[2023] Success with getting rid of an Exploria timeshare?

[lilychaos85]

I'm doing research and looking for advice on how to help my mom sell / get rid off timeshare in the Poconos owned by Exploria. It was purchased years age when they were still under treetops and management has since changed and it's been a pain trying to get out of it.

She tried selling, transfering, offering the timeshare to charity but they said no... She also inquired about the deed back but it seems they do not have a program for that.

She has tried not paying but they sent the collectors on her and now she's at her wits end and did some googling and found a "timeshare exit" defense team but i'm skeptical because I have found some questionable things doing my own research.

She had a consultation already and they gave her some discounts where she only has to pay $5,000... she seems willing to do it but I'm skeptical and I hate the idea of a company taking advantage of folks so I'm here trying to look for advice...

1. Should we go ahead with the "timeshare defense team" or do more research and look for a more "reputable" lawyer.. is there such thing as a reputable timeshare exit service?
2. Try our luck and try to sell it?
3. Keep bothering Exploria?

Thanks!

 

[HudsHut]

Welcome Lily:
I'm sorry that your Mother is finding it difficult to get rid of the Exploria.

The most important advice we give is DO NOT PAY AN UPFRONT FEE!! They are all scammers. There is nothing the "defense team" will do except take her money. If you read the contract, it will say they will "market" the timeshare (put it on a website, where no one will buy it.) As soon as they have her money, she will not hear from them again. They move on to the next victim. Show her this AARP article. Note that most of us on TUG would not agree with the last paragraph which says to contact ARDA. Instead, give the incentive and find someone interested in vacation in the area.

How Time-Share Exit Scams Work — and How to Avoid Them

Scammers pretend to help owners get out of their contracts while taking their cash

www.aarp.org

The only possibility is for you to put it on ebay* for $1, offer a free vacation for 2023 (make the reservation for a holiday period when kids are out of school), and offer to give a $300 (?) VISA card to the buyer upon closing. See if you get any bids. (This is still much less than the "exit" company is asking.)
*You can, of course, place an ad, with beautiful pictures in the Free section here, but ebay will get you a wider audience. (start here, and go to ebay if there are no takers here.)

Other than that, there is little choice for her but to stop paying the maintenance fees, and let the management company close down her account. Block all the calls. I wouldn't say this if there were another way.

There are two for sale on Redweek, but the sellers are uninformed, and it will never sell for $5500. It may not sell for $1, without the incentives I mentioned above.

Pocono Mountain Villas Timeshares For Sale | RedWeek

Buy a timeshare directly from Pocono Mountain Villas owners. Resales are almost always 30 - 50% cheaper than buying the same unit from the resort!

www.redweek.com

TimeshareNation.com is giving away weeks at the resort for free:

Timeshare Nation

www.timesharenation.com

 

[lilychaos85]

Welcome Lily:
I'm sorry that your Mother is finding it difficult to get rid of the Exploria.

The most important advice we give is DO NOT PAY AN UPFRONT FEE!! They are all scammers. There is nothing the "defense team" will do except take her money. If you read the contract, it will say they will "market" the timeshare (put it on a website, where no one will buy it.) As soon as they have her money, she will not hear from them again. They move on to the next victim. Show her this AARP article. Note that most of us on TUG would not agree with the last paragraph which says to contact ARDA. Instead, give the incentive and find someone interested in vacation in the area.

How Time-Share Exit Scams Work — and How to Avoid Them

Scammers pretend to help owners get out of their contracts while taking their cash

www.aarp.org

The only possibility is for you to put it on ebay* for $1, offer a free vacation for 2023 (make the reservation for a holiday period when kids are out of school), and offer to give a $300 (?) VISA card to the buyer upon closing. See if you get any bids. (This is still much less than the "exit" company is asking.)
*You can, of course, place an ad, with beautiful pictures in the Free section here, but ebay will get you a wider audience. (start here, and go to ebay if there are no takers here.)

Other than that, there is little choice for her but to stop paying the maintenance fees, and let the management company close down her account. Block all the calls. I wouldn't say this if there were another way.

There are two for sale on Redweek, but the sellers are uninformed, and it will never sell for $5500. It may not sell for $1, without the incentives I mentioned above.

Pocono Mountain Villas Timeshares For Sale | RedWeek

Buy a timeshare directly from Pocono Mountain Villas owners. Resales are almost always 30 - 50% cheaper than buying the same unit from the resort!

www.redweek.com

TimeshareNation.com is giving they away for free:

Timeshare Nation

www.timesharenation.com

Thanks for the response and resoruces

Another thing to add is that the timeshare is paid-off and she is only stuck with maintenance fee. Is that something we can leverage?

I will look into posting ads as you suggested and add benefits to the listing

I read a member here managed to get hold of someone from exploria and they offered a inventory surrender so I will ask her to look into that :: crosses fingers ::

 

[TUGBrian]

yes, working with the resort to give it back (deedback/surrender) is almost always going to be the quickest and easiest solution.

in many cases it can take being very persistent...vs just asking once months or even years ago!

that said, almost all surrender programs require that the account not currently be in default, so if shes already stopped paying that limits her options significantly.


mentioned shes tried selling it and donating it, but has she tried offering it completely free and her paying closing costs?

if so when? and where did she list it?

 

[HudsHut]

@lilychaos85
Contact the member who posted that and see if that person will give you the phone/email used for contact.
Surrendering to the resort would be a good outcome, but going up the chain of command to the person who can authorize it is the difficult part.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

TUG has a "Free Timeshare Giveaway" section. I suggest you post the unit there and see if there is a willing taker.

I know TUG has a few members who will take free Timeshares and then turn around and rent them each year for their own profits. Renting the Timeshare itself each year (or for your mother) "could" be a possible option as opposed to an outright giveaway.

Welcome to TUG and best of luck!




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[MDRandazzo]

Thanks for the response and resoruces

Another thing to add is that the timeshare is paid-off and she is only stuck with maintenance fee. Is that something we can leverage?

I will look into posting ads as you suggested and add benefits to the listing

I read a member here managed to get hold of someone from exploria and they offered a inventory surrender so I will ask her to look into that :: crosses fingers ::

Thanks for the response and resoruces

Another thing to add is that the timeshare is paid-off and she is only stuck with maintenance fee. Is that something we can leverage?

I will look into posting ads as you suggested and add benefits to the listing

I read a member here managed to get hold of someone from exploria and they offered a inventory surrender so I will ask her to look into that :: crosses fingers ::

 

[MDRandazzo]

Would like to see how you are getting along with Exploria. We are trying the process with phone calls. Have you had any luck?

If I find some info out that would get us to our goals of getting out of this situation I will pass them on.

Mary Randazzo

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

Would like to see how you are getting along with Exploria. We are trying the process with phone calls. Have you had any luck?

If I find some info out that would get us to our goals of getting out of this situation I will pass them on.

Mary Randazzo

@lilychaos85 hasn't been on since January 31, 2023 so I doubt you will ever hear back about their experience .........





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[Philliegirl]

Would like to see how you are getting along with Exploria. We are trying the process with phone calls. Have you had any luck?

If I find some info out that would get us to our goals of getting out of this situation I will pass them on.

Mary Randazzo

I have a timeshare at the same resort. We bought before Exploria took over when it was based on rci points. Exploria folks treated us like crappola the last time we went for their spiel, because we wouldn't trade rci for their (Exploria) ownership. Then frankly, we have since been out pointed on a stay there, which would require us to buy more points than allotted. We have a bi-annual ownership and just received our maintenance bill. It contains an additional $2600 because of the upgrades they have done. So I am guessing that annual owners got a bill for $5200. We can ni longer afford it. Any suggestions. It is not a deeded timeshare, so we can not sell it.

 

[LannyPC]

It is not a deeded timeshare, so we can not sell it.

If it's not a deeded timeshare, then it is likely a right-to-use (RTU) or club membership. Either way, your best financial option in this case would be to just stop making any payments and let your membership lapse. You might face a bunch of annoying, harassing collection calls and letters. Also, you might face a hit on your credit score or rating. But I emphasize might.

Many here on TUG have faced a similar situation to yours and come out unscathed.

 

[TUGBrian]

just to be clear, there is nothing about a non-deeded timeshare that makes it unsellable, whoever fed you that line was taking you for a ride.

that said, neither a deeded week or an RTU/trust ownership (if thats what it is) with exploria likely has any value at all, doubly so with the huge fees exploria seems to be charging to many of its owner for 2024.

so when looking at it THAT way, yes its likely your ownership is unsellable (but the same would apply to a deeded week there as well).

your options really come down to trying to negotiate with exploria to let you surrender or end your ownership, or walk away.

 

[Philliegirl]

If it's not a deeded timeshare, then it is likely a right-to-use (RTU) or club membership. Either way, your best financial option in this case would be to just stop making any payments and let your membership lapse. You might face a bunch of annoying, harassing collection calls and letters. Also, you might face a hit on your credit score or rating. But I emphasize might.

Many here on TUG have faced a similar situation to yours and come out unscathed.

Thank you. We are both disabled with limited income, so no matter what the decision is...there is literally nothing we can do. Waiting for a call back from finance. They also gave me an email to send to consumeraffairs@exploriaresorts.com to see if they can help. Tough time of the year to be reaching out to people.

 

[Philliegirl]

Thank you. We are both disabled with limited income, so no matter what the decision is...there is literally nothing we can do. Waiting for a call back from finance. They also gave me an email to send to consumeraffairs@exploriaresorts.com to see if they can help. Tough time of the year to be reaching out to people.

 

[Philliegirl]

Can I also ask if anyone knows if it's legal for a timeshare to charge a Maintenance Fee, which we all know comes with a timeshare, but what is the 2024 Additional Assessment Fee ($2586.61)? If a company buys a business and that said business needs to make repairs and upgrades, isn't that the cost of doing business AND, doesn't the company get to write all that off as a loss at the end of the year on their business taxes? My other question is this: if I am a bi-annual owner (lease) and I am billed for $2586.61, does that mean that Annual owners are getting 2024 Additional Assessment bills for over 5k? Just doesn't seem right. Last year it was over $1300. We can't use it

 

[montygz]

Can I also ask if anyone knows if it's legal for a timeshare to charge a Maintenance Fee, which we all know comes with a timeshare, but what is the 2024 Additional Assessment Fee ($2586.61)? If a company buys a business and that said business needs to make repairs and upgrades, isn't that the cost of doing business AND, doesn't the company get to write all that off as a loss at the end of the year on their business taxes? My other question is this: if I am a bi-annual owner (lease) and I am billed for $2586.61, does that mean that Annual owners are getting 2024 Additional Assessment bills for over 5k? Just doesn't seem right. Last year it was over $1300. We can't use it

How I understand it to work is below. If this is a travel club or some other thing it would likely be different.

Timeshare owners are the owners of the timeshare. They are paying for the repairs and upgrades.

A business may be managing the timeshare for the owners -- arranging for repairs and upgrades and running the resort. They are paid by the timeshare owners to do this. If there are big problems with the resort, the management company would go to the board who represents all the owners to request an additional assessment fee. The board would then decide what to do.

How much you are assessed should be determined by how much of the timeshare you own. Someone who owns two weeks would pay twice as much as someone who owns one.

If you can't afford your timeshare, none of this matters. See what they can offer to help you. If they can't do anything that makes sense, just don't pay.

 

[RV9]

Yesterday I found a thread yesterday on the TUG Facebook group titled "Are people really paying an additional assessment fee of $6,000 for RCI for 2024? Seems outrageous." Disregard the likely misinformed reference to RCI, but in it I found some potentially encouraging advice from a user. He said he phoned Exploria (the phone number on your statement 800-371-8335) and simply told them you want to deed it back, surrender it, whatever. And that the person on line line very quickly took note, said she would pass it to "legal" and they would get the paperwork back in 5-6 weeks. Today I did just that, gave them my information and said I would like to deed back or surrender it saying that the cost is beyond my means and we’re not getting any benefit out of it. Janyla, who I spoke with, said she is sending through my request and to expect an email in 3-4 weeks. I don’t know what the terms will be, but we will see…. Warily hopeful.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Can I also ask if anyone knows if it's legal for a timeshare to charge a Maintenance Fee, which we all know comes with a timeshare, but what is the 2024 Additional Assessment Fee ($2586.61)? If a company buys a business and that said business needs to make repairs and upgrades, isn't that the cost of doing business AND, doesn't the company get to write all that off as a loss at the end of the year on their business taxes? My other question is this: if I am a bi-annual owner (lease) and I am billed for $2586.61, does that mean that Annual owners are getting 2024 Additional Assessment bills for over 5k? Just doesn't seem right. Last year it was over $1300. We can't use it

Get copies and review the charter/organizing papers from your HOA for your RTU. These should have been provided when you purchased the RTU or request from the HOA. Try to get the copy that was in effect when you purchased your TS in case they added draconian language since you purchased but get the current HOA organizing docs if that is all you can get.

Look for the clauses on non-payment. By law many of the RTUs in Europe have a 6 mos - 1.5 year non-payment which gives the HOA the right to take back the RTU certificate and resell as compensation for the non-payment. Perhaps this has the same. Which is what you want.

What is nice is this is not as complicated as a deed to unravel because there is no county deed to file. It is like a golf club or health club membership treated as personal debt vs. real estate. Certainly it can affect your credit but not worth the HOA paying a bunch of lawyers high fees to chase small maint fees - especially if they have many owners walking because of expensive assessment repairs.

With an RTU it is easy for them to retrieve the license if the HOA docs allow and then move on, unlike a deed that must go through foreclosure. They may still try to get payment but you can ignore and may take a credit hit.

Good luck. Please report back to help others.

Note: You cannot rent it out or give it away per the advice above, unless you pay 2024 maint fees to date + assessments (which seem high).

 

[TUGBrian]

I certainly get the impression that exploria expected a good number of members to default or try to surrender back ownerships with those multi-thousand-dollar special assessments!

 

[RV9]

Yesterday I found a thread yesterday on the TUG Facebook group titled "Are people really paying an additional assessment fee of $6,000 for RCI for 2024? Seems outrageous." Disregard the likely misinformed reference to RCI, but in it I found some potentially encouraging advice from a user. He said he phoned Exploria (the phone number on your statement 800-371-8335) and simply told them you want to deed it back, surrender it, whatever. And that the person on line line very quickly took note, said she would pass it to "legal" and they would get the paperwork back in 5-6 weeks. Today I did just that, gave them my information and said I would like to deed back or surrender it saying that the cost is beyond my means and we’re not getting any benefit out of it. Janyla, who I spoke with, said she is sending through my request and to expect an email in 3-4 weeks. I don’t know what the terms will be, but we will see…. Warily hopeful.

I'm thinking of sending an email in to them as well, to summarize and add emphasis to my phone call and to be sure my intent gets forwarded in case the person in billing I spoke with doesn't route it. Does anyone know enough to suggest one of these email addresses over the other? memberservices@exploriaresorts.com (which I found at the Exploria website once I logged in to my owner portal), or HOAownerservices@exploriaresorts.com (which is on my annual billing statement along with that 800 phone number I called)?

 

[CalGalTraveler]

@RV9 Good idea. I don't own these timeshares so cannot advise. Why don't you send to both?

I know you are encouraged but I wouldn't expect much. You basically had a CSR that is probably rated on your happiness with the call and has no impact on your outcome. Get those HOA organizing docs/charter and review.

 

[expoLug]

I'm thinking of sending an email in to them as well, to summarize and add emphasis to my phone call and to be sure my intent gets forwarded in case the person in billing I spoke with doesn't route it. Does anyone know enough to suggest one of these email addresses over the other? memberservices@exploriaresorts.com (which I found at the Exploria website once I logged in to my owner portal), or HOAownerservices@exploriaresorts.com (which is on my annual billing statement along with that 800 phone number I called)?

I emailed member services 2 days ago. Received response that they dont offer buyback or surrender and to contact a reputable company. " For more options to transfer your timeshare, please consider reaching out to a reputable and legitimate timeshare resale company, such as Timeshares Only. Timeshares Only is both trusted by ARDA and accredited by the BBB, with an A+ BBB rating. Timeshares Only is independently owned and operated and has no affiliation with Exploria Resorts, though they are our featured reseller due to their familiarity with our product. Please feel free to contact them directly at 800-218-1993 to discuss their available programs."

I'm thinking of sending an email in to them as well, to summarize and add emphasis to my phone call and to be sure my intent gets forwarded in case the person in billing I spoke with doesn't route it. Does anyone know enough to suggest one of these email addresses over the other? memberservices@exploriaresorts.com (which I found at the Exploria website once I logged in to my owner portal), or HOAownerservices@exploriaresorts.com (which is on my annual billing statement along with that 800 phone number I called)?

 

[TUGBrian]

do you own at the resort with the large assessment? or another exploria resort?

 

[LH#1]

I emailed member services 2 days ago. Received response that they dont offer buyback or surrender and to contact a reputable company. " For more options to transfer your timeshare, please consider reaching out to a reputable and legitimate timeshare resale company, such as Timeshares Only. Timeshares Only is both trusted by ARDA and accredited by the BBB, with an A+ BBB rating. Timeshares Only is independently owned and operated and has no affiliation with Exploria Resorts, though they are our featured reseller due to their familiarity with our product. Please feel free to contact them directly at 800-218-1993 to discuss their available programs."

I'm willing to bet this post came from an employee of Timeshares Only. SMH

 

[LH#1]

I certainly get the impression that exploria expected a good number of members to default or try to surrender back ownerships with those multi-thousand-dollar special assessments!

This may sound like a stupid question but why would they do that? Why bill for these outrageous assessments in the hopes that people default?