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Help! problem with time-share condominium

Question: Help. I seem to be caught in a situation from which there is no escape. I’ve talked to everyone I can think of (including my attorney) without success. Perhaps someone reading this group can help.

My wife purchased a Time Share condominium near Tyler, Texas about 10 years ago (I did not know her then). She paid $5500 for this time share (One week of time per year). At the time she purchased the time share the monthly Condominium Fee was $16 per month. For those of you not familiar with time share condominiums, the monthly condominium fee covers maintenance of the buildings and common grounds.

Anyway, she had financed the $5500 price of the time share, which was paid off in full several years ago. But the monthly condominium fee, still due each month, has now risen to $50 per month ($600 per year) and may well be raised again soon.

The problem is, we no longer need or want this time share. We have tried hard to sell it, even give it away, without success. We even offered to turn the deed/title back to the company handling the monthly condo fees, but they refuse to take it back. They also graciously add that if we stop paying the monthly condo fee, they will report this to a credit agency.

So now, I am stuck with paying $600 per year for my wife to maintain her good credit rating. For those of you familiar with time share condos and their trade-out organizations, it still is not worth keeping for us since to trade the time, you must pay a $50 per year membership fee and also pay a $100 fee to trade the time for some other place. This means it would cost $750 per year for one week of time at some other place!

We are now desperate to get out of the $50 per month condo fee, but we don’t want to hurt my wife’s credit rating. It seems strange to me that they can report her for bad credit when she owns the unit free and clear, and that we offered to give them the unit back for free. It’s not like we are trying to default on a loan, since there is no loan as she owns the unit free and clear. I can’t believe that we will be forced to pay $600 per year (and climbing) for the rest of our lives to maintain my wife’s good credit rating!

I talked to our lawyer about this. Since we live in Virginia, and the time share is in Texas, the lawyer said he could not advise us since he was not familiar with the local laws in Texas. So I asked him, “What would you do if we had purchased it in the state of Virginia”? He said he didn’t have the slightest idea how he would get out of the situation!

Our first child is due this month and we sure would like to put that $600 per year towards the child’s education. Does anyone have ANY idea how to get out of this monthly condo fee without hurting my wife’s credit rating?

Please, we already know purchasing the Condo was a bad idea, as we certainly stand to lose the entire $5500 investment. But we don’t care about that, we just want out of the monthly fee!

Thanks for any help.

Answer: (problem with time-share condominium deleted)

please post your response to the net. One of my friend is in similar situation, except he just bought it recently with a downpayment of ~$1500, and the remaining balance payable later. The condominium company refuse to pay back the downpayment, and my friend is considering legal actions.

For those of you in the Ottawa area, this is the Calabogie (sp?) reserve. These guys use high pressure sales tactics to pressure the potential customers into putting up a downpayment of $1000 with your credit card. For investment purposes, you’re looking at ~$6000/week * 52 weeks = $312,000 per condominium and there’s no way that the condominium is worth near that much. So watch out for these typical scams.

Personally I can’t think of any ways my friend can get back his downpayment.

thanks for any advises,

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Filed under: Bad Credit Loan