What happens if I just stop paying my maintenance fee?

I own multiple time shares in a Caribbean resort and no longer can afford the increasing fees. After reading others comments on their inability to sell or rent their timeshares, I despair on ever getting rid of mine. I wonder what happens if I just stop paying.

mikep303 wrote:

I own multiple time shares in a Caribbean resort and no longer can afford the increasing fees. After reading others comments on their inability to sell or rent their timeshares, I despair on ever getting rid of mine. I wonder what happens if I just stop paying.

Same thing that would happen if you stopped making car payment, house payment, credit card payment etc., your credit will be affected. When you signed that contract on the dotted line to buy those timeshares, you signed to pay the yearly maintenance fees until it's sold or changes ownership.

If you stop paying your car, the car is repossessed. does a similar thing happen with timeshares?

loul12 wrote:

If you stop paying your car, the car is repossessed. does a similar thing happen with timeshares?

Your leaving out most important fact of your car being repossessed. That would be having this issue on your three credit reports for years.

I have to admit that with millions of people having bad credit these days it may not matter that much,but still good credit is better.

PHILL12

Hello, I'm am writing this to help other people who were in my situation and I will NOT respond to anyone here. I am only writing this to help others in my situation. I would have added to the other forums about this subject but they were closed. I owned a few weeks at Marriott Summit Watch they were completely paid for & they were Mud weeks but I had used them for years and was happy with my exchanges. Marriott added a points program to their ownership years ago and I started having a hard time exchanging for anything because alot of owners went to that points program and I was still exchanging a week for a week and nothing was available. Inventory dwindled and maintenance fees kept going up every year - they were going up ALOT. I continued this for a few years and when I got my bill last year in Oct 2016 due Jan 2017 I decided not to pay. I had logged in to my Marriott online account and changed my phone # to my fax line just in case they tried to harass me and I just didn't pay my bill. While reading the other forums about this topic a person by the name of "Carvana" gave great advise and I followed that advise. I received a few letters saying I was over due and I ignored them and then this month (May 2017) I received an offer to do a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure and Marriott will handle all the fees. I was told the lien goes on the property in Salt Lake and not myself so my credit will not be affected. I have checked my credit report twice in the last couple months just to make sure and nothing. As Carvana said .. I did not sign anything saying I would pay maintenance for eternity and this is a "in rem" obligation (maintenance fee) NOT a "personal obligation" (home loan, car loan). Marriott is sending me the paper work to hand my Timeshare back over to them and paying for everything. Again, My timeshares are paid in full and this will not be the case if you have a loan. That is a debt that will need to be paid or if you don't I do believe that will affect your credit as you did sign and receive a loan. I wish everyone the best of luck & don't let the crazy's tell you that not paying will RUIN YOUR LIFE and Thank you again Carvana with the advice - I took your advice and it worked out.

The above (entirely credible) account describes a timeshare "deedback" to Marriott.

Fortunately for the poster, Marriott has intrinsic value and "cachet"; there is really no such thing as a "worthless" Marriott timeshare. Accordingly, it's no surprise at all that Marriott (which is a very "deep pockets" corporation) would accept a "deedback" for something of high, known value as described above, even with unpaid back fees and debt to forgive. Marriott can easily afford to make that decision; smaller independent operations cannot.

Unfortunately, "deedback acceptance" is the exception rather than the rule for most timeshares. Deedback acceptance with unpaid fees still owed is virtually unheard of in most (let's call it 99.99%) instances. On the contrary, most timeshare HOA's that will accept "deedbacks" at all will also require that account to first be fully paid up to date. Some will even require pre-payment of maintenance fees for the NEXT year (sometimes even two years) before considering agreeing to accept a "deedback".

I'm happy for the success of the poster above, but the (high value) Marriott scenario described is definitely an unusual statistical anomaly in the bigger "deedback" picture. Marriott agreed to take back (for free) something of considerable market value that they will easily re-sell to someone else and just "eat" the debt. A smart business decision, but NOT the case (and NOT an available option) in MOST timeshare situations and operations.

My timeshare has been paid for years. I am now 75 and would like to be rid of this cost of maintenance. How bad would it hurt my credit rating if I just stop paying

Leila, if you stop paying, the resort will send late notices and may send the debt to collections, which can affect your credit. Some owners also end up with a foreclosure on their record. You might want to ask the resort about any deed-back or exit options first, they sometimes let you return the timeshare if your account is current.

Best thing that could happen is every timeshare owner stop paying the loans and maintenance so the timeshare programs go bankrupt.