Rereading this thread feels like it needs some more granular explanations as so many terms are used very loosely in this space both intentionally and accidentally.
1. if you default on any debt, be it a loan or just your maintenance fees. you can expect SOME effort to get you to pay what you owe. Plenty of owners claim they "never heard from the resort again"...but thats unusual. letters reminding you that you havent paid are perfectly normal and expected.
2. there is a vast chasm of difference between getting a notice of late assessment, notice of default, notice of lien, notice of intent to foreclose....and you being "sued" or "foreclosed on". granted its part of the process, but these notifications exist to get you to pay WITHOUT further action...and they are usually very effective!
3. being turned over to a collections agency is also a possibility where you will then likely get a whole new round of angry sounding notices as THEY now attempt to get you to pay without having to perform any further action other than calls/emails/letters sent, they earn money by getting owners to pay.
all of these activities/attempts cost VERY little in the grand scheme of things and as mentioned above are all tried and true efforts to convince you to pay without the creditor/etc having to put anything more than the bare minimum of cost/time/effort into pursuing a delinquency because these strategies have been proven to work while still abiding by most collections laws (that are quite consumer friendly).
where the rubber meets the road is what happens at step 4 and every situation is different. the main difference for owners is are you defaulting on your annual dues, or a loan balance.
will the resort or collections firm report the delinquency to the credit bureaus?
non payment of mf? unlikely (based on reports, the chances of it NOT happening are greater than it happening just remember its never zero %)
non payment of loan? very likely
will they actually pursue foreclosure?
highly unlikely in any situation because you aren't going to dispute or fight it as you dont want the ownership anyway, foreclosure is time consuming and expensive for the resort, not the owner. After enough time has passed in default, "in lieu" of going thru foreclosure the resort usually makes an effort to contact the owner a final time to negotiate a settlement/agreement that results in the owner willingly signing the deed back over to the resort/developer/association/etc because they know full well that you wanted to give it back in the first place.
will they pursue a judgement(ie suing you for money)?
non payment of mf? unheard of
non payment of loan? unlikely UNLESS you owe enough to make it worth their while to pursue! its likely not worth the time or effort to pursue 20k. however if you stop paying on a 6 figure loan balance, that is certainly enough to put you at risk of collections efforts and in that situation with that much debt you should be speaking to an attorney that specializes in bankruptcy and or debt collection in your home state because if it ever got to that point, your states collections laws would dictate the steps any organization must follow to collect on a judgement.
lastly the attempt to collect a debt across international borders is also almost unheard of (cost/time/effort all much higher). but again, expect threats via email/letter/phone!
1. if you default on any debt, be it a loan or just your maintenance fees. you can expect SOME effort to get you to pay what you owe. Plenty of owners claim they "never heard from the resort again"...but thats unusual. letters reminding you that you havent paid are perfectly normal and expected.
2. there is a vast chasm of difference between getting a notice of late assessment, notice of default, notice of lien, notice of intent to foreclose....and you being "sued" or "foreclosed on". granted its part of the process, but these notifications exist to get you to pay WITHOUT further action...and they are usually very effective!
3. being turned over to a collections agency is also a possibility where you will then likely get a whole new round of angry sounding notices as THEY now attempt to get you to pay without having to perform any further action other than calls/emails/letters sent, they earn money by getting owners to pay.
all of these activities/attempts cost VERY little in the grand scheme of things and as mentioned above are all tried and true efforts to convince you to pay without the creditor/etc having to put anything more than the bare minimum of cost/time/effort into pursuing a delinquency because these strategies have been proven to work while still abiding by most collections laws (that are quite consumer friendly).
where the rubber meets the road is what happens at step 4 and every situation is different. the main difference for owners is are you defaulting on your annual dues, or a loan balance.
will the resort or collections firm report the delinquency to the credit bureaus?
non payment of mf? unlikely (based on reports, the chances of it NOT happening are greater than it happening just remember its never zero %)
non payment of loan? very likely
will they actually pursue foreclosure?
highly unlikely in any situation because you aren't going to dispute or fight it as you dont want the ownership anyway, foreclosure is time consuming and expensive for the resort, not the owner. After enough time has passed in default, "in lieu" of going thru foreclosure the resort usually makes an effort to contact the owner a final time to negotiate a settlement/agreement that results in the owner willingly signing the deed back over to the resort/developer/association/etc because they know full well that you wanted to give it back in the first place.
will they pursue a judgement(ie suing you for money)?
non payment of mf? unheard of
non payment of loan? unlikely UNLESS you owe enough to make it worth their while to pursue! its likely not worth the time or effort to pursue 20k. however if you stop paying on a 6 figure loan balance, that is certainly enough to put you at risk of collections efforts and in that situation with that much debt you should be speaking to an attorney that specializes in bankruptcy and or debt collection in your home state because if it ever got to that point, your states collections laws would dictate the steps any organization must follow to collect on a judgement.
lastly the attempt to collect a debt across international borders is also almost unheard of (cost/time/effort all much higher). but again, expect threats via email/letter/phone!
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