My grandparents bought a time share in town, with the idea of trading it with others so they could visit other places. They’re gone, and no one wants it. We get an upkeep bill every year, but this thing is apparently the scam extraordinaire. You pay to get something that keeps billing you and in in fact very few people actually want.
How do we get rid of this without paying someone to take it? Apparently the market is so bad that there is a company that is in the business of being paid to take them. Is it really that bad? Any suggestions?
The right thing to do would have been to refuse to inherit the time-share and let the time-share company make a claim against it (if they even had a claim, seeing as maintenance fees are assessed annually and not the same as debt). If that had meant the inheritance would be reduced to zero, they still might have gotten off better than being stuck with paying time-share fees into perpetuity. Not that it matters–they’ve already been paying the bill for years, so it sounds like it’s too late now.
OP it’s too late to refuse the inheritance. Sell it or pawn it off on somebody else. I believe people sell timeshares through Craigslist. Hell, it sounds like you could give it away for free and come off better than you are now.
Where is “downtown” (what city)? My only experience with being pitched time shares is for vacation resort condos or resort slots, like at Walt Disney World for example, or Caribbean resorts.
TUG is definitely a good place to ask around. Some of those folks have been through the same thing and can offer good advice. One of the forums allows people to offer their timeshares for free if you just want to dump it and be done with it. In some cases, you might have to offer to pay a couple hundred in closing costs. Sometimes a particular property is in demand and you might be able to get a few bucks out of it.
If you can still refuse the inheritance, that may be the best option.
Just make sure of one thing: Don’t pay anyone an upfront fee who promises to take it off your hands. You very well may be dealing with a scammer.
My wife and I got rid of the one she had prior to our marriage by selling it for $0 and paying all the closing costs and we were happy to do it. I think it was to some timeshare purchasing company that just buys them up cheap and cons someone else into buying them later.
My husband bought a timeshare before I met him and it’s the elephant in the room now. He’s tried different ways to get rid of it. We’ve NEVER used it. It’s like the clichéd ball and chain attached to our legs. I wish I knew how to get rid of it and its accompanying maintenance fees. What a scam.
