Vidanta - Resale Purchase Aimfair

[TSTraveller1]

Good day. I am in the process of negotiating a TS resale at Vidanta which is being facilitated by Aimfair. The transaction seems to be legitimate and Aimfair has produced several agreements which set out the process and had me sign Confidentiality Agreements. However, they will not show me the Vidanta contract until I provide the full purchase price to them which they will hold in trust pending completion of the transaction. I am a lawyer myself so you can imagine my concerns over this kind of transaction.

Apparently Vidanta contracts have strict confidentiality provisions and this likely informs the reluctance to release the contract prior to receiving funds however it is difficult for me to undertake such a transaction without seeing, in advance, the contract I'm going to be added to.

The process, because Vidanta does not allow benefits to pass upon assignment, is to add me to the contract, old owner relinquishes interest in the TS and after a year removes themselves. Prior to their removal, funds will have been released.

Aimfair will hold the funds, but are not providing me with an escrow agreement.

So my question is, has anyone actually gone through with this process successfully? It does not feel like a scam, Aimfair has set out all of the terms in a separate agreement along with informing me as to the trade options, but it does appear on the more risky end of the scale.

Thanks in advance.

 

[pittle]

The Aimfair folks (Bob & Mary Anne )are really nice. I met them years ago when at Vidanta. I would trust them.

It is true that many of the benefits do not pass upon assignment. I have been an owner at various levels since 1999. Until we got to the Grand Luxxe level in 2013, with our older contracts, benefits did transfer. But, when we upgraded and gave all our contracts back to Vidanta, the new contract says that only heirs, would receive our extra benefits. But those benefits would tie our son to very long term usage fees before they kicked in. While he could afford my Vidanta weeks, he does not like to go the same place every year and does not want to be associated with any timeshare commitment. He prefers to rent beachfront homes wherever he chooses to go. (When my Buganvilias contract expires next year, I will go wherever he has a bedroom for me at Thanksgiving and take friends with me to Vidanta resorts.)

 

[TSTraveller1]

Evening, I wanted to give you an update with how the above transaction played out.

After going back and forth with Bob (Aimfair) for weeks, the vendors refused to show me the Vidanta contract unless I put up 100% of the sale price which was close to $40K. I proposed to put into escrow the equivalent to a week's MF which was $6500 for the kind of contract I was looking at. I thought a deposit of $6500 would be a fair compromise and to demonstrate that I am serious.

The sellers refused, and essentially told me to take it or leave it--pay the $40K, entirely to Aimfair to see the contract or walk.

With this being a cross border transaction, with currency exchange issues at play, and with funds being provided to a non lawyer to hold in escrow, I felt the risk to be unwarranted.

To be clear, my issue was not with Bob at Aimfair who presented very professional, it was the fact that as part of the process I would have to be on the owners contract for at minimum a year, and have faith that the vendor would remove themselves from the contract with no real way for me to enforce. Since the vendors were being so difficult in negotiations I felt there to be too much risk down the road.

I was quite disappointed as this went on for weeks and I am stuck paying double to rent from existing owners or to do a TS exchange with SFX or II.

Thought this may be helpful for anyone else looking to purchase Vidanta on the resale market to understand why there are not that many available due to the complexity involved.