Selling My Timeshare - The Horror Story
You may have fallen in love with a certain timeshare resort, but there comes a time when you might have to give up, sell or move away from your timeshare which leads to the eternal question "how can I sell my timeshare?"
This is a question which I hear asked, and of course with these questions you also tend to hear various horror stories related to timeshare resales. The stories you hear about illegal or scam resales companies are more often than not true and thankfully enough, well known. However, it is often this point that leads people away from resellers altogether. To one extend or another this practice can be likened to out of the frying pan and into the fire, as you can often encounter many issues lurking within private buying or selling of timeshares.
It is not uncommon to hear of friends or family members selling or handing over property to each other, which on paper isn't a bad idea, but you still have to keep in mind a few significant facts about the legal nature of timeshare ownership. The worse thing I've heard of, and recently too, is people going through private sellers, looking to grab what seem to be amazing, too-good-to-be-missed bargain on services like ebay and craigslist and end up in a very akward situation.
The issues surrounding this part of timeshare ownership aren't uncalled for initial fees or phantom buyers who aren't there, no this is slightly different. The central problem is when paperwork and/or money need to change hands to complete a deal.
An acquaintance I met years ago whilst travelling has recently been back in contact to ask my advice following a particularly disastrous purchase (or at least what he thought was a purchase) of a timeshare property in the Gran Canaria. Settling on a deal was simple enough, finding the right club for the money is one of the easiest part now, with many ridiculous offers of £1 timeshares or thousands of points for almost nothing.
If you have ever had any dealings with buying timeshares, selling timeshares or indeed, renting timeshares, you'll probably be aware that this isn't the whole tale – far from it. Those Club La Costa points or that week that will cost you the sum total of what's in your back pocket will usually be shouldered with legal fees, administration payments and more, usually to the resort to change the owner on the paperwork. Thing is, these fees, next to the cost of the timeshares or timeshare points, look far too high by comparison.
Legal fees are part of buying or selling timeshares, just as they are in real estate - it should be expected. Most people who have not encountered timeshares before will mostly likely be aware that there may be fees, but those who really get caught out are those who are completely unaware to start with and then mislead or lied too throughout the sale.
My friend, fortunately enough was aware of the fees, but like most, did'nt know how the process worked exactly. "Simple", the seller said, he had done this before and would use a solicitor of his to handle matters; all my friend had to do was hand over the paper work and the money, simple. Spotted the problem yet? There was no "middle-man" or independent party to oversee the process, the whole thing had to be on blind faith that the seller would exchange paperwork correctly.
Now, being a fairly optimistic person I know that you need to trust people from time to time, but at the end of the day you need to be mindful what is at risk. If you hadn't worked it out already the buyer disappeared with the a significant sum of money paid by my friend, and was never seen again.
Whilst the amount he paid was nothing like you'd expect from buying direct from a club, and the "fees" asked for weren't enough to cause too much alarm (a few hundred Euros), the amount lost was still significant, but ironically it was the small amount which prompted him to ignore his better judgement and pay.
What to do now? Well unfortunatley not a lot, speaking to TATOC or RDO is a good start; they can usually give advice on what to if you find yourself in this situation. Even if it is too late to do anything about it, it is always worth reporting such events as organisations like TATOC issue lists of trusted sellers or more importantly, known rouges, so it can help those in the future. Unfortunately, my friend was caught out and there was not anything that could be done, the seller left no working telephone number and the address was no longer occupied, so no means to track the person down.
What he should have done, was to use a trusted company with their own conveyancing services. Without getting too bogged down in the details a good conveyancing department will make sure that all paperwork is exchanged correctly, all loose ends tied up and most importantly, store all money in an escrow account controlled by an independent solicitor. This way you know that you money is not going anywhere until the conditions of the sale are met.
The downside? Well, the only downside, if you can call it that is that it costs more money – how much varies on the resales company and what service is required (around £300). But if you want to be sure knowing that that your money is in safe hands and you are not going to get conned or robbed, not a large price to pay when you think about it.
So it is the usual story really, do your best to ensure that everyone involved is trusted, look to the industry bodies like TATOC, RDO and ARDA who can confirm this or help establish if you might be dealing with a rouge business. Whilst there are deals to be had, especially when buying timeshares, be careful about deals that look too good – you don't have to avoid them, just make sure you do your research ask the right questions, and if you cannot get a clear answer, then it might be best to look elsewhere.
This is a question which I hear asked, and of course with these questions you also tend to hear various horror stories related to timeshare resales. The stories you hear about illegal or scam resales companies are more often than not true and thankfully enough, well known. However, it is often this point that leads people away from resellers altogether. To one extend or another this practice can be likened to out of the frying pan and into the fire, as you can often encounter many issues lurking within private buying or selling of timeshares.
It is not uncommon to hear of friends or family members selling or handing over property to each other, which on paper isn't a bad idea, but you still have to keep in mind a few significant facts about the legal nature of timeshare ownership. The worse thing I've heard of, and recently too, is people going through private sellers, looking to grab what seem to be amazing, too-good-to-be-missed bargain on services like ebay and craigslist and end up in a very akward situation.
The issues surrounding this part of timeshare ownership aren't uncalled for initial fees or phantom buyers who aren't there, no this is slightly different. The central problem is when paperwork and/or money need to change hands to complete a deal.
An acquaintance I met years ago whilst travelling has recently been back in contact to ask my advice following a particularly disastrous purchase (or at least what he thought was a purchase) of a timeshare property in the Gran Canaria. Settling on a deal was simple enough, finding the right club for the money is one of the easiest part now, with many ridiculous offers of £1 timeshares or thousands of points for almost nothing.
If you have ever had any dealings with buying timeshares, selling timeshares or indeed, renting timeshares, you'll probably be aware that this isn't the whole tale – far from it. Those Club La Costa points or that week that will cost you the sum total of what's in your back pocket will usually be shouldered with legal fees, administration payments and more, usually to the resort to change the owner on the paperwork. Thing is, these fees, next to the cost of the timeshares or timeshare points, look far too high by comparison.
Legal fees are part of buying or selling timeshares, just as they are in real estate - it should be expected. Most people who have not encountered timeshares before will mostly likely be aware that there may be fees, but those who really get caught out are those who are completely unaware to start with and then mislead or lied too throughout the sale.
My friend, fortunately enough was aware of the fees, but like most, did'nt know how the process worked exactly. "Simple", the seller said, he had done this before and would use a solicitor of his to handle matters; all my friend had to do was hand over the paper work and the money, simple. Spotted the problem yet? There was no "middle-man" or independent party to oversee the process, the whole thing had to be on blind faith that the seller would exchange paperwork correctly.
Now, being a fairly optimistic person I know that you need to trust people from time to time, but at the end of the day you need to be mindful what is at risk. If you hadn't worked it out already the buyer disappeared with the a significant sum of money paid by my friend, and was never seen again.
Whilst the amount he paid was nothing like you'd expect from buying direct from a club, and the "fees" asked for weren't enough to cause too much alarm (a few hundred Euros), the amount lost was still significant, but ironically it was the small amount which prompted him to ignore his better judgement and pay.
What to do now? Well unfortunatley not a lot, speaking to TATOC or RDO is a good start; they can usually give advice on what to if you find yourself in this situation. Even if it is too late to do anything about it, it is always worth reporting such events as organisations like TATOC issue lists of trusted sellers or more importantly, known rouges, so it can help those in the future. Unfortunately, my friend was caught out and there was not anything that could be done, the seller left no working telephone number and the address was no longer occupied, so no means to track the person down.
What he should have done, was to use a trusted company with their own conveyancing services. Without getting too bogged down in the details a good conveyancing department will make sure that all paperwork is exchanged correctly, all loose ends tied up and most importantly, store all money in an escrow account controlled by an independent solicitor. This way you know that you money is not going anywhere until the conditions of the sale are met.
The downside? Well, the only downside, if you can call it that is that it costs more money – how much varies on the resales company and what service is required (around £300). But if you want to be sure knowing that that your money is in safe hands and you are not going to get conned or robbed, not a large price to pay when you think about it.
So it is the usual story really, do your best to ensure that everyone involved is trusted, look to the industry bodies like TATOC, RDO and ARDA who can confirm this or help establish if you might be dealing with a rouge business. Whilst there are deals to be had, especially when buying timeshares, be careful about deals that look too good – you don't have to avoid them, just make sure you do your research ask the right questions, and if you cannot get a clear answer, then it might be best to look elsewhere.
