Selling or returning timeshare - mortgage paid off

tdotedot

Hi all, I posted this message previously in a thread about a different timeshare company (can't post the link as I'm a newbie!) but I think this area might be a more relevant place to post. Here is the situation, I'd be very grateful for any help or advice:

I'm trying to help my mum who bought a Bluegreen Resorts timeshare in Florida in 2005 and is close to retirement now and cannot afford the flights to use the points. She hasn't had much success in swapping the points, nor in renting them via Bluegreen's own system, so she hasn't covered any of her costs and just loses the money she pays for the maintenance every year.

I've been trying to look into ways of getting rid of the timeshare, she's already listed it on some websites where people can buy them but there doesn't seem to be any demand for this. I was wondering whether she could just give it back, but apparently the company won't let her although I don't think she's put a lot of pressure on them as phone calls are expensive - they are an American company based in Florida.

I've read a few threads in various places and can't see a way out of this at all, the maintenance fees are £800 per year and she's getting nothing back for them. She's paid off the cost of the points so it's just the maintenance fees that are ongoing.

Can anyone suggest any options? Are there any legal avenues I could explore - writing letters, threatening legal action or referral to ombudsman or US equivalent etc? I don't think she'd mind getting nothing in return for it if it meant she could stop paying the fees.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Tdot

poppy10_2

tdotedot wrote: »

Are there any legal avenues I could explore - writing letters, threatening legal action or referral to ombudsman etc?

What kind of legal action?What do you think the company have done wrong here?

geoffky

you have to do what all others have done..sell it back to them for £200 and they resell in resort for 10k again,,its been going on for years...unlucky..

tdotedot

Thanks both, it's good to get some feedback, I have been feeling very alone about this issue.

Poppy10 - in terms of what the company have done wrong, I am not a lawyer so I don't know if any laws are violated when a company refuses to allow you to give back a timeshare and stop paying maintenance fees. I have read elsewhere that a contract which effectively says "you will pay us as much as we want to charge you in fees forever and you have no way out of it" could be unlawful if they refuse to take back the timeshare, but I don't know. That is why I was posting on here, to see if anyone else knew anything about it. I was not meaning to imply that they had definitely violated laws, just speculating that they might have done and seeing if anyone else had knowledge of similar cases or anything which I could use as leverage to agree a way for them to take the timeshare back.

Geoffky - thanks for your response, I hope she can actually sell it back to them even for a hugely discounted price as you suggest. My fear is that they will just refuse, I don't really see what's in it for them to buy (or take) it back - they have a guaranteed income stream of maintenance fees by making her keep ownership and not allowing the return of the timeshare at all, whereas if she gives it back they just have yet another timeshare on their books to add to all the others they haven't sold. I have been trying to sell it for her but of course nobody wants to buy it outside of the pressure selling situation they put her in, so selling/giving it back to them does seem to be the only way out.

SouthCoast

Information from CAB on timeshare.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_world/travel/timeshare_and_holiday_clubs.htm

As the property is in Florida try posting on USA Consumer Forums.

geoffky

search google and i think you will find like minded people like your parents ,this is not going to be easy to do but i think you can get rid off them...good luck