TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Giiving up a timeshare

Hi all. OK here's the situation..Good friends of mine have a timeshare in a certain operation. Hint: It starts with "Fla" and ends with "ingo". And no it's not me. Anyway, due to the skyrocketing maintenance fees they want to end their ownership. They were told that they can't. Of course there must be a way. They are even willing to just walk away. Does anyone know how this can be accomplished?

There have been many threads and posts about this. Look back several pages as there was a recent one.

If it were me, I would walk away and forget about it as selling can be tough.

Try here for starters.

All you have to do is fill out the forms to turn it back in and pay the 200 fee as long as your FM's are up to date. Have friends that did the same thing last year due to health reasons. I own at the same resort and know what can be done.

Just curious, what happens if you do NOT pay the $200 fee? If the party no longer wants the timeshare, why not just walk away and save the $200?

It's part of Diamond Resorts witch is based in the US. Depending on when the contract was purchased there could be credit ramifications if they gave out their SS number to Diamond through financing.

If you just walk away you are still legally liable. Best case is they do nothing. Next best case is they report it and your credit rating goes in the toilet. Worst case would be a few years down the road (once the past due payments build up to the point where it makes it worthwhile) they sue you, win a judgement, and force foreclosure of some other property that you own in order to collect.

So that's best and worst. What's most likely? Even though it is possible, it is not likely that they would go to the expense to sue you. Most likely scenario is that they just report it to the credit agencies. If you don't really care much about your credit rating then that won't concern you. If you do, then it is almost never a good idea to just walk away from an obligation.

I think you mean "which" and not "witch" when referring to Diamond Resorts.

If I had not given a SS# or any major financial information when the purchase was made, I would personally walk away and save $200. I know people who have purchased in various manners and when it didn't work out, they simply walked away.

Thanks for pointing "witch" out. Self correct isn't the best option sometimes. Walking away is simple but it also depends on what resort your involved with. A foreign resort has less rights than a domestic US owned resort to go after you. It all depends on what they are willing to do to collect and how much you regard your credit rating in the future. Paying the 200 would solve the issue and give peace of mind that it won't come back to bite you later.

Not very much less. In the name of preventing the laundering of drug money--a lot of people think the REAL reason was to crack down on income tax evasion--the United States has treaties with a whole lot of countries around the world. These treaties require the sharing of banking and financial transaction information, but they also allow each country access to the other countries judicial system for pretty much any money-related issue. That means that a foreign company can come to the U.S. to pursue someone who walks away from a debt with very little difficulty.

Now, of course, if they don't have offices here, and they don't have attorneys on retainer here, then that creates problems that a U.S. company wouldn't have. But in terms of any legal hurdles, there are almost none. It is all just the obvious practical hurdles.

I think it also depends on what weeks you own. If it's high season you might not have a problem selling....of course you probably won't get what you paid,but you might unload it.

Oh for god sake..it's 200.00! Just have them pay it and walk away!

I agree. But don't forget the MF's have to be up to date. If they are going to do this it has to be before the end of this year or the fees for next year need to be paid.