Sticky - Hilton Vacation Club / DRI now accepting deedbacks - Give back your HGV/Diamond Resorts Timeshare

[TUGBrian]

hopefully this doesnt signal the beginning of the end for these programs, or at least perhaps a tightening up on what they will accept back. we heard from another individual that westgate denied him a deedback as well from a paid off interval.

We can only suggest to continue trying and asking and be as annoying/persistent as possible. remember its up to you to convince them to let you give it back...you have nothing to lose unless you give up and take no for an answer!

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I did think that all Diamond contracts could be considered, even the resales. However, Diamond picks and chooses what they will accept back. Not all contracts are accepted.

I have read this thread from the beginning over its life. My memory may be a bit hazy now. I do know I have read many success stories. I told my friend about the program. She was successful in deeding her Diamond contract back. Her contract was a developer purchase.

I still believe that resale contracts are included. How did I possibly miss that finer detail of the deed-back program? Someone very close to me is strongly considering a deed-back. The contract is a resale.

IIRC - when DRI first started accepting deedbacks, they were always selective about what they would accept and it didn't make any difference if it was resale.

Now they have "formalized" the program, which means they are now classing it as an owner "benefit". And since it's now a formalized "benefit", as an aid to the sales force it's a "benefit" that is only available to original purchasers.

*******

IMHO - the fundamental reality hasn't changed and sooner or later DRI will institute the old "informal" program. It simply does not make sense them to not accept what are essentially free deedbacks for inventory that they can sell for $30,000 or more - when the alternative is building/buying inventory that's going to cost them real money.

Especially when the alternative is owners going into default, and then going through a foreclosure process with the resort or the trust. It's easier, cleaner, and more profitable to do the deedback.

 

[Hubble]

I see Diamond has given us a "Special Assessment" of $270 on this year's mf for Beach Quarters, VA Beach. That puts our total fee at around 1150 for the year, for an offseason week with limited exchange ability. We could probably manage a reasonable exchange for a year or two, but it looks like the fees will soon overcome value. So, we're thinking strongly about Transitions. Our week would have qualified this year, except for having booked a week in Outer Banks next October. Some questions ... Should we consider that the special assessment will be added every year, or just from time to time? If we apply again after taking the October vacation, will there be time for Transitions to go through and avoid a maintenance fee for 2020? What about prepaying the 2020 mf, depositing in II, and taking a vacation with it in '19, followed by submitting to Transitions on Jan 1, 2020? I hate the thought of paying a 750 exit fee along with a bloated mf and not even getting a vacation for the deal. Thanks for your advice.

 

[chemteach]

Beach Place had some damage - that's why there is a special assessment. That $270 should be a one time thing. As for cost of keeping the timeshare - only you can decide what you are willing to pay for it each year. Special Assessments are a big bummer, but they usually don't happen very often.

 

[Rich B]

Just an update. I posted last Oct 16 that I had been approved for deedback by DRI. As of today I have a pending charge of $750 to my credit card so I looks like this transaction should be complete before Christmas. The only issue I experienced was a two week delay in getting the credit card authorization charge form. I called and requested to pay by VISA and was told a form had to be requested and would be mailed to me. After waiting two weeks and not receiving the form I called back and after being on hold for 45 minutes the person who answered emailed the form to me while we were talking to each other. Point being, be proactive. All I have talked to at DRI have been courteous and professional.
Reading some earlier posts leads me to post the following. DRI spells out clearly their criteria for deedback approval. Let me post it here:
Conditions to Apply:

• You must have no existing loan balance or other lien encumbering the vacation ownership.
• You must be current on the payment of all maintenance fees up to the year for which you are relinquishing.
• You must have a clear and free title to the vacation ownership.
• All future reservations must be cancelled or traveled on prior to submitting a request. Does not apply to certain Fixed Week/Fixed Unit deeded week owners who have their reservation automatically booked in advance. Please call the Transitions team on 1.855.342.3689 for more information.
• Your vacation ownership must be in a Diamond Resorts Collection or managed property. Currently, members who own in Embarc or the EU Collection do not qualify.
• You must have purchased your vacation ownership directly from Diamond Resorts or from a predecessor whose developer rights were acquired by Diamond Resorts. Members and owners who have inherited or been gifted a vacation ownership from family will qualify if their family members would have qualified.
• Participation with a timeshare exit or resale company or firm may negatively impact your ability to apply for Transitions.

Where applicable, if you meet the Conditions to Apply for Transitions, Diamond Resorts will consider your application on a case-by-case basis, reviewing it both on its own merits and in the context of all other qualifying Transition applications submitted to date. This program is subject to change or termination without notice and in the sole discretion of Diamond Resorts.

 

[nomoretslt]

I did think that all Diamond contracts could be considered, even the resales. However, Diamond picks and chooses what they will accept back. Not all contracts are accepted.

I have read this thread from the beginning over its life. My memory may be a bit hazy now. I do know I have read many success stories. I told my friend about the program. She was successful in deeding her Diamond contract back. Her contract was a developer purchase.

I still believe that resale contracts are included. How did I possibly miss that finer detail of the deed-back program? Someone very close to me is strongly considering a deed-back. The contract is a resale.

 

[nomoretslt]

My ownership was resale and was deeded back. This was about a year ago...perhaps it depends on the resort. But this was also before they were posting the "transitions" offer on their somewhere on their homepage....at least I think I remember people starting to post about this after my transaction was complete. I consider myself very fortunate....was paying close to $1,000/yr for something that I actually got for free....a resale with no $$ involved....but I was not very comfortable staying at this place. It was close to Disney, but I also own DVC and there was no comparison.

 

[crossedeyedkitty]

My son-in-law found on the DRI website that there is transition now with Diamond. We were looking into getting out of Diamond and didn't know where to turn. We talked to our lawyer and they said to contact Diamond directly first before going the legal route. Just don't need it anymore and with the annual dues increasing every year, honestly we just don't want to pay those prices. We used the plan alot while our kids were growing up since 2002 and had some of the best trips, but now we just are going in a different direction and have to focus on saving for retirement. I got on the website and they say we meet all the criteria to get out of our plan. We are silver members and all of our dues, fees, etc are paid and up to date. I am waiting to hear from them to see what the next steps are. Do I also send the email to lossmitigation@diamondresorts.com or do I wait to hear from them via the email from my request on the website?

 

[TUGBrian]

that is the same program as mentioned in the original thread, id think if you have already been accepted by the process you would not need to contact them again.

 

[crossedeyedkitty]

First day of hearing nothing back from Diamond with putting in our transition request.

 

[tlottman]

Edit/Update:

As of December 2017 DRI now officially has a name for this program called TRANSITIONS.

Information (including who/how to contact) is available here in this thread:

https://www.tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/transitions-is-finally-announced.267181/




The financial dept apparently Voluntary Surrender Program:

In order to qualify, the HOA (MFs) must be up-to-date and the owner must have a zero balance on the loan.

To start this process, the owner must send an email to: lossmitigation@diamondresorts.com and or leadcollector@diamondresorts.com with the subject line stating: Inventory Takeback.

In the email itself the owner must include:
-Resort Name
-Owner(s) Name(s)
-Account Number
-Inventory owned (ie. weeks, points, etc)
-any other important information regarding the deed

within 7-10 business days, the Diamond Resorts will send an action required correspondence, where the owner will have 15 days to return.

Note: the owner is responsible for any fees associated with the paper work, such as notary, postage etc.

Edited to add phone number: You can call 877-497-7521, option 1 English, then 3 is direct to Loss Mitigation.

I am in the process of deeding back my timeshare. The kicker is that there is a $750 processing fee. I wish that I got paid what they must get paid to file some papers.

 

[tlottman]

First day of hearing nothing back from Diamond with putting in our transition request.

Did you call them? I got e-mails saying that I have been approved and the packet to get notarized would be coming in the mail. Be aware that there is a $750 processing fee.

 

[TUGBrian]

yes, the fee changed from $250 to $750 a few months back.

 

[jcr]

A family member has eight paid off contracts with Diamond. They had not heard of Transitions until I mentioned it today. They met with Timeshare Exit Team who said they could get out for $500.00 per contract. Does this sound right? Seems odd that Diamond is charging $750 per contract. What are we missing?

 

[R.J.C.]

yes, the fee changed from $250 to $750 a few months back.

And that is "per contract" (for those owning more than one contract).

 

[R.J.C.]

A family member has eight paid off contracts with Diamond. They had not heard of Transitions until I mentioned it today. They met with Timeshare Exit Team who said they could get out for $500.00 per contract. Does this sound right? Seems odd that Diamond is charging $750 per contract. What are we missing?

While I have heard of Timeshare Exit I don't know if they are a Viking ship type of company or take your money and run type of company. Truthfully, I wouldn't believe their radio ads. Using Transtitions you will know that you are legally and fully resolved of your timeshare ownership.

 

[gnflatte]

While I have heard of Timeshare Exit I don't know if they are a Viking ship type of company or take your money and run type of company. Truthfully, I wouldn't believe their radio ads. Using Transtitions you will know that you are legally and fully resolved of your timeshare ownership.

Before I stumbled upon this forum, I looked into Timeshare Exit Team and was quoted much more than $500 per contract. So glad that I found this forum and learned about the DRI Transitions program. DRI accepted our contracts and though it cost us $750 per contract plus fees for notarization and it was a lengthy process, I'm happy to report that we are no longer timeshare owners as of this year.

 

[pierrepierre]

from start to finish...approx. how long did it take? We have over 6 contracts, we know they will take the points out of our account, however we still want to use some of the points for travel.....scaling down in old age!

 

[gnflatte]

from start to finish...approx. how long did it take? We have over 6 contracts, we know they will take the points out of our account, however we still want to use some of the points for travel.....scaling down in old age!

For our 6 contracts, it took 5 months from applying to the Transitions program to finally receiving a letter from DRI confirming cancellation of our contracts. I don't know if it makes any difference, but our timeshares were deeded and were not on the points system.

 

[TUGJones]

Edit/Update:

As of December 2017 DRI now officially has a name for this program called TRANSITIONS.

Information (including who/how to contact) is available here in this thread:

https://www.tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/transitions-is-finally-announced.267181/




The financial dept apparently Voluntary Surrender Program:

In order to qualify, the HOA (MFs) must be up-to-date and the owner must have a zero balance on the loan.

To start this process, the owner must send an email to: lossmitigation@diamondresorts.com and or leadcollector@diamondresorts.com with the subject line stating: Inventory Takeback.

In the email itself the owner must include:
-Resort Name
-Owner(s) Name(s)
-Account Number
-Inventory owned (ie. weeks, points, etc)
-any other important information regarding the deed

within 7-10 business days, the Diamond Resorts will send an action required correspondence, where the owner will have 15 days to return.

Note: the owner is responsible for any fees associated with the paper work, such as notary, postage etc.

Edited to add phone number: You can call 877-497-7521, option 1 English, then 3 is direct to Loss Mitigation.

 

[TUGJones]

APRIL 2019
Thanks to this TUG Forum, we are in process of releasing our timeshare via the Diamond Transitions unit. All paperwork notarized & submitted this week.
UPDATED DATA:
- Transitions now charges $750 “processing fee” (no longer $250 or $500)
- You are given 14 days from date of their acceptance letter to return documentation. (Our letter w docs came 7 days after the letter date...we called/emailed and got a one week extension. I requested & received extension approval via email which I included in final documentation submitted.)
All other information within this thread seems to be accurate & ongoing.
- Diamond Sales/marketing group professes no knowledge of this program or any group called ‘Transitions’, so don’t give up! Follow data presented in this thread and you’re in your way.
- Avoid falling into the 3rd Party “We can get you out of your timeshare for $6000 Trap”!

 

[buyerbob]

I suspect that this type of program is going to increasingly be available in the future. In "owners updates" I have often asked why I should not be able to give to DRI my deed/points when I no longer wish to own them, so that they can turn around and sell them for $50k to $100k (which is their current "going price" on the sales floor for what I own)??? What kind of sustainable business model would say "No" to that?

It just seems to me that there's too much logic for them to accept deedbacks, with whatever throttle is needed to ensure that they are not overwhelmed with inventory they can't turn in a reasonable time frame.

I have offered my timeshares back they have accepted the offer. However it will cost me 250 dollars per timeshare and I get nothing in return. How fair is that. all you are doing is giving them 50 to 100K of inventory to reuse/resell and it costs them nothing you pay for the transaction....

 

[buyerbob]

Has anyone received any compensation from DRI for their timeshares? It just does not make sense that there is not any compensation for 100K worth of points. even 10 cents on a dollar they would be making money

 

[moonstone]

Has anyone received any compensation from DRI for their timeshares? It just does not make sense that there is not any compensation for 100K worth of points. even 10 cents on a dollar they would be making money

I really doubt it, and its not just limited to Diamond timeshares. They are all pretty much worthless as soon as you buy them. That is why TUG members promote buying resale. My Diamond timeshare (which wasn't Diamond when we purchased, the resort was bought by Diamond last year) was free so if I need to dump it due to increasing maintenance fees it wont bother me. With the (RCI) points I get from that week I can book 3-5 weeks at other resorts at other times while paying one maintenance fee but an exchange fee for each week or 10 days we book.

Resorts who get back those unwanted weeks will turn around and resell them for huge profits on top of the original sale profits. Its not right but there isn't much the average person can do about it except educate themselves and others about buying resale.


~Diane

 

[TUGBrian]

seen multiple mentions of DRI increasing the amount for this yet again, up to $1000 from its current $750.

while not yet confirmed, it would not surprise us at all to see it happen sooner rather than later.