I need help with my recently deceased dad's Wyndham Timeshare Contracts

[newestateperson]

Hello,

I'm the executor of my dads estate he had a few Wyndham Margaritaville contracts that were paid off, and one "Wyndham Shell West" contract.

All of them are currently fully paid off (the loans) and are just accumulating maintenance fees at this point, which are all current and there is nothing due at the moment.

None of the active contracts were deeded and are all basically just "right to use" contracts.

These are on the estate assets and I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of them; the Margaritaville ones seem to be almost resolved via the Wyndham Cares Certified Exit company.

It's been really dragged out and I've been on many calls over the last almost 5 months and I'm surprised and worried now that it could take longer than the year allocated to close the estate. I've been very on top of contacting them and paying off the remainder of the loans and fees, but I keep going through different teams and given different bits of information every time I call; I can't get any kind of escalation when requested and I'm not able to be put in direct contact with the agents assigned to the tickets to verify anything; I can only call the general lines and hope whoever I talk to is kind and willing to work with me but even then, I am limited to just verbally sharing information - no email capabilities (beyond the main distro which doesn't reply or help). I've been doing this for a while now.

Based on how it's been going, I think I may only have trouble with the "Wyndham Shell West" contract. This particular one is just some kind of "points" contract with a "right to use" and isn't tied to a specific location... alas, it still accumulates maintenance fees and the certified exit team says the "Shell West" contracts aren't eligible for Wyndham Certified Exit "Outright option" (which is what I went with for the Margaritaville contracts); it was only eligible for the following:

• Featured resellers
• Hardship

I requested they process a Hardship because I can't imagine what would qualify for a hardship if the death of the sole owner isn't one; they wouldn't verify but hinted it was one of the qualifiers. I am leaving featured resellsers as a last resort because from what I read, these aren't really resellable and nobody will want them, even though they are paid off.

It's been well over the 15 days (almost 30 days now since I requested this Hardship relief) they said it would take to reach out to me and I called back and they said it was still processing and awaiting an assignee. I've called a few times inbetween just to verify things were processing and they confirmed it was.

Does anyone have any insight or experience with a Hardship case and a Wyndham Shell West contract like this?

If this doesn't work out, what do I do? I can't close the estate without "distributing" these assets and no matter how sincerely I give my best effort at "distributing" them, they (Wyndham) won't seem to do anything. Maybe I just need to be more patient, but it's taken almost 6 months to do the work that should realistically take one day in any other setting. Ultimately, all they did so far was verify the death certificate and executor documents just so I could talk to them, and send out a two page paper for the Margarittaville contracts that's very brief. I've been very persistent and it just seems to be incompetence or intentional maliciousness in the way they follow-up/allow me to follow-up.

Just looking for advice or assurance here. Maybe extra tips or expectations too?

 

[rickandcindy23]

@LeslieDet Maybe she can help with some advice that is legal.

My understanding is that Wyndham cannot do anything to you, nothing at all, nada, as long as your name isn't on the ownership.

 

[jbman]

It could depend on the jurisdiction, but I would think in general it should work the same anywhere, no one is required to take on the responsibility of being an executor or dealing with estate assets, but if you are the executor, and there are other assets of the estate that you intend to distribute to beneficiaries (whether that is to yourself or otherwise), you have a fiduciary duty to pay all the estate's debts, expenses, taxes etc. prior to that distribution. The estate owing money to a timeshare company should not be any different than it owing money to a credit card company, mortgage, whatever the case may be. If you were to distribute estate assets as the executor without first dealing with this, I cannot imagine there is any jurisdiction where you could not be held personally liable.

 

[Ski-Dad]

It could depend on the jurisdiction, but I would think in general it should work the same anywhere, no one is required to take on the responsibility of being an executor or dealing with estate assets, but if you are the executor, and there are other assets of the estate that you intend to distribute to beneficiaries (whether that is to yourself or otherwise), you have a fiduciary duty to pay all the estate's debts, expenses, taxes etc. prior to that distribution. The estate owing money to a timeshare company should not be any different than it owing money to a credit card company, mortgage, whatever the case may be. If you were to distribute estate assets as the executor without first dealing with this, I cannot imagine there is any jurisdiction where you could not be held personally liable.

The OP was reasonably clear that there are no monies owing.

currently fully paid off (the loans) and are just accumulating maintenance fees at this point, which are all current and there is nothing due at the moment​

​

With no monies owing, I cannot imagine there is any jurisdiction where he could be held personally liable.

I would advise Wyndam of your intention to close the estate by a specific date. The beneficiaries are unwilling to accept the timeshare contracts. You are willing to execute any conveyance up to the close of the estae. Thereafter, it is there problem

 

[geist1223]

Cease all communication with Wyndham and Walk away.

 

[newestateperson]

@LeslieDet Maybe she can help with some advice that is legal.

My understanding is that Wyndham cannot do anything to you, nothing at all, nada, as long as your name isn't on the ownership.

I understand that as I'm only the executor, but the estate is liable to "distribute" assets.
If they don't let me "close the contract" for whatever reason, I'm worried they could put a hold on the estate itself and prevent it from closing but also not allow me to close the contracts.

In this case, simply closing the contracts would fulfill a "distribution". It doesn't have to be actually giving it to someone else.

 

[newestateperson]

It could depend on the jurisdiction, but I would think in general it should work the same anywhere, no one is required to take on the responsibility of being an executor or dealing with estate assets, but if you are the executor, and there are other assets of the estate that you intend to distribute to beneficiaries (whether that is to yourself or otherwise), you have a fiduciary duty to pay all the estate's debts, expenses, taxes etc. prior to that distribution. The estate owing money to a timeshare company should not be any different than it owing money to a credit card company, mortgage, whatever the case may be. If you were to distribute estate assets as the executor without first dealing with this, I cannot imagine there is any jurisdiction where you could not be held personally liable.

Yes, I already am the executor and am responsible for "distributing" this asset, which, regardless of what form it takes, that means it needs to be out of his name before I can close the estate.
All debts are now paid, but if they don't close the contracts, the maintenance fees will accumulate and considered debts in the future.

 

[newestateperson]

The OP was reasonably clear that there are no monies owing.

currently fully paid off (the loans) and are just accumulating maintenance fees at this point, which are all current and there is nothing due at the moment​

​

With no monies owing, I cannot imagine there is any jurisdiction where he could be held personally liable.

I would advise Wyndam of your intention to close the estate by a specific date. The beneficiaries are unwilling to accept the timeshare contracts. You are willing to execute any conveyance up to the close of the estae. Thereafter, it is there problem

Yes, I don't believe I would ever be personally liable, however, the estate is, which I am responsible. So, indirectly, I am liable.
Worst case scenario, I close the estate and they try to re-open the estate for an indefinite amount of maintenance fees in the distant future. Maybe this is paranoia but this is what I worry about.
It is ultimately up to a judge if I can close the estate with existing assets in my dads name and how Wyndham decides to proceed if they don't close the contracts for whatever reason, in the future.

 

[newestateperson]

Cease all communication with Wyndham and Walk away.

As much as I'd love to do this, they are already processing parts of this and they are aware of the estate and if I were to completely cease communication, that could just end up being seen as negligence with the handling of the estate, which, if I don't give a reasonable effort, a judge may not appreciate that.

 

[newestateperson]

The OP was reasonably clear that there are no monies owing.

currently fully paid off (the loans) and are just accumulating maintenance fees at this point, which are all current and there is nothing due at the moment​

​

With no monies owing, I cannot imagine there is any jurisdiction where he could be held personally liable.

I would advise Wyndam of your intention to close the estate by a specific date. The beneficiaries are unwilling to accept the timeshare contracts. You are willing to execute any conveyance up to the close of the estae. Thereafter, it is there problem

Yes, there is no monies owed for now, but every month they don't close the contracts, more money will be owed.

I have already reached out to them and given very clear intentions but they just don't reply or acknowledge anything that isn't a direct phone call, then, after phone calls, they only allow any official progress via snail mail forms. There isn't any kind of portal or docusign options.

I'm hoping they just close these soon, but it's just been so long and after reading horror stories I just have a lot of fear about this

 

[jbman]

The OP was reasonably clear that there are no monies owing.

currently fully paid off (the loans) and are just accumulating maintenance fees at this point, which are all current and there is nothing due at the moment​

​

With no monies owing, I cannot imagine there is any jurisdiction where he could be held personally liable.

I would advise Wyndam of your intention to close the estate by a specific date. The beneficiaries are unwilling to accept the timeshare contracts. You are willing to execute any conveyance up to the close of the estae. Thereafter, it is there problem

Yes, this makes sense, I was thinking of it being effectively like property taxes which still need to be paid by the estate, but of course that would not be applicable here if the estate disclaims any interest in it.

 

[jbman]

Yes, I already am the executor and am responsible for "distributing" this asset, which, regardless of what form it takes, that means it needs to be out of his name before I can close the estate.
All debts are now paid, but if they don't close the contracts, the maintenance fees will accumulate and considered debts in the future.

Sorry don't listen to me, @Ski-Dad has the right answer

 

[iftravel]

The OP was reasonably clear that there are no monies owing.

currently fully paid off (the loans) and are just accumulating maintenance fees at this point, which are all current and there is nothing due at the moment​

​

With no monies owing, I cannot imagine there is any jurisdiction where he could be held personally liable.

I would advise Wyndam of your intention to close the estate by a specific date. The beneficiaries are unwilling to accept the timeshare contracts. You are willing to execute any conveyance up to the close of the estae. Thereafter, it is there problem

If Wyndham cooperate, great but if they don’t and continue to bill the estate, not sure how it’s possible to close the estate by a specified date. The “assets” need to be distributed though it’s a liability. The probate court won’t approve it.

Have you considered “abandonment”? Use TUG marketplace or other sources to show zero value of the timeshare and request “abandonment”. Not legal advice but might work (or as a way to push Wyndham act on it).

11 U.S. Code § 554 - Abandonment of property of the estate

www.law.cornell.edu