Transfer America, Time Share Cure [Didn't transfer deed out of my name]

[simiral]

Transfer America, time share relief, is company that does not stand behind their written commitments to pay all fees after the contract is signed, even though it is on the contract and their web. site.
After 18 months taken them to be ready to transfer my time share, they are now asking me to pay maintenance fee, they are responsible for.
Do not deal with this company.

 

[ace2000]

Transfer America, time share relief, is company that does not stand behind their written commitments to pay all fees after the contract is signed, even though it is on the contract and their web. site.
After 18 months taken them to be ready to transfer my time share, they are now asking me to pay maintenance fee, they are responsible for.
Do not deal with this company.

Just curious, what have you paid them so far?

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

Transfer America, time share relief, is company that does not stand behind their written commitments to pay all fees after the contract is signed, even though it is on the contract and their web. site.
After 18 months taken them to be ready to transfer my time share, they are now asking me to pay maintenance fee, they are responsible for.
Do not deal with this company.

I would say that as long as the deed remains in your name then you are responsible for all maintenance fees and real estate taxes.

Did you have your own Attorney examine any documents that you were requested to sign?

Here's hoping you can get this resolved to your satisfaction.....




.

 

[pacodemountainside]

Did you just sign their quit claim deed form and give them a couple thousand or a few years MF? Did you ever go to County Clerk/Deed Recorder or resort to verify transfer?

If they did not record deed to themselves or a Viking Ship you are probably on the hook.

You can consult an attorney and find exactly where you stand but generally these outfits are judgment proof!

 

[Passepartout]

You would not be the first person who paid some entity to 'get them out' of their timeshare who found out after the fact that they still own it, are responsible for MFs and now have late and reinstatement fees on top of it, and the outfit they paid has either refused to honor their contract or has simply disappeared.

It's a cesspool out there in the timeshare relief scam world.

Jim

 

[theo]

Did you just sign their quit claim deed form and give them a couple thousand or a few years MF? Did you ever go to County Clerk/Deed Recorder or resort to verify transfer?

If they did not record deed to themselves or a Viking Ship you are probably on the hook.

Many PCC's merely have their "client" sign a limited Power of Attorney, not a deed (right when the client pays the PCC a few grand for the PoA "privilege"), thereby authorizing the PCC to try to find a new owner, while the PCC never actually prepares or records a new deed in their own name at any point in the meantime. There are exceptions, but those exceptions are precious few in number...

The worst case scenario (which actually occurred in Georgia about two years ago now) is that the PCC just suddenly folds up tent and flat out disappears, obviously ceasing to even further bother to try to sell the timeshares under their PoA wing. And, as you've correctly pointed out, take a guess who then still owns the timeshare and its' mf obligations, all that time and money later?

 

[bogey21]

Did you have your own Attorney examine any documents that you were requested to sign?

Are you kidding? Have you ever attended a PCC Seminar? If so, you would know that those who do aren't accompanied by an attorney; sign (and pay) on the spot; and have blind faith that the PCC will perform. That's the reality of it.

George

 

[bogey21]

You can consult an attorney and find exactly where you stand but generally these outfits are judgment proof!

In this situation the best thing to do is verify that the Week is still in your name; if it is, pay the MF; and concentrate on getting rid of the Week. Money paid to an attorney in this situation will be money down the drain.

George

 

[Ridewithme38]

Here's a question...If you DO have a contract that states they are taking the deed out of your name and putting it in theres.....Can't YOU just record the new deed?

Sure it'll cost money...But it'll be cheaper then having to pay MF's

 

[Carolinian]

You might even have a problem if there is a recorded deed. Many, many of the PCC deeds from their clients I have seen recorded in North Carolina are not valid to pass title. Whether this is deliberate or just reflects the total incompetence of the closing companies they use, I do not know. On any of those, however, the HOA could tell the owner correctly that what purports to be a deed out of their name is a worthless piece of paper and they still own the timeshare. I would avoid the PCC's like the plague.

 

[pacodemountainside]

After rereading OP apparently did not quit claim deed to the scammer , just signed ye olde advertising contract which with $5.00 will get a Starbucks or a couple cold beers during happy hour!

No way can one record a contract to try and sell their property with County Clerk. They record deeds, DECs, covenants, liens, encumbrances, easements, etc.

I went to one of these PCCs out of curosity. They did do a quit claim deed, but when I wanted our signatures notarized and Title Comany who did closing on my house to hold money until they produced new deed in their name said not the way it works.

The only way to deal with strangers and money is involved is to have disinterested third party hold the funds. Scammers immediately hang up or disappear. Or meet in bank lobby with cash and all paperwork and a notary is handy!

Actually, good advice when dealing with family, friends, relatives, drinking buddies, co-workers, etc.

 

[friedshrimp]

Timeshare owner for many years but obviously not up on all the terminology. What's a PCC?

 

[Carolinian]

PCC = Post Card Company, an entity that seeks to get suckers to pay them ~$3,000 per week to take their timeshare off of their hands.

The OP really needs to press complaints with the Consumer Protection Division of the State AG where the PCC is located, and where the transaction with him took place (both!) and with the state Real Estate Commission in the state where the timeshare is located.

I love seeing these scoundrels put out of business!

 

[theo]

I agree, but...

I love seeing these scoundrels put out of business!

It seems that rather than getting "put out of business", some PCC's are somehow clearly managing to actually proliferate instead.

Without overtly naming company names (I'm not going to provide any of these parasites with inadvertent free advertising), the single location of Torrance, CA, for one very specific example, seems to continually produce "new" PCC's (with some common principal player names). It seems almost as though some sort of "mutant cell division and replication" process is taking place...

 

[rickandcindy23]

It seems that rather than getting "put out of business", some PCC's are somehow clearly managing to actually proliferate instead.

Without overtly naming company names (I'm not going to provide any of these parasites with inadvertent free advertising), the single location of Torrance, CA, for one very specific example, seems to continually produce "new" PCC's (with some common principal player names). It seems almost as though some sort of "mutant cell division and replication" process is taking place...

Theo, you are absolutely correct. Timeshare Cure is Timeshare Relief. Same MacMillan faces on the website. Why oh why would they start a new company, or many new companies

CJ Timeshares and VINinc are the two big ones whom we have seen actually selling the timeshares the MacMillan companies are taking for the current owners' measly $3-4K per week.

Some timeshares are hard to turn over via eBay. You see a lot of them selling for $1.00, and a lot that never even sell and are just listed over and over again. Eventually, these weeks will be put into a viking ship LLC. That's how it works.

Michael Dunahay of Vacation Solutions, and the former owner of the Sleep House in Evergreen, CO, did that very thing. He abandoned many weeks under the LLC we all knew as Vacation Solutions. He lost his spaceship house a few years ago, and I saw only a fleeting mention of his former business listed in any of the newspaper articles about the house being in foreclosure.

Never knew if he got caught, but it's illegal to intentionally abandon property to an LLC like that. Timeshares being worth $0 were abandoned into that LLC to supposedly protect Dunahay. Some at Twin Rivers were deeded to Vacation Solutions.

Not sure how he lost his house. Coudn't he afford his mortgage payments? Collecting that kind of money from people and then losing one's house seems rather like he walked away from the house on purpose to me.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Here's a question...If you DO have a contract that states they are taking the deed out of your name and putting it in theres.....Can't YOU just record the new deed?

Sure it'll cost money...But it'll be cheaper then having to pay MF's

Record it to what entity? To Timeshare Cure? There has to be acceptance of the deed. I hope the guy has a signed doc before he tries something like that. It could backfire.

It's not quitclaim they use. They use Power of Attorney to convey the deed from one name to another.

 

[nshugg]

Been There Done That

I was offered a timeshare week in Cabo at Playa Grande but told them I wasn't going to buy because I already owned two other timeshare weeks and I wasn't going to own three with the maintenance fees.

NO PROBLEM they said. We will take them as part of the cost of your timeshare week. I thought at the time, don't they need the deeds but in the normal timeshare buying frenzy washed my hands thinking they would handle it.

Lo and behold I am a smart person but extremely dumb in thinking this was a done deal. The next thing I know I'm getting maintenance fee bills again 10 months later. When I called Fairfield I was told, I'm sorry but these deeds are still in your name.

Yes even though Playa Blanca they said they were taking the weeks they did nothing to transfer title or ask me to do the same. I would need to deal with Caribbean Resales. Playa Blanca was out of the picture. So there I am on the phone with Caribbean Resales arguing that they owned my weeks when in fact they didn't.

So now furious to have a $1,000 bill for my 2 previous weeks of Timeshare that I thought I no longer owned, I at least used the exchanges I was still owed for 2 weeks in Kona.

After hearing ads for Legal Zoom I decided to call them. Thank Goodness!

SO HERE'S THE WAY TO DO IT!
Contact legalzoom.com

I've used this online company 3 times now including my mother's will. They are phenomenal. For around $280. they transferred my deeds from the Fairfield Glade Tennessee ownership directly into Caribbean Resales name. They did all the talking, walking, and all of the filing of documents in Tennessee (they have contacts in many states to do their work), they stayed in constant contact with me and when I received all of the notarized documents in a neat concise package on exactly where to mail I forwarded them straight to Caribbean Resales and said: "The two weeks are all yours now". It was literally that simple and I can't say enough about Legal Zoom.

In fact I'm getting ready to use them again to move a piece of real estate from my Mother's name into mine.

Then the fun again. Caribbean Resale contacted me several times and offered my my weeks back for less and less money until it was $1,000. NO THANKS.

Then I started getting maintenance fee bills the next year from Fairfield Glade for the next year. I simply faxed my paperwork designating Caribbean Resales as the "OWNER" and never heard from them again.

Hope this helps out there. Don't spend days trying to figure out how to manage this process yourself; especially when you are dealing with properties in other states. It's a DIY nightmare.

Relieved and now happy with both of my Cabo resorts.

Happy Summer everyone!

 

[ronparise]

I was all set to comment as rickandcindy did that the receiving party has to accept the ownership, and that Wyndham has to recognize it. I was going to say, that if Wyndham didnt recognize the transfer and change their records accordingly you would still get the maintenance fee bill

But then I see that you did, and backed off Wyndham with one fax...This is great news, as it seems i can now just transfer timeshares i dont want to random folks....Where's my phone book? I need some names

My point is, of course, I doubt that this story is over. By the way, did someone pay Wyndham their $299 transfer fee?

I was offered a timeshare week in Cabo at Playa Grande but told them I wasn't going to buy because I already owned two other timeshare weeks and I wasn't going to own three with the maintenance fees.

NO PROBLEM they said. We will take them as part of the cost of your timeshare week. I thought at the time, don't they need the deeds but in the normal timeshare buying frenzy washed my hands thinking they would handle it.

Lo and behold I am a smart person but extremely dumb in thinking this was a done deal. The next thing I know I'm getting maintenance fee bills again 10 months later. When I called Fairfield I was told, I'm sorry but these deeds are still in your name.

Yes even though Playa Blanca they said they were taking the weeks they did nothing to transfer title or ask me to do the same. I would need to deal with Caribbean Resales. Playa Blanca was out of the picture. So there I am on the phone with Caribbean Resales arguing that they owned my weeks when in fact they didn't.

So now furious to have a $1,000 bill for my 2 previous weeks of Timeshare that I thought I no longer owned, I at least used the exchanges I was still owed for 2 weeks in Kona.

After hearing ads for Legal Zoom I decided to call them. Thank Goodness!

SO HERE'S THE WAY TO DO IT!
Contact legalzoom.com

I've used this online company 3 times now including my mother's will. They are phenomenal. For around $280. they transferred my deeds from the Fairfield Glade Tennessee ownership directly into Caribbean Resales name. They did all the talking, walking, and all of the filing of documents in Tennessee (they have contacts in many states to do their work), they stayed in constant contact with me and when I received all of the notarized documents in a neat concise package on exactly where to mail I forwarded them straight to Caribbean Resales and said: "The two weeks are all yours now". It was literally that simple and I can't say enough about Legal Zoom.

In fact I'm getting ready to use them again to move a piece of real estate from my Mother's name into mine.

Then the fun again. Caribbean Resale contacted me several times and offered my my weeks back for less and less money until it was $1,000. NO THANKS.

Then I started getting maintenance fee bills the next year from Fairfield Glade for the next year. I simply faxed my paperwork designating Caribbean Resales as the "OWNER" and never heard from them again.

Hope this helps out there. Don't spend days trying to figure out how to manage this process yourself; especially when you are dealing with properties in other states. It's a DIY nightmare.

Relieved and now happy with both of my Cabo resorts.

Happy Summer everyone!

 

[rrsafety]

it seems i can now just transfer timeshares i dont want to random folks....Where's my phone book? I need some names

My point is, of course, I doubt that this story is over. By the way, did someone pay Wyndham their $299 transfer fee?

Agreed. I'm very interested in how this will turn out. Hope the poster comes back to explain more detail.

 

[Cheryl20772]

Are you kidding? Have you ever attended a PCC Seminar? If so, you would know that those who do aren't accompanied by an attorney; sign (and pay) on the spot; and have blind faith that the PCC will perform. That's the reality of it.

George

Very similar to how it's done in the retail timeshare sales office. People go in blindly and believe every word of the sales person and plunk down tens of thousands of dollars (or commit to huge loans) without having a lawyer check the contract first.

 

[timeos2]

The only surprising thing is that we don't see far more posts from those who paid thousands to this type of crooked operation and got no service. It's likely because they are rightfully embarrassed that they were snookered into such an obvious scam by some slick voice on the phone. Must be tough to swallow.

Best advice: NEVER pay any company thousands to take your ownership. Or even hundreds. If it isn't an individual buyer that will put it in their name using a closing company then walk away. Don't be fooled by a phone call or any guarantees as you would likely find they mean nothing. Stay away from all of these groups. That includes the Timeshare Relief type as well as the ones that claim you can take an (illegal) tax deduction. You will lose if you try to deal with any of them.

 

[theo]

Agreed, but...

The only surprising thing is that we don't see far more posts from those who paid thousands to this type of crooked operation and got no service. It's likely because they are rightfully embarrassed that they were snookered into such an obvious scam by some slick voice on the phone. Must be tough to swallow.

Bear in mind that the vast majority of PCC's conduct (indeed, flat out require) face to face "meetings". It is at the "meeting" that the current deeds get "reviewed", the pockets picked and PoA documents get signed.

My intended point is that you are certainly correct about the "embarrassment factor" you reference, since the PCC victims volunteers have actually been snookered in person, becoming "believers" even after having had the chance to look the devil right in the eye. Frankly, I'd certainly be pretty embarrassed too...

 

[rrlongwell]

... Yes even though Playa Blanca they said they were taking the weeks they did nothing to transfer title or ask me to do the same ... After hearing ads for Legal Zoom I decided to call them ... SO HERE'S THE WAY TO DO IT! Contact legalzoom.com For around $280. they transferred my deeds from the Fairfield Glade Tennessee ownership directly into Caribbean Resales name. "The two weeks are all yours now". It was literally that simple and I can't say enough about Legal Zoom ... Caribbean Resale contacted me several times and offered my my weeks back for less and less money until it was $1,000. NO THANKS ... Then I started getting maintenance fee bills the next year from Fairfield Glade for the next year. I simply faxed my paperwork designating Caribbean Resales as the "OWNER" and never heard from them again ... Hope this helps out there. Don't spend days trying to figure out how to manage this process yourself; especially when you are dealing with properties in other states ...

Was there a written document showing they had agreed to take the units in question back?

 

[theo]

Been there, done that...

Was there a written document showing they had agreed to take the units in question back?

This "trade-in" gig (yes, complete with associated "forms and paperwork", essentially a poorly prepared PoA) is certainly not new, nor is subsequent failure to bother to prepare or record a new deed in another name.

The gig is common in Mexico, and seemingly at Cancun in particular (for reasons that I certainly can't and don't pretend to know or understand). Grupo Mayan definitely has had some direct involvement in this gig there, but GM seems careful not to leave many obvious fingerprints behind.

In essence, the developer assigns grossly inflated figures for the "trade in(s)", supposedly to be applied toward a (...also grossly inflated) developer-direct sale figure. All of the numbers are completely meaningless and bogus, of course, but "the deal" still manages to "hook" the occasional buyer. In effect, the developer is basically giving the buyer nothing for the trade-ins. Shady third party entities then get involved and the "trade-ins" can often (usually?) be found being "dumped" on eBay not long thereafter, listed by an obscure and unknown entity, which obviously gets to keep whatever they can get if they can find a new owner.

I inadvertently benefited directly from one of these shady Mexican gigs just two years ago myself, which is how I learned of all the "inner details" and came to see all of the forms, "trade-in" paperwork and numbers game for myself. I ended up acquiring two very nice back to back Snowbird weeks in coastal SW FL in the same resort / unit, in cooperation with the (U.S. resident) still-owner-of-record, getting new deeds lawfully prepared and recorded in the U.S., directly with the (very grateful) owner of record who thought (incorrectly, as it turned out) that the "trade-ins" were no longer even in his name at all. I made the trade-in weasels an offer they couldn't refuse; "You never took or assigned actual ownership, never paid the U.S. maintenance fees due and left the U.S. owner hung out to dry. Your PoA is crap and meaningless here in the U.S. anyhow. A new deed is being prepared and recorded here in the U.S. I'll pay the delinquent maint. fees myself. Take this few hundred $$ as my voluntary thanks for your not obstructing a proper and legal transfer of ownership here in the U.S. Cashing the check overtly signifies your full understanding and complete agreement that you are to now just go away and don't come back". They did --- and didn't, respectively.

I've enjoyed those two consecutive Snowbird weeks in SW FL in the same unit a lot, each year since.

P.S. Cutting the Mexican "trade-in" parasites right out of the ownership transfer picture and process was relatively easily in that particular instance, because the owner of record, the "traded-in" weeks and the new owner (me) were all right here in the U.S. It would not be as easy to "steamroll" the parasites if the "traded-in" weeks were in Mexico, where the "new" (developer-direct, overpriced) purchase was conducted.