Quick question [how to give away Vacation Village]

[studerbd]

Ours is paid off . Does anyone from Canada know what the ramifications might be, if we stop paying maintenance fees?

 

[Daytona Bob]

They have no incentive to foreclose, especially if they have inventory to sell. Interesting loophole with the non-judicial foreclosure in Florida. I wonder if they do the non-judicial foreclosure, if they can ding your credit with a foreclosure. Hoping your 'long' game pays off.

 

[Daytona Bob]

Ours is paid off . Does anyone from Canada know what the ramifications might be, if we stop paying maintenance fees?

Might want to consult an attorney to discuss judicial vs non judicial foreclosure. One would think it would be a foreclosure to your credit in either case if/when they decide to foreclose.

 

[Tamaradarann]

Hi Brian. Sorry to hear you're going through this. But I think your overall inclination to want to escape this particular VV timeshare obligation is a good one. I don't know what you paid in annual maintenance fees, but Vacation Village at Weston keeps showing up as an RCI Last Call vacation so that you can get the full lockoff 2 BRs for $349 or so and even less for an A unit (which I've done several times in the past). It's a nice resort but it's inland so, in my opinion, it really isn't worth much more than that per week. It worked great for me when I was in the Miami area working.

That being said, I don't think the more knowledgeable people on TUG would ever have been candidates to take it even as a freebie and even if you were to pay for the closing, transfer fees, added a $250 gratuity, etc. Nor do I think you'd even have been able to get out of it via ebay, no matter what incentives you offered. It would always have been a permanent albatross around your neck (with compliments to the poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner that we learned about in my city of Boston high school).

Of course, you could have paid the VV deedback price of $1500 which, as I understand the above, was the minimum amount you could have paid. Add to that the amount they would have chosen to add to that $1500, all things considered after interrogating you about your income, assets, medical situation, etc., etc., etc.. That might have been yet another $1500. Plus all the other fees. That, too, was obviously an unattractive option.

So that left you with the "walking away" option. According to how we all interpreted what Grammarhero once wrote some amount of years ago, and he was and presumably still is an attorney and timeshare owner, the only recourse a Florida (and apparently also a South Carolina) timeshare entity would have is to foreclose. And the foreclosure would be, assuming you didn't object, a non-judicial foreclosure which would not involve a judge. Without a judge's involvement, there could be no judge deciding that you still had a deficiency of such-and-such amount of money that still had to be paid. The timeshare entity gets the timeshare back and that's the end of it.

That was our layman's understanding. Furthermore, what was our speculation about what might be deemed an "objection"? Saying something like, "You're freakin' crazy. I don't owe that much". Or "You people lied to me and you owe ME money, not the other way around". Or simply, "I object to the foreclosure".

What we all pictured was that the timeshare entity, having heard the "magic words" that would constitute an "objection", would now gleefully change to a judicial foreclosure from its initially filed non-judicial foreclosure and salivate about the prospect of having a full trial that would result in a judgment against you. Clearly, only a judge could decide if you really didn't owe that much money or whether or not you were lied to or if you had a good reason to object to the foreclosure.

Only a Florida real estate and/or timeshare attorney would know if our layman's interpretation was correct.

MUST the timeshare entity initially file for a non-judicial foreclosure or do they have the discretion to go either way? I don't know. But I think it's clear that, if a non-judicial foreclosure is embarked upon, and you don't object to the non-judicial foreclosure, they won't get a judgement against you although they will get the timeshare back.

So if you get notice of their having embarked upon a non-judicial foreclosure, which they would normally choose anyway because it's quick and easy and they know from experience that they wouldn't be able to collect any judgment from most of their delinquent owners (hence, they pushed for the law change so that they thereafter had the "quick and easy" non-judicial foreclosure option), you'd be in good shape. You'd be scot free of ever having to pay them anything. Silly them for not allowing you to do a deedback at a more reasonable cost.

I love the last sentence in your post. "Silly them for not allowing you to do a deedback at a more reasonable cost". I have been suggesting that for a couple of years now. However, I think the reason they don't is that Vacation Village has more inventory than they know what to do with to sell or rent so getting the unit back to use is not a priority. Also, if they take the unit back THEY have to pay the maintenance. By sending out threatening letters and giving the unit to a debt collection agency they hope to receive some money for the unit that is worthless to them at this time do to having so much inventory.

The maintenance fee paying owners are the ones getting hurt since they have to pay the maintenance for those who don't. I calculated that about $250 of the maintenance fee on my Misner Place unit is due to delinquent maintenance of other owners.

 

[andre10056]

I think Vacation Village at Weston does many things well. The units are cleaned well. The maintenance staff, too does a great job on the grounds. The beautiful pool with waterfall is wonderful. Their location in Weston is right near the Everglades and Everglades tours. Pretty close to Fort Lauderdale Beach or, for that matter, Hallandale and Hollywood Beaches. Check-in and check-out is pretty efficient. They've got their niche market of annual visitors from Spanish speaking families from Central and South America who talk glowingly of shopping at "Dolpheen" (Dolphin Mall) and "Sawgrass". Families who have members who are receiving treatment at the Cleveland Clinic love their nearby location.

And they're in south Florida, a location that is attractive year round, moreso to visitors from up north during the colder weather months (including spring break) and down south during the summer.

So why aren't they able to fluorish when it appears that they've got everything going for them?

I believe it's due to stupid decision making. Look at the scenario detailed above. Someone wanted out. Couldn't they have let him out for a thousand (or whatever) rather than three thousand? By telling him $1500 PLUS whatever we will ultimately choose to add to that, weren't they guaranteeing that they would never again collect a dime from him? And, indeed, they didn't. Over a period of years, they got zero from him.

And, yes, I can understand your perception that, even if they took it back quickly, it might still remain empty as they've already got a good number of empty units. But why is that? Poor pricing is one failing in my opinion. Also, an over-reliance on Expedia and other booking sites. This is a great resort that I believe may be pretty much unknown in traveler circles because who's going to do a search for Weston, Florida? You need to SELL this resort, not passively sit and wait for Expedia to passively sit and wait for someone to just happen to connect to their page.

Instead of beefing up their in-house timeshare SALES staff, they should beef up their in-house timeshare RENTAL staff, charge reasonable rental prices, and get those many buildings filled year round.

 

[andre10056]

I love the last sentence in your post. "Silly them for not allowing you to do a deedback at a more reasonable cost". I have been suggesting that for a couple of years now. However, I think the reason they don't is that Vacation Village has more inventory than they know what to do with to sell or rent so getting the unit back to use is not a priority. Also, if they take the unit back THEY have to pay the maintenance. By sending out threatening letters and giving the unit to a debt collection agency they hope to receive some money for the unit that is worthless to them at this time do to having so much inventory.

The maintenance fee paying owners are the ones getting hurt since they have to pay the maintenance for those who don't. I calculated that about $250 of the maintenance fee on my Misner Place unit is due to delinquent maintenance of other owners.

And what I just wrote goes for VV Weston's affiliated resort, Mizner Place at Weston Town Center as well. Fantastic resort but not managed well when it comes to renting out available units (which results in the generation of less revenues that must be provided by YOU).

 

[Tamaradarann]

And what I just wrote goes for VV Weston's affiliated resort, Mizner Place at Weston Town Center as well. Fantastic resort but not managed well when it comes to renting out available units (which results in the generation of less revenues that must be provided by YOU).

I totally agree with you that if they managed the rental of units well that could pay the maintenance. However, with the maintenance now being over $1000/week I am not sure that a Florida rental that is 25 miles from the Ocean is that much in demand. People who rent usually want near or on the water in Florida. Also, what attracted us to the Misner Place so much was a buzzing town. The town has lost alot of the Buzz. There was a wine tasting place, a night club, a number of nice restaurants, and many nice shops when we bought. Some of those are gone or are not what they were as far a desirability.

 

[dioxide45]

And what I just wrote goes for VV Weston's affiliated resort, Mizner Place at Weston Town Center as well. Fantastic resort but not managed well when it comes to renting out available units (which results in the generation of less revenues that must be provided by YOU).

I think the problem with Vacation Village, as a whole, is that their resorts aren't in highly desirable locations. The properties in Weston Florida are not on the ocean and are inland. It's a half hour drive to Fort Lauderdale Beach. There is the Orlando location, but again it is too big for the destination already having an over saturation of timeshare units. Grandview in Las Vegas is not on the strip and is actually a long way from the strip. Not even walkable. Williamsburg no longer seems to be a huge tourist draw.