An unfortunate facet of timeshare ownership is the fact that most purchase contracts make no mention of how to terminate ownership. Like many things timeshare can become an unwanted burden when life circumstances change. Generally speaking, a change in financial status may make a once affordable luxury into a problem. It may be retirement, ill health, redundancy or simply age. All of these reasons are often accompanied by a drop or loss of disposable income necessitating changes which may well include trying to exit timeshare ownership, we say trying because developers and resorts place all sorts of obstacles or financial penalties in the way.
The lack of coherent exit strategies
As we stated above, the documentation issued at the point of sale never covers how to get out. If this subject is raised at the point of sale, no doubt the silver tongued sales person will have some glib stock answers such as “you can sell it at a profit” or “you can get out any time you want” and many others, all of which will be untruths.
The reality is that in only a small number of cases we have come across are any exit terms actually committed to print. In this day and age, how can it be that this important information is not only hidden but never committed to print. Companies like Netflix effectively issue lifetime contracts in as much as if you don’t want to cancel you will be contracted forever, however as a respectable company they freely publish their cancellation policy:
- Sign in to Netflix.
- Click the down arrow at the top right of the page, next to your profile name.
- Select the Account section.
- Under Membership and billing, click the gray Cancel membership box.
- Click Finish cancellation to confirm you want to cancel.
Wouldn’t it be nice if timeshare developers adopted the same strategy?
The financial sting
Despite the plethora of developers who fail to allow exit under any circumstance, there are a few who do allow an exit, but at what cost? As a long term timeshare owner you not only paid a not inconsiderable sum to buy in, but you have loyally paid your annual maintenance fees, which incidentally probably went up and up each year, then to exit you have to pay even more!
By way of example, Belton Woods Lodges, a resort in Lincolnshire run by Seasons Holidays do publish their exit strategies, see below:
At least Belton Woods have committed to print but in all cases the reasons given are circumstances where the owner may be in financial distress. Even death of an owner may leave a financial or income loss for the surviving spouse but this doesn’t appear to matter. We think you will agree that the exit terms are rather onerous, but worse still the commonality in all cases is the requirement to pay an additional five years maintenance fees, how can this be fair? So not only do you have to buy in you have to buy your way out!
On research we have established that Macdonald Hotels & Resorts have an exit strategy but try as we did, we could find nothing published on any of their websites.
We uncovered an article in the Scottish Herald from way back with the headline:
“Macdonald Resorts praised for timeshare exit policy”
The article confirms that there is an exit strategy, however, once again it’s a buy out with the requirement for maintenance fees to be up to date then payment of an additional four years maintenance fees, can Macdonald really be praised for this? On the one hand yes, at least they have a an exit strategy. On the other hand, daylight robbery comes to mind.
For every lock there is a key
Consumer concern is considerable surrounding the apparent lock in that most timeshare ownerships have. With no published exit strategies and both developers and resorts side stepping the issue, a feeling of being trapped in something with seemingly no escape is very worrying. With new timeshare sales declining rapidly, it becomes apparent that the reliance on annual maintenance fees is becoming even more important to the developers and resorts, it’s for this reason that locking owners in is both desirable and necessary.
Fortunately for owners who hit the brick wall of intransigence from resorts or developers help is on hand. There are certainly specialist exit companies that can assist in extracting owners from onerous contracts but a word of warning, there are more rogue companies purporting to do the job than those who actually can.
Final thoughts
In all honesty we can’t cite any other industry that has such a draconian way of simply cancelling a contract. For sure many industry contracts may have a cancelation time requirement, some may even have financial penalties but nothing like the way timeshare developers treat their owners if they wish to cancel, or more importantly are even if they are allowed to cancel.
In general we would advise attempting to end ownership on your own could lead to a breach of contract and subsequent legal liabilities. For these reasons we would suggest consultation with a specialist timeshare exit company, but as stated above, be careful because there are more charlatans than expert professional service providers.
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