TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Returning a timeshare unit to a resort?

How does one return a timeshare unit to a resort, if you do not want to have it any more or be subject to many more assessment fees? (such as the Sapphire)

Walk away from it.

Contact the resort directly or just don't pay anything. They (Sapphire) really can't do anything to you if you don't.

Except Atrium/Festiva. They have their own collection agency, and keep threats coming for years. Attorney,Generals of several states have sued them for fraudulent activity.

We decided to give back our fourth week at the Towers and all we did was send a notorized letter stating we were giving it back to the management and as long as we owed no AMF for that unit for that year, we were done. No fees, no arguments. And we maintain a good relationship still. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Your question is one on the minds of many people at this time.
Some folks try to sell or give away timeshares over the internet but they are rarely successful.
We have spoken to other owners who have chosen to terminate their timeshares at Belair, where we own, and as suggested simply walked away. We have been told that some resorts will threaten to pursue collection but really have no legal leverage. After all, the resort will still own the apartment to rent or sell.
I suspect that many are waiting to see the announcement of the new maintenance charges before they make their decision.

TUG
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From Timeshare Users Group on selling a TS
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We are fortunate having purchased our TS many years ago and have a non-mandatory fee arrangement - if we do not go we do not pay and can of course visit any Divi resort anytime, subject to availability.

I contacted the Atrium (Festiva/Patton Hospitality Group) recently and they said I own it for life. I had a friend who gave it back to them when they hit us with a special assessment fee but she had to pay 2 or 3 times the MF which she did just to get rid of it. They do not do this anymore. I would like to just walk away but don't want any marks on my credit. Can they hit your credit score? We have owned our week for years and are only liable for the MF which is paid up to date. I should probably walk away before next years fees come out. We also own at the Royal Palm which I am deeding back to them for $250. Timeshare use to be good but some of these fees are just too high. We rented a week at the RP on Expedia this year for $788 vs.a $1700 MF.

Unless they have your social security number they can't affect your credit. They also have to be a member of a US credit reporting agency to do so.

I am not an attorney but I have read my timeshare agreement and suggest you do the same. If it is like mine you will see that your agreement is governed by the Netherlands or French laws not US laws.
There is a lot of verbiage re: Lessor/Lessee. Nowhere does it state that the lessor (resort owner) can force the lessee (me) to pay for maintenance fees for life.
It does say that if I don't pay maintenance fees the agreement can be terminated which is exactly what I want if I want to end the timeshare agreement.
The only potential action that I can imagine is a posting on my credit report which I have already researched and found that an otherwise healthy credit rating will not be negatively effected by a timeshare termination.
Let common sense prevail. If you need assurance that you won't be a in trouble, contact an appropriate attorney, pay the few hundred dollars that he/she will charge to prevent you from paying thousands.

GaKaye is giving you good advise. If they don't have your social security # they cannot touch you. We walked away from a vacation plan years ago. Oh, we got statements, threw them in the garbage and have not heard from them since. We did contact an attorney friend and he gave us the same info.

I walked away from two units at the old Pelican and never heard a word from anyone. However, I still get owner pricing when I rent directly from Simpson Bay Resort, go figure?!

I don't know if they have our social sec numbers. But we would like to get rid of our timeshare also. This storm was a wake-up call, but after looking on VRBO over the last several months, and seeing how cheap some places are to simply rent for a trip, vs the $800 annual maintenance fee, we would really like to be able to get rid of it and simply rent where, when, and if, we want to. We own an October week. We would hate to be trapped on the island and have some impending storm barreling at us.

As a bankruptcy lawyer I can attest that in general many people spend entirely too much money trying to avoid perceived negative effects on their credit scores and/or reports (they're two different things). I'm not saying that one's credit is unimportant, but IMO its not worth thousands to stay in an unfavorable contract. Additionally, there are remedies available under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, when a report is challenged it is removed while the reporter has an opportunity to substantiate it, and in most instances they just can't be bothered to do so and the report never reappears. I can't count the number of times people in serious need for relief delay for months or years based on a false belief that the perceived effect on their credit will sound the death knell for their financial future. And that's certainly a perception that the financial industry encourages.

Check your contract. We bought Flamingo in 1991 and since it was an older contract we had a clause that allowed us to turn it back to Diamond without any obligation, as long as we were up to date with the maintenance fees. We had to submit the request in writing and they gave us a contract release. Of course they didn't like it one bit and gave us a bit of run-a-round. We did this while on the island so we had the time to deal with it.

Anyone have any experience with royal islander laplage as far as returning a timeshare?

We also returned 2 units to Pelican/SBR They threatened to foreclose, I said why waste the time and effort, let me turn them back to you. They said no, so I said ok foreclose. A month later I received a letter with forms to fill out to turn them in.

I would suggest you first reach out to the resort and see what their policies are. As long as your maintenance is paid current just write up a contract that your are returning your unit, state the unit number weeks etc. get it notarized so there are no questions as to who owned the unit. Then mail that to the resort certified. Do not pay to return except make sure your maintenance is paid up. Even past maintenance even if you didn’t use it. That’s not their fault. If they come after you, I would not worry as the previous comment said

Not true. I walked away several years ago when Festiva somehow managed to find a crooked island judge to void the legal contract that I signed for my week, paving the way for a special assessment. I had a collection company calling me repeatedly, and they went so far as to say my non-payment would ruin my credit score. I figured since it was an offshore contract there wasn't a thing they could do....and I was right.

Many owners bailed out; the rest decided to skip the moral issue and keep throwing money @ Festiva instead.

I think you have received some good information as to what action you need to take in returning a timeshare.

1. Read your original agreement and if necessary, get help to understand your options.
2. Choose your method of termination especially if you plan to return to your resort as a renter in the future.
3. Do not be intimidated by resort owners/management threats or supposed "policies" that cannot be legally enforced.
4. Stay current on maintenance fees for timeshare used. Remember that most timeshare maintenance is billed prior to your use.

Many of us are evaluating our timeshare status since many maintenance fees have reached or exceeded the level of a conventional SXM resort rental.

We read the fine print, and found that either the lessor or the lessee could end the contract. We sent a letter to the lessor invoking that specific section of the contract stating we were revoking the contract immediately. We were paid (MF) for the year. We had received notification of doubled fees, MF and special assessments for the next year, so we got out in the year we paid for.
Happy we did!!!!

We couldn't get over how much nicer the properties were that we saw online vs the Royal Islander's dated rooms. These places had brand new bathrooms and kitchens, with state of the art appliances, and many were even two bedrooms, which we wouldn't even need, for a price comparable to what an annual maintenance fee for a one-bedroom would cost at our timeshare. RIDICULOUS !!!! What a difference !!! We're thinking that the best thing to do now, with climate change and the intense strengthening of storm systems going forward, is to rent in early spring, regardless of which island we go to, if the particular island has had a "quiet" hurricane season. This way, the price is low and there's less chance of bad weather or worse, a powerful hurricane. And you'd know in advance whether the island is functional, because the hurricane season would be in the rearview mirror. We'd get the ball rolling in December for an April vacation.


The only way to do so would be to NOT be locked into a timeshare. Even if the timeshare is during high season, when hurricanes aren't an issue, there still remains the problem of having had such a terrible storm that an island will not be a reasonable destination for months and months.
We definitely want to return to SXM, but on our own terms, and when the island is functional, and NOT during hurricane season EVER AGAIN.

The whole system is crazy. How do they sell people as "Owners" when they have zero ownership and zero rights? I'd follow Tom's advice, follow the rules and get out asap.

I walked away from two at Sapphire that I had paid a total of $425.00 for both. As soon as they lost their RCI accreditation
I told them that they had defaulted on the contract.

maybe things are different in the islands, but walking away from a Starwood property like i own, would be detrimental to my credit score as they definitely go after you with collections. If anyone really knows a way out, please let me know.

Thank you for the feedback. We, and quite few a other Sapphire owners we understand, have sent notarized letters surrendering the units to the resort, with no additional payment, per the "surrender/default" clause in the agreement. We will post if there is subsequent action.

Just to be clear, are we talking about fully-paid units, meaning the only money owed is the AMF, or are folks walking away from units where they're still paying off a loan?

We had fully -paid units. Can't speak for all the others, but some were also fully-paid.

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