TRYING TO GET OUT OF MEXICO TIMESHARE

maryr280 wrote:

They are offering a Voluntary Surrender prior to 1/15/19 for $1800 per unit...$3,600 and we are done. They will waive 2019 maintenance fee if we act prior to 1/15/19.

However, from all research I have been able to do Playa Grande is part of Solmar which is a Mexican Corp but maintenance fees, etc are through an American company. A voluntary surrender is in essence a contract foreclosure...just voluntary...and can and will hurt our credit. We do not want our credit hurt.

If the resort agrees to accept your unit back for $1800, I can't see why or how that would negatively affect your credit. foreclosure is when you stubbornly refuse to pay and your creditor is wanting the money. The creditor in this case is working out a solution with you that is in the best interests of everyone involved. The resort does not have to continue hounding you for maintenance fees. It does not have to go through the hassle and expense of foreclosure. It gets the unit back into the resort's hands more quickly so that it can try to sell it to another unsuspecting buyer. It gets $1800 per unit to pay for closing costs and the next maintenance fee while it looks for another buyer. It's a win-win for all.

I had a very similar situation with my grandmother's ownership. Good luck.

kellyw472 wrote:

I had a very similar situation with my grandmother's ownership.

This seems suspicious. This thread is about Mexican timeshares yet the agency you are talking about is located in Hawaii?!?!

The other thing that seems suspicious is that you say the agency "resolved the matter for half of what the resort wanted". Many resorts and timeshare companies are now taking back units from owners who want out if the mortgages and maintenance fees are paid up to date.

Also, with many Mexican timeshares, since they are RTUs or vacation club memberships rather than deeded property, they can usually be terminated by simply stopping payments. An owner does not need an agency out of Hawaii to do that.

Kelly W. is a SCAMMER . She or he is posting a phony story trying to lure people to her SCAM company . She or he has been reported to Redweek .

I too am looking to get out of my Westin Lagunamar timeshare. I had a friend of mine a number of years ago that had a timeshare that he decided to quit paying for and of course the collection calls started. I can't recall if it was a US based finance company, must have been. But they did report it to collections and then quite some time later it finally hit his credit report negatively.

What he did was contact the credit bureau's and somehow filed a dispute letter disputing the timeshare finance company's negative credit item. I was told that the credit bureau has to try and contact the company in question to find out whether the negative claim is valid. If said company does not advise the credit bureau within 30 days then the negative item is wiped off your credit report.

I don't owe much on mine anymore but trying to even sell the darn thing is quite a task in itself. Dumbest thing I ever did was buy that timeshare.

You definitely have the right to dispute anything on your credit report . Nobody can just claim that you owe them money . Collection agencies are great at threatening people but rarely follow through by going to court . You have the right to tell the collection agency to stop contacting you and if they contact you after you tell them to stop then you can sue them and collect money for every violation .

You can stand up to these people and tell them to either taker action or leave you alone . That is what I would do if I were in your position .

Hi. Was wondering if yur credit got dinged since stopped payment and yur Social security number was never used. Thank you

We joined Fiesta Americana Vacation Club on Jan 30. After reading the finer details of the contract, we decided the next day to cancel. There was a clause that said there is a 5-day rescission period. However, when we hand the cancellation notice, the dashes to wouldn't honor it saying we can no longer cancel bec our membership has already been activated. We insisted but he won't budge. We took a picture of the cancellation notice and left it with him but he won't acknowledge receipt. He denied us the right to cancel. Now we're still fighting to have it cancelled but it's harder because it's past 5 days. At this point we are thinking about just cancelling our Visa card so they can't take any more monthly payments. But that also means we would lose our downpayment of $3200. If we do decide to cancel our credit card, can they hound us and still force is to pay? We wouldn't have this dilemma if they didn't lie to us about not being able to cancel within 5 days. We have been told other lies which we find out later. These people are leeches.

Did you follow the rescission instructions correctly including how to send your rescission letter? You said you handed it in. Likely, the instructions were to mail your letter.

The agreement says cancellation letter must be presented in writing at the same place it was signed or through certified mail. Since we just got there and have another 6 days of stay, we just hand delivered it which should be fine. However, the guy didn't want to honor it said we would lose our deposit because we were already activated. No matter how much we tried to get our letter received, he wouldn't budge so we just left our cancellation letter with him with no acknowledgement. What else were we supposed to do then? I know it's easy to say you should have mailed it. But at the time, we were under so much stress and thought if they didn't want to cancel it now, how would mailing it make a difference? We made a mistake but we did everything in good faith not realizing these people are out there to get you by hook or by crook. They tell you lies just to get their commission.

niloa wrote:

They tell you lies just to get their commission.

That's correct including the lies about rescission. If I were you, I would send in the rescission letter by both methods.

We have a timeshare at the Subset Royal in Cancun Mexico my paperwork says effective period of the membership the effective period shall end on December 31,2020 on the understanding that any membership shall be extinguished on December 31st 2020 and therefore the rights deriving therefrom. Notwithstanding the foregoing the owner is committed and obliged to obtain an extension of the current deal or it will make a new deal for a longer period and shall grant the member the possibility to extend his/her contract for same period that the deal may be extended. I told them I won’t sign anything else from them period and they keep saying it is a lifetime. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks melinda

Hi we own a timeshare at the sunset royal in Cancun. My contract has a clause that it terminates December 31, 2020. I told them we will not sign anything else and will not pay after December 31,2020 and they say it is lifetime and will send us to collections we hav excellent credit and don’t want to pay anymore. What would you recommend? Thanks Melinda G

Hi ALL. I think I understand but I need like a triple check please. So bear with me. My understanding from reading all these responses is that. 1. THEY will send my files to a collection agency 2. My RTU is gone, which is fine, DONT CARE. I learned my lesson paid like 9 grand, never did I get availability OF my first choice, it was always, that week is NOT available and yrly maintenance fee kept going up even after the first year, that was then I realized how a sucker I am, sadly.

ANY WAYS, AM I OK TO NOT PAY THEM another penny since the RTU was in Cancun and I NEVER GAVE THEM SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER ????????????

PLEASE HELP answer if you have been in the same situation. My ONLY concern is they WILL GARNISH MY PAYCHECK OR PUT A LIEN ON HOUSE. Sad times :( <<<< mqt1969@yahoo.com >>>

ken1193 wrote:

dianeb726 wrote:

Now home and outside the 14 days cooling off period, since signing, we have byers remorse. We have only paid 2k so far. Does anyone know what the repercussions would be if we don't make any additional payments and send a cancellation letter..any advice welcome

You cannot just unilaterally "cancel" a contract into which you voluntarily chose to enter, after the rescission period provided by applicable law has expired. No "solicitor" possesses any magic beans or secret elixirs either --- no matter how much they charge. The rescission period is only 5 days in Mexico by the way, so I am unclear where / how you came up with the "14 days" reference. In any event, sending a "cancellation" letter would be a legally meaningless gesture after expiration of the rescission period. There are two parties in an executed contract and neither one can just change the terms of (or terminate) an executed contract on their own without the overt agreement of the other --- it's a two way street.

On the other hand, you can always make the decision to simply forfeit the $2k deposit you already ponied up (you're not getting any of that that money back in any scenario anyhow, no matter what) and just make the choice not to pay them another penny. If you are in another country, they have little or no leverage to do much of anything further except to terminate your "membership" at some point. Doing so is no particular skin off their nose, since all you really have is a "right to use" anyhow (i.e., no actual ownership of anything) and they will certainly be keeping your deposit regardless of whatever you do or don't do.

I doubt that the doomsday scenario your solicitor portrayed could or would ever actually happen --- it's just simply not worth the bother for the Mexicans to attempt collection efforts across continents over a relatively worthless RTU "membership". There are, after all, plenty of other prospects in "vacation mode" coming around the corner virtually every day. It's your decision, but if in your shoes I would be inclined to just kiss them off and bid them adieu.

leonar10 wrote:

I have not paid maintenance fees on my Mexican timeshare ( Bel Air} for about 7 years now and they have threatened collections agency. Still nothing. I e-mailed them telling them I can no longer use the timeshare and cannot afford it. I don't think they can do anything as the timeshare is in Mexico, the company is American and I am in Canada.

I am in a similar situation although I'm American. I purchased a unit 14 years ago from Playa del Sol in Puerto Vallarta (now Bel Air Vacation Club) The maintenance fees have almost tripled and the exchange value has greatly diminished. I exchanged emails with the client relations manager. She advised there is no provision to give back your RTU unit once purchased. She suggested trying to sell the property. Of course, we all know now that you can't even give these units away after spending thousands of dollars in purchasing and maintenance fees. I am going to try to simply walk away and stop making my biennial payments starting this year. I am hoping to get off with some stern letters and threats with no further action taken. It isn't entirely clear how big of a hit my credit may take if I am sent to collections. I'm gambling that the trade off will be worth some risk to see what happens. Most of the stories in this forum have been pretty encouraging. I'm hoping to be another Mexican timeshare survivor. Only time will tell I guess. If anyone else has insight with this company in particular I'm very interested to hear the story.

We are in the same boat. Please give us an update on whether is affected your credit score.

I have not heard from Bel Air (formerly the Grande) for over a year. They threatened collection agency and still nothing. I have not paid maintenance fee for over 7 years now. I absolutely refuse to pay them another cent. I have told them that I cannot afford this timeshare and do not use it. I don't think they can do anything as they haven't yet. Good luck to all who want out.

try donating to a tax free charity, you will have to pay maintenance until sale and there maybe closing cost, if it's paid for you can start a trust, transfer owner ship to trust and let them come after the trust, that would spot hit on your credit

johnb2560 wrote:

Try donating to a tax free charity, you will have to pay maintenance until sale and there maybe closing cost...

A charity will charge to take a unit off an owner's hands. Besides, your suggestion defeats the purpose of trying to get rid of a timeshare, that of not paying maintenance fees.

If the owner is of a Mexican RTU timeshare, the easiest way to get rid of it is usually to just stop paying maintenance fees and the travel club will just terminate the membership. An owner does not need a third-party charity to get involved.

May I ask which state you live in? Do you know if there is a Foreign-Country Money Judgment Recognition Act in place for your state, or perhaps something similar? It sounds like you have been fortunate. I want to try to determine my odds for similar good fortune!

leonar10 wrote:

I have not heard from Bel Air (formerly the Grande) for over a year. They threatened collection agency and still nothing. I have not paid maintenance fee for over 7 years now. I absolutely refuse to pay them another cent. I have told them that I cannot afford this timeshare and do not use it. I don't think they can do anything as they haven't yet. Good luck to all who want out.