debts related to that timeshare until you sell it (it even goes to your estate after your demise and the estate is responsible for any debt owed to the resort).

My suggestion would be to pay off your loan and use, rent or exchange your timeshare until that time. After the loan balance is paid you can then try to sell it, but remember you won't get in return but about 1/4 of what you paid the developer and that is IF your timeshare is marketable at all (popularity, season, supply and demand).

mike1536 wrote:

Another option...contact your resort and see if they will take back the deed. We were able to do this with my parent's TS. Good Luck

Wow and woe,,,get a grip and a hold of yourself. It was a joke that I was hoping no one took serious. Line up and take a deeeeep breath. Meanwhile, thanks for the tip about calling the resort. I shall do that tomorrow. Bye now.

joycee31 quips, in relevant part: >>Wow and woe,,,get a grip and a hold of yourself. It was a joke that I was hoping no one took serious. Line up and take a deeeeep breath. << =================================================

Folks here took the time and effort to offer you some considered, well informed and absolutely serious input --- based upon the reasonable assumption that your inquiry was equally serious (not a "joke", as you now claim).

If you were actually in dire financial straights over a timeshare debt in personally difficult economic times (as some folks unfortunately find themselves these days) you would hardly regard this as a "joking" matter at all. Accordingly, I don't think it's at all appropriate to berate people trying to help you by voluntarily offering you experienced input and valuable information about which you were otherwise completely unaware and uninformed. If you still owe money on your timeshare, you can save yourself the time and effort of bothering to call the resort. As previously clearly expressed, they will not be the least bit interested in taking over your personal debt. Good luck anyhow.