Foreclosure sale - for Maintenance fees

[hounddog01]

I purchased a couple of time shares on e-bay which went smoothly. It was not quick but went smooth. One of them I purchased was the Inverness at south Padre. I just received a notice that they are going to sell it for the $585.00 maintenace fees that I owe. Plus they have added attorney fees on top of that. I do not owe any morgage on this property.

Here is where I need advice. The place just got hit by a huricane. It still does not have water or electricity and they have canceled the next 3 weeks of vacations. I have called them on 3 occasions to get an invoice to pay the MF's. I was told all 3 times they would send me an invoice. Until now with the attorneys letter I have never had anything that even resembled an Invoice, and of course this one has the attorney fees added at about $130.00.

My delema is tell them to sell it, I really do not care if I keep it anyway and could possible avoid a large assesment for the huricane damage. Pay the fees and possibley the attorney fees and keep it. What would the down side to letting them have it back for the fees, if they foreclose can I just pay the fees and get it off my credit record?

Any advise will be helpful. I have never used the place just traded it.

 

[Aussiedog]

Ding your credit score?

Wouldn't a foreclosure ding your credit score, which if you are borrowing money in the future could be much more costly than the MFs on this property?

Ann

 

[lprstn]

What would the down side to letting them have it back for the fees, if they foreclose can I just pay the fees and get it off my credit record?

Any advise will be helpful. I have never used the place just traded it.

I would call the resort and try to work something out. Worst case, if you get a ding on your credit for this, you would have to do the following to possibly clear it up.

- Get a copy of your credit report
- Call the collection company handling the debt
- Work off a payoff amount with the collection company
- GET and KEEP your receipt
- contact the 3 credit bureaus and submit for a correction based on the credit report number given when you got your original copy
- put an explanation and proof of payment in your update request.

If you are purchasing a home and this comes up, you just have to explain what happened and provide proof that you paid it so KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS forever....

 

[hounddog01]

Thanks for the advice so far. I have been trying to call but I am not sure when I will be able to. The resort is not opperational at this time and not available for 3 weeks this sale is happening on August 5th. only one week away.

 

[roadtriper]

Something's missing

Correct me here if I'm wrong... as I read this you owe 1 years MF I'm assuming for 08' and assuming the MF was due Jan 01,2008 ? and you recieved no billing whatsoever for the MF until you JUST recieved a letter from an attorney stating they are selling it next week Aug 5th? it seems to me like there are pieces of the puzzle missing!? you can't get through to the resort, What about the collection/forclosure notice? it must have contact info on it?
My take on this is... You own the timeshare, You owe the MF, Pay it! if they didn't do their paperwork properly and you're in arrears beacause of it, dispute the $130 in fees. But I'm sure not going to have my credit reputation scarred/ and a forclosure on my record over a $750 trasnsaction?. Nor am I going to walk away from an obligation I agreed to whether it's $7.50 or $750 it's just not how I do business. RT

 

[hounddog01]

Correct me here if I'm wrong... as I read this you owe 1 years MF I'm assuming for 08' and assuming the MF was due Jan 01,2008 ? and you recieved no billing whatsoever for the MF until you JUST recieved a letter from an attorney stating they are selling it next week Aug 5th? it seems to me like there are pieces of the puzzle missing!? you can't get through to the resort, What about the collection/forclosure notice? it must have contact info on it?
My take on this is... You own the timeshare, You owe the MF, Pay it! if they didn't do their paperwork properly and you're in arrears beacause of it, dispute the $130 in fees. But I'm sure not going to have my credit reputation scarred/ and a forclosure on my record over a $750 trasnsaction?. Nor am I going to walk away from an obligation I agreed to whether it's $7.50 or $750 it's just not how I do business. RT

You are correct, I never recieved an Inovice for the MF ever! I called the attorney with no return call. I finaly got thru to the management office and offered to pay the MF and even the late charges (That I did not feel obligated to do) if they would waive the $130.00 and they said NO.

I understand the obligation and do not have a problem paying my MF but they are not very nice, and do not want to work with me. Seem like a new owner at a property that was just hit by a huricane they would want to settle this.

 

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

Is it possible that they didn't have the correct address when they sent the first mailing and it came back? Maybe they addressed it wrong. They should awful to deal with, but it's probably not worth screwing up your credit for. If you have a friend who is a lawyer and could get a letter on legal stationary saying you are paying what you owe, you never received any previous bills and are a new owner, so didn't even know when to look for a bill and enclose that with payment, maybe they would drop the rest.
Liz

 

[roadtriper]

Take it to the top!

To the OP, a few min on the internet I found this info.

Inverness is managed by ICS Management 1-800-392-5291

the CEO is Tom Gray
the Director of Customer Relations is Debora Sansom dsansom@icsmanagement.net
the director of Accounting is Jacki Hoover jhoover@icsmanagement.net

I would assume the CEO's email would be tgray@icsmanagement.net ? but it was not listed. I would start at the top and work down! good luck RT

 

[richardm]

eBay purchase gone wrong!!!

I purchased a couple of time shares on e-bay which went smoothly. It was not quick but went smooth.

I wouldn't call this purchase smooth!

ICS has always been fairly easy to work with- so I'd recommend you take a breath and give them the opportunity for a do over on this.. I'm certain their stress level must be off the charts with the hurricane issue... This is certainly not how you want your ownership to begin!

You may also want to try to contact the attorney's office (start off nice and explain to the receptionist or paralegal that you just purchased and found out these fees are due) and see if you can get any info from them.

Have you gotten a full account verification on this ownership yet? Go back and ask for a copy of the estoppels from your closing agent when you purchased and compare that with the info you get from ICS.. A foreclosure attempt for this resort based on fees being 6 months out seems a little out of character. It could well be that they simply use this attorney for collections- and the attorney throws out the foreclosure threat as part of his collection attempt. Foreclosure is traditionally a very costly process- and most HOA's avoid that if possible!

It seems like there must be more to this story!

Oh- and go ahead and start preparing for that special assessment!

Sorry for your rotten luck!

 

[hounddog01]

Update

I did contact the ICS management and it seems that they have the right address but for some reason they did not send any invoice (acording to their system) until March. I did not recieve it and explained that I was traveling extensively Feb-June. The are sending a new invoice with out any fees. Once I got intouch with the right person it was an easy process. Not that easy to get the right person but she was very helpful.

I understand their delema with the huricane and know they are busy but when you only have 2 weeks and the attorney's office will not return your calls it becomes a panic situation.

Thanks to everyone for your advise. This is a wonderful community!