A supposed timeshare resale company with a seemingly reputable website has been found to be luring customers under a false sense of security. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has warned timeshare owners to stay well clear of the Resort Property Management based in Georgia, whom also have another address in Scotland. Their website can be found at this address http://resortpropertymgmt.com/.
In the past year there have been over 120 complaints to the BBB that Resort Property Management is advertising that they can rent out your timeshare property relatively easily and hassle free to a database of corporate and professional clients that they have, whom rent weeks for work and placements etc. They then take a deposit, or a ‘fee’ for advertising on the website.
The properties go on the website, up until this stage, everything seems legit, however, after 90 days, the clients are not hearing anything, RPMs clause in their contract states that they will advertise for another 90days free. However, after the 180 days the adverts are taken back off the website.
One such client to suffer from this sham is Donnell Josiah, an owner of a studio in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley Timeshare resort. He received a call from the company claiming what they could advertise the rental for etc, Josiah checked out the website, and all seemed genuine enough, so he went ahead with the thought that it may at least help with the maintenance of the timeshare, and why not make something from it when he wasn’t using it.
Josiah paid a total of $1899 to Resort Property Management to advertise his studio weeks that he wasn’t using. After 3 months of not hearing a thing, he then called the company to ask what was going on, to which they told him that they nearly had a contract signed with a client, but in the end it had fallen through. Each time over the following 18 months he was given a different story as to why his property had not been rented even for 1 week.
“They kept transferring me from one person to another and they were not taking ownership of the commitment they made to advertise the property and satisfy the payment for the rental property”, Josiah said.
Eventually he got agitated at the wait for it to rent, and the monies he had already outlaid and was point blank refused any kind of refund. It has also been double checked that this company has been reported for being misleading, and we can confirm that the Georgia Department of Law’s Consumer Protection Unit is investigating the company at this present moment.
It would be interesting to hear who owns the website, on investigating this, it all seems to have been registered under a private unnamed person, with an address in Arizona. Please, just be aware that there are many companies out there who will try to scam you, always check with a third party to find out if they are legitimate, or not under investigation.
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