Author: Mark Anderson
1. The Rescission Period.
If you are still within your rescission period then you must follow the proper procedure and cancel it immediately, forever hold your peace. This is where most timeshare owners believed a phone call to the resort stating they wanted to cancel their timeshare was good enough. Unfortunately, phone calls cannot cancel the contract. The demand to cancel the timeshare contract and stop billing must be delivered in writing and must arrive before the last day of the rescission period. If you are mailing it then please send it certified with signature delivery confirmation. No confirmation, no cancellation.
So, you have this wonderful 4 bedroom lock off, but you can never get an open week. Maybe you do not have enough points. There could be 100 different reasons why you cannot book or make the vacation. But in some cases, the inability to travel such as medical conditions, travel restrictions, and job restrictions/or loss. The out of your control restrictions is a viable cancellation solution. The restrictions must be documented or have reported history, but it is a solid cancellation request.
3. Loss of Family, Co-Owners, or Partners.
Most timeshares are purchased in pairs. Meaning couples, lovers, friends, relatives, and business associates. It is rare to find a single person owning a timeshare, but it happens occasionally. With two names being identified as the timeshare owners and one passes away, becomes disabled, placed on active duty and sent overseas, incarcerated, is in medical care, or is not locate-able ownership questions are now in question. The claim of the previous situation has caused the inability to pay me to use the timeshare, sell it, rent it, or upgrade becomes difficult or impossible. This claim to cancel the contract is a strong demand with good results, but it may require proof, such as a death certificate, arrest record, court paperwork, hospital note, etc
4. Unauthorized Transactions, Account Openings, or Credit Cards.
There are many times the timeshare company or its processing partners will automatically ACH payments right out of your account or bill the credit card they sign you up for. Well if these transactions are not disclosed or pre-authorized then charge backs are inclined to happen. In fact, depending on the type of transaction and the level of fraud the salesperson or timeshare company has committed, felonies could be passed out.
5. No Contract, No Signature, No Agreement.
Have you received your contract? Does it have your signature on it? Many timeshare owners never received their contract or copy of the original. Believe it or not, if you just got home and do not have a copy of the contract the resort may not either. Demanding for validation of the contract and investigation of validity can bring immense pressure to the timeshare company. If they cannot provide a contract with your signature it becomes difficult to hold you accountable to this outrageous timeshare.
6. Promises of Value? Profit?, Tax Benefits?
I am sure you were sold on the idea the timeshare increases in value. You may have even been told you can file it on your taxes. Unfortunately, the IRS values timeshares as worthless, and there is no value gained on timeshares. This comes as very disappointing news I am sure. Contesting your contract based on these claims is extremely difficult. Why is that? In the timeshare contract you signed it voids any verbal agreements or promises and only makes what is written in the contract valid or enforceable. In your timeshare contract it states no tax benefit, no resale value, etc. This does not mean you have no valid claim or solid stance in this matter. But it is a long drawn out process and the timeshare company will always direct your demands to the contract stating they never promised the sale, value increase, or tax benefit.
7. Who Am I Paying?
There are many receivables companies out there, and act as a middleman for some of the timeshare companies. You may have heard about some of them. Such as, Equaint Financial, or Resort Funding. These companies take receipt of your timeshare account and manage the payments, collections, foreclosures, disputes, lawsuits, harassment, and whatever else they can do to ensure you keep paying. Most of you probably have no idea these companies are handling your payments. Believe it or not they are even reporting these accounts on your credit report. Wait a minute. I do not have an account with this company. How are they reporting an account I have with them? This seems to be inaccurate. Exactly! Disputing these accounts will force these companies to shut them down and furnish them back to the original creditor, being your timeshare company. Now at this point the timeshare company may send the account back to the receivables firm to engage in the debt collection process. So, your account now has changed multiple hands and the timeline becomes blurry on who and when you are to pay. Well as they continue to change hands they lose the control of the account. We call this chain of title. When this account is disputed, they must show the chain of custody the account had and who had the authority to collect on the account. Who has the right to report it? How has the right to hold your personal information? And so on.
8. Opened Unauthorized Accounts, Credit Cards, Personal Loans.
There are some timeshare owners who had credit card accounts, PayPal accounts, mortgage accounts, and personal loan accounts open without their knowledge or permission. If this is your case, then you have a strong one for cancellation. Filing fraud claims, reporting the accounts, and damages that happened because of these accounts are critical. Resourcing agencies such as the FTC, and Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is the first step in fraud recovery. With fraud on the rise locally and on the web, identity theft, and scammers have targeted every industry. In the timeshare industry fraud claims are taken seriously and must be handled in a certain process.
9. Just Down Right Lied To!
The salesperson just lied right through their teeth. Hook line and sinker, they call it. Over exaggerated benefits of the timeshare you bought overpriced and oversold. But it is extremely hard to prove the lies. Most likely you did not record the salesperson talking. You also signed the contract, and even completed the financial paperwork to finance the timeshare. You may have even been lied to about the financing and told it was in house and ended up with a Barclays card 30 days later in the mail. “Truth in Lending Violation”, or “Consumer Rights Violations”, where most people stomp their feet, and say,” I was lied to and I want to cancel”. This is an angle most timeshare owners use. It does not have great success because it is the most common. It’s like every timeshare owner crying wolf.