Pam Bondi, Attorney General in Florida has filed a lawsuit against a corporation she alleges of violating Florida’s Timeshare Resale Accountability Act.
Florida has a specific law for timeshare resales because it has a huge number of properties, whose owners are often desperate to exit or sell on.
In this latest case, Bondi sued Prime Resorts International who are based in central Florida. She alleges the corporation of making unsolicited, cold telephone calls to timeshare owners all over the country, telling them they have a buyer for their timeshare, also guaranteeing the closure of the deal.
Bondi says the corporation then took upfront fees that ranged from $595 all the way up to $4,000. Her suit claims there were no buyers as guaranteed.
The investigation was opened, by the Attorney General, after her office got over 85 complaints and totalling a claimed loss of more than $110,000. The suit pursues a permanent injunction against the corporation and a civil penalty of $10,000 per complaint.
Thousands of timeshare owners were wronged after the financial crisis, when many owners were unable to make payments or out of work. Both state Attorneys General and federal regulators began to pursue companies which abused timeshare resale practices.
A consumer education specialist, Lisa Lake, at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), says timeshare owners receiving unsolicited calls from someone who says they have a buyer ready should listen carefully as this is the first sign of a scam.
Lake says if the broker guarantees a sale but requires payment of an upfront fee, you can bet it’s a scam. In fact, she says timeshare owners should be dubious of any offers of this nature.
In particular, look out for claims that the timeshare you own are “hot” and that they are “overwhelmed” with buyers requesting these weeks. The timeshare market is never “hot,” which is why it takes a high-pressure sales presentation to sell them to start with.
Reputable timeshare resale companies will never make guarantees with regards to timescale or sale.
Scammers rarely provide a sales contract that spells out the terms of the deal, would you list a house without seeing the terms & cinditions?
Finally, the biggest alert of all is the requirement that you pay a listing fee or any upfront fee to advertise.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk