"Timeshare Transparency Act" new proposed bill

[SOU11]

I think that is the only effect. Everything else is easily circumvented.

The section supposedly protecting purchasers against MF increases --Section 2(a)(1)(B) -- is toothless. It compels the "timeshare company" (as defined, intended to be the developer) to disclose any "ongoing fees" (i.e. MF's) that it controls and could increase. But developers do not have the power to increase MF's; the HOA does.

I understand the ongoing interrelationship between the developer, the HOA (whose members are too often determined by the developer), and the various trusts controlled by the developer that control an increasing number of HOA's. But that is just fodder for litigation or FTC rulemaking which is tedious and Byzantine.

The reliance on trusts is superficial. Trustees should be forbidden from being employees of the developer.

After 44 years, Southcape Resort in Mashpee, MA has closed. On 2 December 2025 trustees proposed to wind up affairs ahead of the May 2027 date. The owners association was insolvent. On 2 June, trustees had given all association assets to Brewtown Living LLC and also all of the timeshare intervals owned by the developer. Then the trustees proposed to sell and LaTour Hotels offered to buy the resort for $5.2 million. Some owners accepted and the 950 intervals owned by Brewtown Living accepted on 2 December. The telephone of the resort has been disconnected. The Festiva devoper is the successor.

 

[TUGBrian]

our latest video upload covers this topic for us

 

[pedro47]

There are no Senators from California, South Carolina, Florida and Virginia ? Why ?Concerning, how many timeshare resorts are in these four (4) states.

 

[dioxide45]

There are no Senators from California, South Carolina, Florida and Virginia ? Why ?Concerning, how many timeshare resorts are in these four (4) states.

Senate bills are brought in front of Senate committees for review. Thie bill is being brought to the Senate Committee for Commerce, Science and Transportation. This committee does a lot more than just review timeshare bills. Senate rules limit the number of committees any sitting senator can sit on. Senators opt to sit on committees where they think they have expertise. Higher ranking senators also get higher consideration for comitees. When this committee was established and members selected, this bill wasn't even a considerat.

 

[pedro47]

Dioxide45, I understand how senior Senators can cherry pick their committee's assignments . It is all about Power and Money.

 

[schreff]

Of course, power and money go together like bread and butter but remember the mouse that roared. At some point, the timeshare industry will have a day of reckoning. Timeshare written contracts are one-sided only and contain things that sales are told are taboo to discuss like maintenance fees, etc. etc. Is this fair to the buyer? Is there any true disclosure putting aside full disclosure? My wife and I have attended hundreds of " owner's updates " but never had a true update just more pressure sales tactics built on a basis of pure lies and fiction. I can guarantee you that if all the facts needed for a buyer to make a prudent decision were disclosed by sales the timeshare industry wouuld be on a rollercoaster ride to extinction.

 

[jp10558]

Of course, power and money go together like bread and butter but remember the mouse that roared. At some point, the timeshare industry will have a day of reckoning. Timeshare written contracts are one-sided only and contain things that sales are told are taboo to discuss like maintenance fees, etc. etc. Is this fair to the buyer? Is there any true disclosure putting aside full disclosure? My wife and I have attended hundreds of " owner's updates " but never had a true update just more pressure sales tactics built on a basis of pure lies and fiction. I can guarantee you that if all the facts needed for a buyer to make a prudent decision were disclosed by sales the timeshare industry wouuld be on a rollercoaster ride to extinction.

I think it's unlikely there's a reckoning coming - it's been due for what, 50 years? That "extinction" also requires that the industry does not or can not adapt, and as I've said before, I think there are more and less drastic adaptions possible, but they're not going to change till forced to. And clearly the market isn't forcing them to. I don't believe we'll see legislation either - it's not something that will help people get re-elected.

It seems to me the bigger issue is the greed of the major systems raising MF at an unsustainable rate, mixed potentially with the real cost increases for HOAs. That's what's going to cause the rollercoaster ride IMHO. In reality this is a wider economic issue - until the headwinds resolve and IMO wages get another bump or costs come down across the economy, people are just forced to stop spending and potentially start defaulting on debt. And as we see TS are pretty easy for most people to walk away from.

 

[dioxide45]

Of course, power and money go together like bread and butter but remember the mouse that roared. At some point, the timeshare industry will have a day of reckoning. Timeshare written contracts are one-sided only and contain things that sales are told are taboo to discuss like maintenance fees, etc. etc. Is this fair to the buyer? Is there any true disclosure putting aside full disclosure? My wife and I have attended hundreds of " owner's updates " but never had a true update just more pressure sales tactics built on a basis of pure lies and fiction. I can guarantee you that if all the facts needed for a buyer to make a prudent decision were disclosed by sales the timeshare industry wouuld be on a rollercoaster ride to extinction.

Disclosures aren't going to fix the industries problems. Nothing in the legislation defines the actions of the salesperson. Just more paperwork for the industry that will be burried in one sided contracts that are 50 pages long. The world is filled with small print and disclosures that very few people actually ever read. That won't change with this legislation. The best things to potentially come out of this legislation would be a 14-day rescission period. Outside of that, the industry has ways to work around the other provisions of the bill. If people think this bill is some kind of savior for the consumer, they better think again. It isn't.

 

[schreff]

Disclosures aren't going to fix the industries problems. Nothing in the legislation defines the actions of the salesperson. Just more paperwork for the industry that will be burried in one sided contracts that are 50 pages long. The world is filled with small print and disclosures that very few people actually ever read. That won't change with this legislation. The best things to potentially come out of this legislation would be a 14-day rescission period. Outside of that, the industry has ways to work around the other provisions of the bill. If people think this bill is some kind of savior for the consumer, they better think again. It isn't.

Yes, full disclosures will not fix the problem but full factual disclosure the are written in big bold print and are required to be told by sales would stop many many folks from buying timeshares to begin with. How many would buy if timeshare companies were forced to tell the truth and have their sales staff do the same??? I wouldn't buy and most intelligent people wouldn't either. One bill will not fix the problem but it is better than no bill and could be the beginning of a new awareness of how slimy the timeshare industry is.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Disclosures aren't going to fix the industries problems. Nothing in the legislation defines the actions of the salesperson. Just more paperwork for the industry that will be burried in one sided contracts that are 50 pages long. The world is filled with small print and disclosures that very few people actually ever read. That won't change with this legislation. The best things to potentially come out of this legislation would be a 14-day rescission period. Outside of that, the industry has ways to work around the other provisions of the bill. If people think this bill is some kind of savior for the consumer, they better think again. It isn't.

The legislation itself isn't as important as the rules that the FTC will publish - the legislation rarely provides specific rules in other words - it provides broad strokes that the FTC uses as a guide to publish rules for the impacted industry vertical. That's what matters, so even if the act passes, until the rules are published, we won't know whether anything has "teeth" or not. This approach is by design to account for the fact that industries are more nimble when it comes to working around legislation itself - so publishing rules within legislation is frowned upon really - it's the rules that matter - and the rules can be updated by the FTC if/when needed to adjust to workarounds and loopholes the industry players come up with over time.

 

[geist1223]

Even if the Act passes I do not see the FTC publishing any Rules that benefit the little guy vs Corporate America for at least 3 to 4 years.

 

[easyrider]

New laws imposed upon an industry like the timeshare industry make it easier for the larger well run systems to buy out the smaller systems, imo. The costs of compliance favor the larger systems. The trend is the larger timeshare systems are taking over the decent smaller timeshares with the larger systems already owning over 70% of the market. Unfortunately, not all timeshares are worth consolidating into a larger system. Those not worth consolidating will go out of business, imo.

Bill

 

[dioxide45]

Even if the Act passes I do not see the FTC publishing any Rules that benefit the little guy vs Corporate America for at least 3 to 4 years.

The regulations will be key, but those will only come after litigation challenging the law in the first place. I am sure ARDA and the industry will argue that the FTC lacks authority to regulate intrastate commerce. Which is what real estate generally is. ARDA has already indicated such in their statement about the act.

However, the above might be true of traditional deeded timeshares at a resort but I think this might be where the points trusts all these companies came up with to extract more money from the system will come back to bite them. Companies like Marriott, Hilton and Wyndham now regularly sell their deeded products across state lines. You can buy Marriott trust points that are deeded in Florida in any sales office they have in any other state. They've created an interstate product that could potentially fall under FTC regulation. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out, but the bill has a high hill to climb. It is only in Senate committee. It still needs to pass committee vote to be sent to the full Senate and even if passed there is no guaranty it would even be considered by the House.

 

[schreff]

The best avenue is for timeshare owners to lobby their state's legislators and regulators to propose tough requirements on the timeshare companies. In our experience over the past 20 plus years, the industry in general and Wyndham in particular has gone beyond the pall of reason. Anyone that tells me that they have read the entire contract after a 5 hour salesperson's smackdown of lies is not being truthful. Many are on vacation, so there isn't time or motivation for them to review the fine print let alone getting their legal representative to within the present recession period. Utopia for timeshare purchasers would be a requirement to have an attorney sign off on their purchase after reading the contract and a requirement that the purchaser fully understanding that verbal contracts do not exist in Wyndham world. If so, no one in their right mind would be buying from any timeshare company.

 

[geist1223]

If I remember correctly 10+ years ago the AG for Arizona went after DRI. The Settlement protected/applied to all Arizona Residents no matter where they bought their DRI interest and to all transactions/sales in Arizona no matter where the individual/purchaser resided.

 

[dioxide45]

If I remember correctly 10+ years ago the AG for Arizona went after DRI. The Settlement protected/applied to all Arizona Residents no matter where they bought their DRI interest and to all transactions/sales in Arizona no matter where the individual/purchaser resided.

I believe that is correct. If you resided in Arizona or the property was in Arizona. Those people were able to take advantage of the Transitions program for only $250 vs the normal $1000 to exit. Does Hilton Grand Vacations still honor that?

 

[TUGBrian]

they do if you bought in the timeframe that was specified in the settlement, so noone whos bought in the last 5 or 10 years would likely qualify.

that said, perhaps if you made a big enough stink about it they would honor it for you!