Need advice - Westgate is terminating Time Share plan for our resort

[DebraA]

Westgate no longer wants to operate Club Orlando as a timeshare.
They want me to sign a quit claim deed to sign over our 2 weeks - one odd & one even years - in exchange for a Certificate to stay free for a week at a Westgate Resorts property.
The day this is worth $1,400, which they say is the residual value of our property.

I don't agree with this. I think they should give us fair market value.

Does anyone have advice for me on this?

Thanks so much!

 

[TUGBrian]

welcome to TUG!

have you checked to see what "fair market value" is for that timeshare? while the certificate they are offering you isnt worth $1400...chances are your timeshare isnt either.

 

[DebraA]

Thanks for your quick response & help!

How do I check the fair market value of my timeshare?

 

[TUGBrian]

http://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?...rth-on-the-resale-market.229843/#post-1780344

 

[Passepartout]

Another way to check 'fair market value' is to sign on to eBay, put the name of the resort in the search window. When it shows auctions of this resort, down the left side, you'll find 'completed auctions' click it. That will show you what weeks at this resort have actually sold for in green. Red ones didn't sell. I suspect it won't be much.

Advice: Take what you can get. Hundreds of Westgate owners actually PAY hundreds or thousands of dollars to give away Westgate weeks.

Jim

 

[pedro47]

Maybe this is some goods for the owners who wanted to terminate their contract with Westgate,. but Westgate refused their offer. Take the offer and run.

 

[theo]

How do I check the fair market value of my timeshare?

Jim's advice above, including checking eBay listings, is sound (...although you will surely be very disappointed by what you learn there).
Brian was very polite in not just stating outright that you likely couldn't even give a Westgate timeshare away for free; I'm now saying so.
I would accept whatever Wastegate offers you, escape their greedy clutches and be grateful to be able to so easily bid them farewell --- forever.
After all, if Westgate unilaterally terminates operation of that property as a timeshare facility, you are clearly in no position to "negotiate" anything.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

If you still want to timeshare in Orlando ( or anywhere else )- you can pick up some good stuff for $ 0 - $ 500
See :
1)The TUG bargain deals - under Buying Selling Renting
2)TUG MARKETPLACE - Bargain Basement ( under $500 )
there are also lots on ebay

happy hunting .

 

[Talent312]

As the others say, "Take the $$ (certificate) and run."
Then thank your lucky stars that "Wastegate" let you out.
.

 

[dougp26364]

I'll be the opposing voice here, even though my knee jerk reaction is to take the offer and run. Timeshares are odd items to convert to any other use. Typically it requires that all, or a large majority of owners agree on the changes. If Westgate is wanting to convert this timeshare to some other use......or sell the property outright for a profit......it will need to acquire all of the inventory or, hold all of the deeds (or the vast majority depending on the laws involved). That could put owners in a position to gain a little more than some useless certificate offered by Westgate. Granted I wouldn't think about getting rich but, I would think that making Westgate actually have to PAY $ for the deeds instead of some undoubtedly useless certificate might be in order. If it were me, I think I'd make them a counter off. Say something like, $700 cash, which is 50% of their stated "residual" value and they keep the certificate (which costs them nothing). I would also be willing to put in a little leg work to see if I could find out what they were converting the property too and how much they stand to gain. It might provide a little leverage.

BUT, as I stated, my knee jerk reaction is to sign the deeds back to Westgate and move on. Westgate is probably the MOST undesirable timeshare management company on the planet to deal with. There are to many other quality timeshares that treat their owners so much better than Westgate, it's be nearly impossible for me to not accept their offer and find something better that fits my needs. As mentioned these deeds have no resale or residual value on the open market. The only value would be to Westgate and what they're trying to do with the property, which would be to sell it to another developer or maybe convert it to full ownership condo's and resell the property that way. Either way, Westgate will do their best to screw the owners over until they get what they want. Thus the attitude of take the offer and get out.

 

[carl2591]

never forget you are dealing with wastegate and David Siegel and company. Trying to force them to pay you something more that a week in one of their crappy resort to me would not be worth the effort. If you had gotten some years of good usage from the resort you might take the money and run or the week, it only one slimy week not a week for several years at least, figures typical Siegel cheap move so do what you think is best with the least amount of effort on your part.

If you do take the deal pat your self on the back and have a beverage to celebrate you are free of wastegate.

 

[dioxide45]

I agree that the value of the free week is rather inflated. That said, people pay a lot of money to unload their Westgate weeks. Count your blessings. I suspect that the sunset clause came to an end for this property and Westgate owned enough units to force the end to the timeshare plan and they want your weeks so they can rebuild or remodel and sell the weeks all over again.

 

[nuwermj]

I suspect that the sunset clause came to an end for this property

What is a sunset clause? How do they work?

 

[dioxide45]

What is a sunset clause? How do they work?

See this thread.

 

[DebraA]

All,

Thanks so much for your brutally honest feedback. We only have the one timeshare. We bought it back in 1988 or 1989, when it was independently owned & operated. We bought while it was under construction. It was small, without all the bells & whistles like restaurants & spas. We liked it that way because it kept the costs down. They treated the owners well. Westgate came in several years back & didn't give us all the usual owner perks. We thought it was because this was a small no frills resort. It's in an area that has become a thriving shopping area - high end malls & shopping centers. It's also not too far from Universal. I've been thinking that the value of the real estate alone has Westgate interested in selling.

I didn't know that Westgate has such a history of screwing its owners. It seems we're one of a long list.

 

[dioxide45]

You could refuse to turn over your deed. If Westgate sells, then you would get a share of the proceeds. Seems like they want to give out something of little value to make their share larger and increase their profits. Once the timeshare plan ends, you likely become a joint tenant. This would require you to be paid your "fair share".

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Dear DebraA,

Dioxide45 is a very knowledgeable TUG member .
and this is a great forum to learn and research .

If you wish to read any more about Westgate (aka Wastegate ) there is an interest thread stated May 27 2016
by TUG owner Brian Rogers .

Lady probably sat thru a Westgate presentation ...
you can use the "search forums" function to find it .

There is also the 2012 Doc. Movie - Queen of Versailles

Good luck

.

 

[DebraA]

That is good food for thought. I'm going to do a little digging into these ideas.

I really appreciate everyone's valuable feedback.

 

[bbakernbay]

Our 40 unit timeshare in Kissimmee has 3 years to go to “Sunset”.

Only 50% of the Owners are paying their MFs and they can’t get a legal quorum and the Board has resigned and the new Manager is the sole Board Member and President.

They are proposing to try and rent out 3 blocks (40% of Units) for residential long term rentals to increase revenues.

It is very likely that Resort will be put up for sale when 40 year Sunset is reached in 3 years.

Who is entitled to proceeds after sale and payment of lawyers, real estate, etc.

Resort has no bank loans but MFs went up significantly for 2018 which will likely cause more Owners to abandon ship.

Do the remaining owners in good standing get to divide the net sales proceeds?

 

[dioxide45]

Our 40 unit timeshare in Kissimmee has 3 years to go to “Sunset”.

Only 50% of the Owners are paying their MFs and they can’t get a legal quorum and the Board has resigned and the new Manager is the sole Board Member and President.

They are proposing to try and rent out 3 blocks (40% of Units) for residential long term rentals to increase revenues.

It is very likely that Resort will be put up for sale when 40 year Sunset is reached in 3 years.

Who is entitled to proceeds after sale and payment of lawyers, real estate, etc.

Resort has no bank loans but MFs went up significantly for 2018 which will likely cause more Owners to abandon ship.

Do the remaining owners in good standing get to divide the net sales proceeds?

I don't know specifically, but speculating is what we do best. I would suspect that all owners would get a share of the proceeds, after those that are behind are made current. So if each owner is due $5000 from the sale and one is three years and $3000 behind on MFs, they would get $2000 out of the sale. Then of course any money that is in reserves and operating funds that wasn't spent would also be distributed. So all those back payments that were retained from the proceeds would be evenly distributed to all owners, those that were current and those that weren't but were brought current by prepayment from the proceeds. All just a guess though, I hope someone here knows.

 

[bbakernbay]

I had forgot about the Reserve Funds, I will have to check the Budget documentation to see the various amounts but that certainly needs to be distributed.

I am sure the Sharks start circling once they see a property in distress hoping to scoop up an asset at a substantial discount.