# [10/2008] Your Right to Cancel



## Defcon1 (Oct 27, 2008)

I just wanted to throw my comments in about the right to cancel and how it works.   I have been a Banker for 25 years dealing with rescission.    What I am about to add here pertains to purchases in the US.   This is geared to newer people who maybe don't know how this works. 

Congress passed legislation that was designed to give folks a little cooling off period - or some time to change their mind after signing something like a home refinance or a timeshare purchase.   The law was called Truth in Lending and it covers many many aspects of consumer credit transactions including a buyers right to cancel certain types of transactions.   The Truth In Lending Act implementation was delegated by congress to the Federal Reserve to write the actual regulations from the Truth In Lending legislation.   The Federal Reserve called these regulations "Reg Z" hence you'll often hear about reg z   disclosures when you are involved with a consumer type credit transaction.    Reg Z also defines how rescission works.  

The rules are in determining your cooling off period are very simple.  If you follow these rules, you will be covered 100% of the time.     Reg Z says that you must be given 3 days as your rescission period.   The three days (1) do not include the day you sign (2) exclude public holidays and (3) exclude Sundays.   Often there is confusion about Saturday and whether it is a rescission day.   Under Reg Z, Saturday counts as a valid rescission day whether or not the company is open for business.   It's a business decision whether the company wants to include it or but the law says Saturdays count.  

So for example,  you sign on a Thursday.    Your rescission days UNDER REG Z would be Friday, Saturday and Monday whether the company is open or not.  Your period ends midnight on Monday night.  At 12:01 am Tuesday morning, you are out of rescission.   Now if the company does not consider Saturday a valid rescission day, you'd just have one additional day to the rescission period.  It's in your favor so no harm.   In the above example, assume Monday is a public holiday.   Then your rescission period would be Friday, Saturday and Tuesday (Sundays and public holidays are excluded).  Your rescission would end Tuesday at midnight.  On Wednesday 12:01 am you are through rescission. 

The consequences to not giving you a valid rescission are this:  if a court of law / jury were to determine you were not provided a proper rescission period, you are allowed to rescind the contract at anytime up to the time you are provided a a proper three day rescission.  So if you prove you did not have a valid rescission say six months or a year out, you can rescind and get all your money back.  If you are provided a recsission and you sign saying you had your three days even if the recsission took place six month later, you'd no longer be able to rescind for  not getting  valid rescission period.  The acid test a court will use if the rescission notice is disputed is to look at what day the trust deed was notarized and what day the deed recorded.   If the deed recorded before the three days were up regardless of the rescission notice, you'd likely be able to rescind.   The law was designed to give people three days.  It's in defensible if they record the deed before your rescission is up.   If you sign and they record prematurely, you can get out of it.    Mailing their rescission notice during the the rescission period is deemed a valid rescission.   If you need to do it, I'd send a copy regular mail and a second copy registered.   Keep copies of the evelope showing the address and postage affixed and it would be hard for them to deny they didn't get either.   The reason I'd send one regular mail is they may refuse to sign for the registered letter as a delaying tactic.  

The rescission period in not waivable except in the case of an bonefide emergency.   Most companys will not waive the three day period for fear a people will later contend they did not a get a valid three day waiting period even though they said it was an emergency.  I doubt buying a vacation TS would ever fall into that category.  TS's many have longer periods I don't know but the above guidelines are Federal minimums.  Since they are federal regs they apply in all states.:whoopie:


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## gmarine (Oct 27, 2008)

Most, if not all states have a rescission period on timeshare purchases that is longer than 3 days.


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## Defcon1 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Good point*

I just posted a reply to somebody who had 7 days.   I noted that the above is the federal minimums and the states can make them more stringent if they desire.  The federal regs give every body a bare minimum.  I'd guess there are some state that don't have evolved consumer protection laws so that would mean the Federal guidlines prevail.   

Thanks for addition info.  There seems to be lots of confusion of this.  I wonder if there's a web site that has all the state minimum rescissions posted?   Something for me to look at.


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## gmarine (Oct 27, 2008)

Truth in Lending also only applies if you finance the purchase.


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## tigs2000 (Oct 28, 2008)

*Best way to note your cancellation?*

My contract says to send a letter via certified mail.  We are sending it today but I want to make sure it has the correct information within it.  Can I simply say that we wish to cancel the contract we signed on the specfic date?  Is there other information that needs to be included?
Thanks!


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## Defcon1 (Oct 28, 2008)

*Rescission*

If you received a rescission notice with your contract, use that to rescind.  Send a copy registered and I'd mail a copy regular mail.    There's nothing you need to do but sign the line of the form that says I wish to cancel this transaction.   I'd be sure to have all signers on the contract sign the rescission notice.  You can also ask for a delivery receipt from the US Post Office on the non-certified letter you send.  That means the Post office will give you a receipt with a date stamp which will serve as proof that you mailed it.  Ebayers do it all the time - registered mail is expensive so they do delivery receipts and it seems to stand up to scrutiny when the buyer says it was never mailed.  The seller produces the receipt showing the date it was mailed.   chances are they will sign for the registered copy and it's a  done deal.   The extra copy in regular mail with a delviery receipt is maybe overkill.  It's up to you.   I can only tell you that when I worked hard money lending in the 80's, there's were times when we would not sign for the registered letter.  We knew what it was.   "Sorry the deed recorded and we never got your letter".   Then what? 

If they did not provide a notice, I'd write a letter being sure to state your info like name and address etc.  Refererence the contact date and amount and who it's with and write clearly that your are rescinding the contract.  Date and sign it.    

So you might have something that looks like this 

October 28 2008 

Suzie and John Smith 
123 Main St
River City, Ca 99999

Timeshare Scammers is notified that we the purchasers of the the XYV resort contract # 124666 dated Oct 25 2008 executed at 3456 Local Way, Johnsonville in the amount of $12,000 hereby rescind the contract.   

__________    _____
Suzie  Smth     Date 

_________      ____
John Smith      Date

No explanation is required.


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## Dave M (Oct 28, 2008)

Your advice to send a timeshare purchase cancellation via registered mail is not necessarily best. It's very important to precisely follow the recision instructions included in the contract. Some states, for example, allow only certifed (not registered) mail or hand delivery as acceptable methods for cancellation. Nevada is such a state (http://leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-119A.html#NRS119ASec410)

And for your info, here are some samples of timeshare purchase recision time periods allowed by the most popular timeshare states, along with a few others:

Arkansas – 5 days
Arizona – 7 days
California – 7 days
Colorado – 5 days
Florida – 10 days
Georgia – 7 days, excluding weekends and holidays
Hawaii – 7 days
Iowa – 5 days
Illinois – 5 days
Louisiana – 7 days
Massachusetts – 3 days
Maryland – 10 days
Maine – 10 days
Missouri – 5 days
New Hampshire – 5 days
New Jersey – 7 days
New Mexico – 7 days
Nevada – 5 days
New York – 7 days
Oregon – 5 days
Pennsylvania – 5 days
Rhode Island – 5 business days
South Carolina – 5 days
South Dakota – 7 days
Tennessee – 10 days
Texas - 5 days
Utah - 5 days
Virginia - 7 days
Washington - 7 days
Wisconsin - 5 business days


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## Defcon1 (Oct 29, 2008)

*Thanks*

Thanks Dave.  I think you right to follow the instructions in the rescission notice or contract.   That would always be the best thing.  I guess I assummed there were none from the post but there probably are in the contract.  

I am going to save the rescission days in your post.  That's valuable info to me.   Where did you find all the states?  Or have you just gathered those from experience and posts?  It's would be great to be able to post them periodically since tere are some many quetions about cancelling 

Keith


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## e.bram (Oct 29, 2008)

Your comments deal only with the statutory review period. I believe selling someone something for thousands of dollars which imediatley(sp?) is worth pennies(or nothing) is fraud. "Fraud in the inducement" is cause to cancel a contract. In a jury trial, the jury will probably find for the consumer. 
The best shot a TS buyer would have would be in New Jersey which has tough consumer fraud laws(treble damages) with Wyndham(headquartered in NJ) witha NJ resident.


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## rod (Oct 29, 2008)

Some additional rescission information for various states that I have collected over the past few years.  I cannot guarantee that all this is up-to-date, but this information might be of interest to you.

Alaska - 15 days
Arizona - 7 calendar days
British Columbia - 7 days
Connecticut - 72 hours
Florida - 10 calendar days
Georgia - 7 days, Sundays and holidays excepted
Hawaii - 7 days
Illinois - 5 calendar days
Indiana - 72 hours, excluding Sundays and legal holidays
Iowa - 5 business days
Kentucky - 5 business days - must be postmarked before midnight of fifth business day
Maine - 10 calendar days
Michigan - 5 days
Minnesota - 5 days
Missouri - 7 business days - must be postmarked before midnight of seventh business day
Nevada - 5 calendar days
New Jersey - 7 calendar days
New York - 7 business days
Ohio - 3 days
Ontario - 10 days
South Carolina - 5 days, not including Sunday if that is the fifth day
South Dakota - 7 calendar days
Utah - 5 calendar days  
Virginia - 7 calendar days
West Virginia - 10 days
Wisconsin - 5 business days - must be postmarked before midnight of fifth business day

NOTES-

A business day in Missouri is "Any day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday."

In Rhode Island the rescission period used to be 3 days.  In 2005, bills were submitted to the state legislature to increase the rescission period to 10 days (House Bill 5503, Senate Bill 483).  ARDA successfully lobbied to have the bills amended to a rescission period of 5 days before they were passed and became law.  This information came from ARDA, and is an example of how ARDA looks out for the interests of timeshare buyers - remember this when you include your voluntary contribution, or not, to ARDA when you pay your maintenance fee.

In Utah, "In computing the number of calendar days, the day on which the contract is signed and legal holidays are not included."


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## Defcon1 (Oct 29, 2008)

*Thanks for the addtional info*

Thanks Rod.   Between the two posts I think it covers most of the states I'd be interested in. 

Tug is a treasure trove of information.  I have a post about a fixed versus a floating week elsewhere on Tug and can't believe all the great info - probably items I would have overlooked.    

K


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## Bill4728 (Oct 29, 2008)

So, Indiana, Ohio & Massachusetts, have 3 days to rescind. All other states look to have at least 5 days.


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## theo (Oct 30, 2008)

*A good "sticky" topic?*



Bill4728 said:


> So, Indiana, Ohio & Massachusetts, have 3 days to rescind. All other states look to have at least 5 days.



Since the state rescission deadline information is apparently already right here, any chance that a "sticky" could be created by TUG site "poohbahs" itemizing the states? That would be much easier for folks to locate later than having to individually conduct a site search for the posts --- and still maybe not find them. 

If so, any reference to "days" should be specifically preceded by either "calendar" or "business", since they are not the same and the distiction between the two is critically important. Having no such specific prefix just renders the "days" number incomplete...


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## itgrafix (Jun 27, 2009)

*cancel a rtu in mexico*

What about Mexico, but have had for a year, it's a RTU membership but the company is in breach of contract. I have emailed to cancel but yet to hear from them


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## theo (Jun 27, 2009)

*Good luck...*



tgrafix said:


> What about Mexico, but have had for a year, it's a RTU membership but the company is in breach of contract. I have emailed to cancel but yet to hear from them



I am not an expert on the matter (...and I don't play one on TV), but I think you can rest assured that "email" alone (to be received by God only knows who, if anyone at all) is highly unlikely to be acted upon --- maybe not even acknowledged --- particularly a year *after* purchase.
The original cancellation instructions in your contract surely made no reference whatsoevr to "email" as an acceptable avenue of rescission in the first place --- and it's now a year later.    

You assert "breach of contract", but with all due respect that is not really your determination to make and proclaim on your own at this point. However, if you believe that to be the case, you should certainly contact PROFECO (the Mexican entity which is probably your only hope at this point) and submit your facts and documentation in support of your "breach of contract" claim. You can easily find full details and address for PROFECO with a little use of the TUG "search" feature. You have an uphill climb ahead of you a full year after purchase, but I still wish you luck.


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## calgarygary (Jun 27, 2009)

tgrafix, you mention that the company is in breach of contract and I certainly hope you mean the written contract and not anything you were told by a salesperson.  Verbal agreements/admendments will be very difficult to prove and the written contract will almost certainly hold precedent in any legal proceeding.


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## itgrafix (Jul 1, 2009)

*Guess I'm lucky*

Well I'm free now... though I have till end of July to reconsider if I want to remain a member... hmmm?? I dunno

WOOOHOOO

I guess I just got super lucky! TIMESHARE FREE... never again. I am selling it though until the last day, so if someone wants to pick one up for dirt cheap they could. :whoopie: 


:hysterical:


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## calgarygary (Jul 1, 2009)

tgrafix said:


> Well I'm free now... though I have till end of July to reconsider if I want to remain a member... hmmm?? I dunno
> 
> WOOOHOOO
> 
> ...



This post has me a little worried for you.  Either you are out of the contract or not.  They can't release you from the contract but you still have the ability to sell your ts.  Once again, I hope that you have received your release in writing, not verbally as Mexican timeshares are notorious for saying anything to keep their sale alive.


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## somerville (Jul 1, 2009)

Defcon1 said:


> If you received a rescission notice with your contract, use that to rescind.  Send a copy registered and I'd mail a copy regular mail.    There's nothing you need to do but sign the line of the form that says I wish to cancel this transaction.   I'd be sure to have all signers on the contract sign the rescission notice.  You can also ask for a delivery receipt from the US Post Office on the non-certified letter you send.  That means the Post office will give you a receipt with a date stamp which will serve as proof that you mailed it.  Ebayers do it all the time - registered mail is expensive so they do delivery receipts and it seems to stand up to scrutiny when the buyer says it was never mailed.  The seller produces the receipt showing the date it was mailed.   chances are they will sign for the registered copy and it's a  done deal.   The extra copy in regular mail with a delviery receipt is maybe overkill.  It's up to you.


Please note there is a distinction between Registered Mail and Certified Mail, even though your post mixes the two.  The cost of mailing an item by Registered Mail is much more that mailing it via Certified Mail.  Registered Mail is normally used to mail items that have a high dollar value, such as jewelry and stock certificates.  You can insure a Registered Mail item.  Certified Mail, on the other hand, is what most states require for mailing rescission notices.  Most people pay extra for a Return Receipt Requested service, although it is usually not required.  It doesn't matter whether the recipient signs for the the mailed item, as the rescission is generally effective the date it was mailed.


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## theo (Jul 1, 2009)

*Splitting hairs...*



somerville said:


> ...the rescission is generally effective the date it was mailed.



Date "mailed", more specifically, being date "*postmarked*"....


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## itgrafix (Jul 11, 2009)

*Release and assignment form?*

I am waiting to get  *release and assignment form* from corporate offices, does anyone know if I can download or somehow get this form on my own to mail to the office myself?

For whatever reason, I'm not getting any contact now. I do have an email message stating they will honor the request.


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