Some Good News…And Some Questions

Earlier this month, North Carolina became the first state to regulate self-proclaimed timeshare exit companies. A few of the key provisions are:

Timeshare exit companies may not advise or suggest timeshare owners to cease making payments on their timeshare obligations

Timeshare exit company contracts must provide timeshare owners with a right of rescission

Timeshare exit companies cannot charge timeshare owners for a transfer or exit service that amounts to foreclosure or repossession

Timeshare exit companies are not entitled to a fee for a transfer or exit service if the timeshare owner procures their own transfer or exit

Written evidence of the transfer or exit must be provided and include the method of transfer or termination, along with legal documents

Timeshare exit companies must escrow the fee charged to timeshare owners

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, I can’t help but think this would be unnecessary if there was a legal provision in place that mandated that every…every…timeshare developer have an exit option for every…every…paid in full timeshare interest.

No more hiding behind the “you didn’t purchase it directly from us” excuse. No more telling media outlets that there’s an exit option when depending on the time of day, there’s a ton of exclusions. No more “here’s the number of a reseller” when an owner calls and wants to be released. 

And the exit option has to be either free or a reasonable amount. What’s a reasonable amount?  No more than one year of current maintenance fees. 

Several questions spring to mind about this. 

>Why has this taken so long?  

>Why was one of the leading timeshare law firms working on this with the North Carolina Real Estate Commission and not ARDA-ROC?

>Why hasn’t the North Carolina Real Estate Commission looked into promises made by the timeshare developers at the point of sale as well?  Namely charging consumers upfront for a product/service that will not be available until well after rescission?  

However, it’s Friday. Let’s end the week on a positive note. This is a good thing for timeshare owners.