Consequences of not paying maintenance fees for non citizen

[mbc99]

Hi all,

We're a non-American family (non citizens and not based in the US).

My grandparents bought a week of Diamond Resorts timeshare in Orlando, FL, back in 1999, when it was still Sunterra. The loan has been paid in full and all maintenance fees are paid to date.
My grandfather passed away in 2007, and my grandmother is now 90 years old and no longer able to travel. The timeshare is still in both their names, and it seems no one in the family will want to inherit the timeshare in the future. She has been paying the maintenance fees and getting no benefit from them at all. Often her THE Club points just expire and that's it. Exchange rates, flight tickets and now the coronavirus make it all but impossible for the rest of the family to use the points, and we're all very bad at doing any exchanges via Interval as well. Long story short, it's just a money hog at this point.

We have been told by DRI that after my grandmother passes and if no action is taken, the contract would eventually cancel on its own due to unpaid fees.

That then begs the question... Would anything bad happen if we stopped paying the maintenance fees now? My grandmother has no US social security number, thus no credit score to be affected. Our main concern is having any legal consequence that could affect issuing of American travel or residence visas for family members (children and grandchildren) in the future.

We're just weighing in our options at this point, but any thoughts from you TUG gurus would be highly appreciated!

Cheers!


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[csalter2]

There would be no consequences to family members. If you’re from England, you’re actually able to give up your timeshare at age 70 or 75 anyway without issue. Just stop paying maintenance fees and move on. There will be no penalty.

 

[mbc99]

That's encouraging, thanks so much for the answer! But no, we're not from England, so can't rely on that one...

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[Passepartout]

Just stop paying. Nothing can happen- even if the grandparents or their children are US citizens or residents. DRI may send some collection letters, but just drop them in the trash. Upon the passing of the owner(s), and during the probate process (that's the 'cleaning up' of the decedents' financial affairs), a letter along with a copy of a death certificate and a statement that no heir wants the property would be the end of it. There is a chance that DRI would just get tired of making collection efforts long before then and give up.

In these days of Covid-19, record unemployment, and illness, their timeline for collecting 'bad debt' is much shorter.

Jim

 

[pedro47]

Sounds liked some good suggestions by Passepartout.