Timeshare sales - lies to induce you to purchase

[RX8]

First off, I am no lawyer but I have watched plenty of Judge Wapner and Judge Judy. Also, for my job I have been studying a little about contract law.

I have learned that there are certain criteria that can block the formation of a valid contract. Included was the act of fraudulent inducement.

I have read much advice here and the poplular belief is that it doesn't matter what the salesperson told you because if it isn't in the contract you are out of luck. However, I would think that ANY promises made to a prospective buyer would be considered inducement. If they were outright lies, why can't the buyer bring this defense?

I understand that it would be one word against the other but I would think a Timeshare Salesperson wouldn't carry much credibility, especially under oath. Plus, there are MANY timeshare owners who have all said they same thing - I was lied to. Thoughts?

 

[ronparise]

I know of two people that challenged Wyndham, saying pretty much what you said..."I was lied to"

Wyndham returned their money

 

[AwayWeGo]

Buying Resale Is The Best Revenge.

Thoughts?

Nothing that the timeshare companies sell at full freight is worth the money.

Buy timeshares resale.

Save thousands of dollars on exactly the same thing, or the equivalent, or something even better.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[rrlongwell]

I know of two people that challenged Wyndham, saying pretty much what you said..."I was lied to"

Wyndham returned their money

I have not looked recently, but, when Wyndham Vacation Ownership had a F rating with the BBB, the BBB had a comment that they do settle. I would guess that would depend on how long after the recission period it was and if there was a morgage on it or not.

 

[Pmuppet]

While i agree with you that people may have a legitimate claim that the information given to them to substantiate it is a "good decision" to buy, i suspect these companies would fight it tooth and nail to ensure precedence doesnt happen.

I recall during one timeshare presentation about eight years ago at Whistler, the salesman tried to saw it was a good investment because homes appreciated 75% annually and if we didnt buy today we would never be able to go to whistler again cause we would be priced out as the prices were nearly doubling each and every year.

Obviously, the salesman has zero know of basic math and logic. i told him that while i am interested in buying a timeshare in whistler (bought one a few years later via ebay), i could not buy a property that has experienced an annual inflation rate of 75% cause i wouldnt be able to pay the maintenance fees in future years.

He didnt seem to understand that maintenance fees growth and inflation rate are strongly correlated (and rental rates never have sustained 75% year over year growth). I didnt stick around to explain my comments further as i figure if his high school math teacher wasnt able to get through to him, neither was I.

 

[Talent312]

1. Practical... While you may have a legitimate beef and you could convince seller to return the $$, if you go up against a mega-developer with a stable of in-house lawyers who plays hardball, you may find that it would cost you too much in legal fees to pursue a claim.

2. Legal... Look up the "parol evidence rule." It should be included in your contracts course.

The parol evidence rule is a common law rule in contract cases that precludes a party to a written contract from presenting extrinsic evidence that contradicts or adds to the written terms of the contract. The rationale is that, since the parties reduced their agreement to a single and final writing, evidence of other agreements or terms should not be considered when interpreting that writing, as the parties had decided to ultimately leave them out of the contract.

 

[Pmuppet]

Agreed 100% talent, these developers are fully lawyered up to ensure the money the get from you, stays with them.

While you may have a claim, they will fight you to the death to ensure you dont break there business model. Cause if you win, precedence is set and will destroy them. They will do everything in their power to ensure it doesnt happen.

As Charlie Harper once said, "levers move things, leverage moves people."

 

[Ridewithme38]

I didn't know about the parole evidence rule...kinda kills my thoughts of bringing a tape recorder to all owners meetings...makes it pointless...

BTW: I've only bought resale, so only seen the deeds and the governing documents...how many pages are the actual contracts that we sign though? I couldn't picture the time given to sign being significant enough to read the governing documents...do the contracts actually say anything or just to refer to the governing documents?

 

[AbsolutelyFascinatedByYou]

Ingenuity Trumps Might

If anyone ever ripped me off the way a lot of you have been ripped off, I’d be taking them DOWN. PERIOD. I don’t care how many lawyers they have; we could tango all the way to the Supreme Court if they wanted. Some of you who are retired or have a lot of time on your hands could hit the law books and represent yourself for free. What would you have to lose? Time working to combat your problems is better spent than time in regret. And bad PR from a lawsuit with a poor soul whose life savings they’re stripping could cost them more than all their lawyers put together. That might be a price they’re not willing to pay.

But I guess that’s the kind of attitude that makes me a bad mark for them in the first place. When I make a reservation at one of the major hotel chains and they try to transfer me to the vacation club sales line, I just think of all the stuff I’ve been reading and wonder how any legitimate business would want to be associated with this stuff. Obviously because it’s quite lucrative I guess, but I’ve got to say my opinion of all these hotel chains has gone down because they’re involved in what seems to be a dirty, dirty sales side of things. If your product’s so bad you have to trick people into buying it, fix your product! That’s what legitimate companies should do. Timeshares sound like a bad marriage where one spouse has all the power, treats the other spouse like an object, and barricades the door, hides the car keys and drains the bank account when the other spouse tries to leave.

I’ve been leaning toward boutique hotels lately anyway, so maybe I’ll start abandoning these chains completely.

I would think your strongest legal argument might be against companies that change rules to make it harder for you to resell. Because having you sign a contract whose only way out is reselling, then doing their best to block you from doing so seems especially disturbing and anticapitalistic, and strikes me as an antitrust or consumer protection issue. I’m not a lawyer, though, so I may be misinterpreting the applicability of those laws. I’d think it’d be worth at least an argument though, because those laws would probably supersede contract law.

And even if you don’t have much leverage in the mindblowingly one-sided timeshare contracts you’ve signed, they’d probably start paying attention if timeshare people banded together and exercised some leverage that sullied the pretty image of their hotel chains or other business interests. Because hotel customers CAN walk away – and take their wallets with them.

If your business adversary’s got ironclad defenses on one front, make your business moves from an angle they’re not expecting and haven’t fortified. You may have more power than you think.

 

[DeniseM]

I didn't know about the parole evidence rule...kinda kills my thoughts of bringing a tape recorder to all owners meetings...makes it pointless...

BTW: I've only bought resale, so only seen the deeds and the governing documents...how many pages are the actual contracts that we sign though? I couldn't picture the time given to sign being significant enough to read the governing documents...do the contracts actually say anything or just to refer to the governing documents?

With our one developer purchase, the governing Docs are bound in a book, the size of a large paperback! Each buyer gets one.

 

[timeos2]

I didn't know about the parole evidence rule...kinda kills my thoughts of bringing a tape recorder to all owners meetings...makes it pointless...

BTW: I've only bought resale, so only seen the deeds and the governing documents...how many pages are the actual contracts that we sign though? I couldn't picture the time given to sign being significant enough to read the governing documents...do the contracts actually say anything or just to refer to the governing documents?

Most developments have sales documents that are at least 400 pages in total length. Many now come on cd but that doesn't make it any easier to read or understand and who, given the sales pressure and time limits, could ever read that tome before actually signing? Yet the law says you are bound by exactly what those terms are and the sellers know it.