In yesterday’s article “Start the Week”, we had a look at the resale market in Europe, or the lack of it. We highlighted one resale company Fab Timeshare Resales, who specialise in Marriott resale. The prices advertised on their website started at a paltry 1000€ or $1,180 for a timeshare which starts at 17,000€ or $21,000 according to the Marriott website.
Today Irene Parker looks at the growing problem in the US of foreclosure and defaults, which may just be partly due to the lack of the resale or secondary market, but first a little more news from Europe.
Last week in Friday’s Letter from America, we published the news released by Canarian Legal Alliance on their 60th Supreme Court ruling. Yesterday they announced another, which is now 61!
In this ruling it is yet again the Tenerife company Silverpoint, which bring rulings from Spain’s Highest Court against them to 22. The judges in this instance ruled the contract null and void with the return of over £43,000 plus legal fees and legal interest. We are still waiting for the actual infractions of the law to be released, but going by past judgements it will more than likely be the duration of the contract being more than 50 years.
On the “scam” front, mindtimeshare have again highlighted another rather clever little ploy coming out of the Costa del Sol. This company is called Joint Returns Legal Consultants, who have apparently been appointed by the High Court to inform consumers that a case has gone through and the court is now holding money to be returned.
Obviously as with all these “scams”, there is a “TAX” to be paid and the “gentleman” on the phone going by the name Peter Sanchez, send emails confirming the story with letter headings from “Agencia Tributaria”. All this along with confirmation from the BBVA (Bank) and a Notary it all seems very plausible.
Telephone numbers:
Tel.: +34 632844887. Fax: 0872 113 1069
Email jointreturns@gmail.com
This really does go to show some of the lengths these people will go just to get your money, we have said this before and we will continue to issue the same warning.
THE COURTS DO NOT APPOINT PRIVATE COMPANIES TO INFORM CONSUMERS THAT MONEY IS BEING HELD. THERE ARE NO CASES AT COURT UNLESS YOU HAVE INSTIGATED THEM YOURSELF. DO NOT PAY ANY MONEY ESPECIALLY BY BANK TRANSFER TO AN INDIVIDUAL.
Now for today’s main article from Irene.
Timeshare Foreclosure
Is it survivable?
By Irene Parker
September 26 2017
Inside Timeshare received five more complaints over the weekend. This makes over 150 timeshare complaints received. The rise in timeshare default rates reported by bond rating agencies and the lawsuits that have ensued as timeshare developers try to stop the flow of “Cease and desist” letters prove we are not imagining a crisis.
- Would you buy a house you could not sell?
- Would you buy a boat or car you could not sell?
- Would you pay $25,000 to over $500,000 to join a country club you can’t quit?
According to Bankrate
Avoid developer financing
Lenders won’t mortgage a time share because they haven’t been successful in resales or in their valuation, says Patricia Hayhurst, mortgage consultant for Capital Bank in Coral Gables, Florida. “They are considered high-risk lending.”
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/loans/timeshare-loans-primer.aspx
Our own Lisa Ann Schreier was quoted in the article.
“Most (consumers) I hear from are using the developer’s financing as they are unaware of any other alternatives,” says Lisa Ann Schreier, founder of the consumer consulting company Timeshare Insights in Clermont, Florida. “If a consumer can obtain a personal loan (elsewhere) for the time share, the interest rate can be significantly lower as typical developer financing runs 15% to 19%.”
The problem is this is how sales are made. “When you get home, get a home equity loan,” is a common suggestion as it gets the developer off the hook once the buyer realizes they cannot afford the timeshare. Rather than sign off on a high interest rate loan on the spot, demand that you have time to check with your bank or credit union to find out if such statements are true and if you qualify.
Financial journalist Robert Shaw in his 2016 Seeking Alpha article, “Does timeshare need a millennial act to attract new buyers?” questions the industry’s over reliance on upgrading or up-selling existing buyers.
Since an existing owner is familiar and already pleased with the product, sales to existing owners are typically much easier to close. It is hard to visualize an existing owner who is totally dissatisfied with their current ownership sitting through a 90-minute sales tour.
Based on the accounts heard by those reaching out to Inside Timeshare, the reason the upgrade is easy to close, is because of deception on the front end of the timeshare sales, offering buy-back and resale programs that do not exist, or ways to offset maintenance fees to those already financially burdened that do not exist.
Mr. Shaw also feels timeshare is no longer sold as an investment. Yes it is. Buy now because the price is going to double refers to the retail price, not the resale price, yet over and over we hear this repeated as the reason the member purchased additional points. Not one member who has contacted Inside Timeshare realized their contract was perpetual and there was no secondary market.
Timeshare is definitely not a real estate investment and apart from the occasional overzealous sales associate, timeshare companies long ago stopped pitching it as such an investment. Yet, its lack of being a real estate investment may make it less attractive to newer, younger buyers who are wanting value and the ability to sell it when they no longer want or need it.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/3991819-timeshare-need-new-act-attract-millennial-buyers
At least Mr. Shaw questions the concerns expressed by timeshare insiders. Most financial news services merely want to justify the buy on the stock price.
The Foreclosure process is gruesome. There will be threatening calls and the hit on your credit score. We are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice, but the Nolo article about timeshare foreclosure is one of the best articles I’ve read on the subject. Many have tried to resolve issues with their resort, but the oral representation clause reigns.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/options-avoid-timeshare-foreclosure.html
A good number of those reporting back to us that their resort will not cancel their loan, despite alleged deception on the front end of the sale, has led to many indicating they will not be paying their 2018 maintenance fees. They have no choice because they cannot afford the timeshare. Do not respond to the ads appearing when we publish our articles asking for upfront money to get you out of your timeshare.
I question how the industry can survive. Almost all of the members contacting us have children and grandchildren. Although there is a bit of a role reversal with several parents telling us, “We haven’t told our kids about this”, many have, and those children and grandchildren want nothing to do with the timeshare product once they learn their parents were deceived into buying it.
Please continue to report your grievances. In the book The Burglary by former Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger, describing the break-in at the FBI office in late 1970 that led to the exposure of J Edgar Hoover’s illegal surveillance tactics, led by a Haverford College physics professor at the Media, PA FBI office. Gloria Steinem wrote as a testimonial:
“Ordinary people have the courage and community to defeat the most powerful and punitive of institutions.”
Timeshare today is broken. When sales agents can lie and laugh about it, at the expense of the young and the old, financially devastated by their vacation plan, something is very wrong. Lawmakers, heavily influenced by the industry, don’t seem to care because timeshare buyers don’t typically buy a timeshare in the state they live in. Attorneys General try to protect the public, but the settlements achieved are mere speed bumps in extraordinary revenue streams.
Add your voice to the growing number of timeshare members who have had enough. Contact Inside Timeshare or one of these self-help groups if you have had enough of the hamster wheel called timeshare sales if deceit has been used to sell the product, foreclosure to retrieve it, and resale at full price to continue the never ending process.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/
https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/
So there we have it, no resale or secondary market equals foreclosure, what a state of affairs.
In Europe we are seeing the proliferation of the bogus claims companies, these are playing on the desperation of those who want out but are unable to do so. It may be the resorts or developers will not allow them out, it may be they are unable to sell due to no market, it used to be bogus resale companies that took owners for thousands, how times have changed or have they?
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