It looks as if Florida HB 435 will not pass as was proposed, which is a good thing in my opinion.
The bill covered many topics and many of them had to do with the so-called timeshare exit companies which have become a very lucrative business. By one estimate, one of these companies grossed over $50 million last year. That represents a lot of people who want out of their timeshare.
The industry doesn’t seem to grasp the reason these companies exist to begin with, choosing instead to focus on the harm these companies are doing to the resorts, management companies and some gullible consumers. I will admit that there is some harm being done. However, by continuing to sell and upsell contracts in perpetuity and not providing viable exit strategies themselves, this is in my opinion a problem that could have been avoided in the first place. Don’t get me started on how these exit companies obtain massive owner lists to begin with.
Mr. Ken McKelvey, who leads ARDA ROC, made the following statement: “most of the developers I know and certainly most of the timeshare managers I know, and I managed timeshare properties for thirty years… every single resort had a dissolution policy, every single (one). There was a way to get out. You had to come to your management company, and based on what the board of directors instructed us (the management company) to do in the terms if they had to pay a fee or if they had to be current, whatever those situations were, we did not have a one that did not have a dissolution policy and a hardship policy….”
If this is in fact true, my question is very simple:
Why do so many exit companies exist?
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