It’s no surprise that I don’t think timeshare is sufficiently regulated. I think the laws, written by the industry, favor the industry.
So, I’ve developed the following ‘Bill of Rights’ for both the prospective owner as well as the owner. It’s important to remember that these are not the law of the land, but what I believe to be important rights.
How will these rights become law and not just my suggestions? Easy! You, the consumer need to start voting with your wallet. If a developer isn’t abiding by these rights, don’t give them your business. If you’ve already given them your business then speak up. Write to me, write to your local law enforcement and contact the media.
As always, I want to hear from you. Anything that shouldn’t be included? Anything that I’ve missed?
The Prospective Timeshare Owners’ Bill Of Rights
The right to receive fair, ethical, respectful and equal treatment without discrimination of ethnicity, race or religion in all matters related to the timeshare, including sales presentations
The right to review any and all documents prior to signing anything
The right to say ‘no’ and have it be accepted during a sales presentation
The right to receive a full disclosure of all fees pertaining to the timeshare as well as a five year history of said fees prior to purchasing
The right to NOT surrender your Drivers’ License, credit card or any other form of identification as part of a sales presentation
The right to fully understand both the rescission period and terms of rescission prior to purchasing
The right to pay whatever price you’re quoted during the sales presentation for the entire duration of your stay at the resort—-there’s no such thing as ‘today’s only price’
The Timeshare Owners’ Bill of Rights
The right to receive fair, ethical, respectful and equal treatment without discrimination of ethnicity, race or religion in all matters related to the timeshare, including sales presentations
The right to have access to what you purchased no more than thirty (30) days from purchase
The right to have any and all monies paid refunded to you no more than fifteen (15) days if you choose to rescind your purchase
The right to be advised in advance if any meeting you’re asked to, invited to and/or gifted to attend is in fact a sales presentation and the fact that attendance is NOT mandatory
The right to receive a sixty (60) day notice of all HOA meetings with proxy and explanation of items to be voted on accordingly
The right to receive minutes of any HOA meeting within thirty (30) days of such meeting and/or within thirty (30) days upon request
The right to have the developments' broker name, license and contact information available upon request
The right to have all members of the HOA board fully disclosed at any time including any ties to the resort or compensation provided for this position
The right to know the current delinquency rate of the Resort/ HOA within thirty (30) day upon request
The right to be able to sell a privately owned timeshare interest without unreasonable restrictions placed by the resort, HOA or its management
The right to be informed at least six (6) months in advance, if the developer or the HOA makes any changes to the ownership structure of the project. This includes liens that may be placed upon it, any legal judgments that may be enforced, any changes in the ownership of the holding company and/or any transfer of deeds, licenses and/or leases
The right to have access to the most recent and updated public offering statement submitted by the developer as well as any amendments to the POS
4 comments:
Josh Parker response to Ahmed Y. Kassoo at the Florida DBPR are in bold
Thank you for contacting the division regarding your concerns. Please note that the division is not authorized to comment on or give its opinion of or approve any articleswritten by any individual which he or she intends to publish in any form including at various websites or in other publications.
I understand.
Since the division does not regulate the operations of real estate brokers, we are not aware of their criteria with regards to offering real estate listing and marketing services. As a courtesy and for information purposes only, we provide the web site information of licensed real estate brokers (LTRBA) who specialize in selling timeshare interests and vacation club membership in Florida. We neither recommend nor endorse a particularbroker.
I understand, but why is nothing done about Diamond sales agents allegedly selling vacation points as an investment, yet the points are worthless the moment the moment the contract is signed should the buyer need to sell. LTRBA members will accept a listing for any major timeshare EXCEPT Diamond Resort, so not only is there no resale value when they are selling the points as an investment, they are the only major timeshare company that can't be listed with an LTRBA. Our Diamond Advocacy Facebook of over 1,100 members is flooded with similar complaints, the BBB has over 1,000 complaints and the AZ AG received over 900 complaints, yet the Florida AG timeshare division sends you to LTRBA. Can you see how frustrating this is? Not only is there no regulation or enforcement, Diamond victims are sent on a wild goose chase.
Please note that it is always safe to employ a licensed real estate broker who are prohibited from collecting advance fee for listing the timeshare for rent or sale, except when permitted by law, and who are strictly regulated by the state.
What does this have to do with Diamond members if the LTRBA members won't list their points? They feel Diamond has restricted the use of points purchased on the secondary market to the point it does not exist; it’s a hamster wheel 1. Lie to sell 2. Force foreclosure (I know of over 30 active duty and retired military and law enforcement alleging they were defrauded by Diamond, Bluegreen and Vacation Village, seven are concerned they are going to lose their Security Clearance, one lost his air unit command 3. Take back the points 4. Resell to the next victim. With so little enforcement or regulation, there is nothing to stop timeshare sales agents from using and abusing the oral representation clause.
If they cannot help the owners, they will let them know upfront and will not waste their time and money to advertise their properties which they know are not marketable. They will not give a false hope unless they are sure they can sell the timeshare. Despite your statement that “resale market is nonexistent”, please note that timeshare interests do sell in the secondary market, however, buyers are selective and only buy those timeshares which they consider to be in high demand at choice locations. Therefore, it is not true that the timeshare resale market is non-existent. If it was, these brokers won’t be able to survive.
One of them told Shielah they survive because they get paid a commission even when the seller ends up with a net loss. We don’t hold that against them, but that’s how they survive.
CONTINUED FROM PERVIOUS COMMENT: An owner is free to select any entity to market his/her timeshare interest or club membership. However, based on the history of complaints we have received, we have learned that many owners have been burned by the individual and entities who take their money and run without providing the promised services based on false and misleading claims.
Exactly, I rest my case. The industry is the cause of the scams because desperate consumers who feel, know they were defrauded, are easy prey for professional liars.
I hope this information was helpful
No, I'm sorry. It was of no help. It is my opinion the reason there is no enforcement and no regulation is because Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is influenced by the timeshare PAC ARDA. I will be researching through FOIA how much money she has received in campaign contributions and other means.
If you have any other question or concern, feel free to contact us at your convenience. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to address your concerns.
Thank you. I would like to speak with you. My wife and I have been defrauded. I am a combat veteran, 90% disabled. My wife is pregnant with twins. We bought this because we were told it was an investment and that the points could be easily sold. I know many other members who would appreciate your help, like Eron, Sheila and Gad mentioned in the article.
How many consumers need to contact DBPR to convince DBPR some timeshare sales agents in Florida are engaging in criminal practices? Irene said Bluegreen has as many complaints as Diamond, but they have their own Advocacy Facebook.
Josh Parker
My husband and I have owned since 1994 and have been through a few ownership changes, (Powhatan Plantation, Sunterra and Diamond Resorts). Over the years we have added to our timeshare hoping to travel more when we retired. Retirement came six years ago and we have traveled as Platinum members of Diamond Resorts. We have had a few problems along the way like in Hawaii they tried to sell us points and we said no. The salesman there was but you would have no issues booking in Hawaii and the points are a great price $3.84 point! We said we last paid $2.85 a point and he said he wished he could buy them for that. I said you want to give us $2.00 a point you can have all 50,000 of them. Needless to say that was the end of him and on to the Sampler. Foolishly we bought the sampler (I think to just get out of there). We used our sampler in CA. and was told there we had to buy more points to protect our children from the liability upon our death. Of course we bought points not to strap our children with Diamond. This was another Lie!!
2017 we went to our usual winter timeshare Daytona Beach Regency. There was a new owner of Diamond and we were told there was many new updates. We wanted to know what was happening with the $200,000.00 we had already invested in the company. Could be more if you count all the fees over the years. That is where we were upsold diamond points. I am trying everything I can just like Josh Parker, Glad, Eron, Richard, and countless others to finally be heard that the timeshare business needs to have regulations, customers should have more rights, like Lisa posted and above all Diamond should have more respect for their owners and not tell them YOU SIGNED THE CONTRACT! It is like a slap in the face when the company believes the sales people over their loyal owners, even when you have proof they lied. You get a runaround from people in power and so far the FBI is the only contact I have had that is positive. Many of us will keep fighting and hoping the system will wake up to what this is doing to all Citizens who just wanted to have vacations! Everyone deserves better than how they have been treated.
DON"T GO TO UPDATES or FALL FOR THEIR GIVE AWAYS, You will pay for it in the end..
Sheilah Brust
PS: I must say this should have no reflection on the resort Manager or his staff, we love our manager at the regency. It is only the sales staff and company.
The premise of this post is that timeshare is not sufficiently regulated. Your solution is to write to you, write to your local law enforcement, or contact the media.
Maybe if you are unhappy with the laws of your state or how a certain industry is regulated, you should write to your state legislator.
Law enforcement can enforce current laws, but not create new ones. The media can embarrass a company, but this is an industry that pretty resilient to embarrassment. And you, well you are telling people to write to you, but what are you doing with the information? Posting a blog.
Why don't you meet with your legislators and the timeshare regulatory agencies (that is not ARDA. I'm talking about the state government)?
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