Losing a family member or cherished friend is among the saddest life experiences. When you are going through this difficult time, the last thing that you need is an inheritance that causes you a legal problem. When your loved one left you a timeshare property, they likely thought they were doing you a favor. But after you’ve considered the annual maintenance fees and all the other costs connected to it, no one could blame you for wanting to refuse the timeshare inheritance and preserve your financial peace.
Whether timeshares are actually considered real estate depends on the situation, but regardless, they are property and will pass to someone when the owner dies. The timeshare may be passed on according to the owner’s last will and testament or based on state laws that say where the deceased person’s property goes. Either way, someone is going to get that timeshare.
You might be reading this article because you’ve been brought into the possibility of timeshare ownership in this unusual way. Or You might be trying to plan your estate and want to figure out how your timeshare will impact your heirs. (In that case, the best solution is a graceful exit before the timeshare is passed on to loved ones to avoid the stress and burden on an unwanted inheritance.)
Whether you (or your heirs) decide to accept or refuse a timeshare inheritance, it’s important that you know the facts and act in a timely manner. In this article, we’ll look at how to refuse an inheritance you don’t want, the financial and legal consequences of refusal, and what happens after you refuse a timeshare inheritance.
First, just because someone left you a timeshare when they passed away doesn’t mean that you have to take the timeshare. To avoid inheriting an unwanted timeshare, you have to disclaim the inheritance, known in some places as “renouncing the will.”
Note that disclaiming an inheritance doesn’t mean that you give up anything and everything you might get from a loved one. It can be narrow. So, for example, if your uncle passed away and left you $50,000 and a timeshare, you could just disclaim the timeshare and take the money.
In most cases, exactly how you disclaim an inheritance will be determined by the state law of the place where your loved one passed away. Generally speaking, however, there are a few steps you will have to take to make sure that you have properly disclaimed the timeshare.
One point of caution about disclaimers: Some people create trusts to hold their property, and the ownership of the trust passes when they do. (Other times, all of your loved one’s property is moved into a “pour-over trust” at the time of their death.) If the timeshare is in a trust, you can’t disclaim the property in the same way as if you just inherited the timeshare directly. In this case, you should consult an attorney and a timeshare exit specialist about your legal options.
Before you do anything, you must make sure that you know what the law requires after the timeshare owner’s death. Both the probate process and the rules for disclaimer of interest can vary greatly between the states.
For example, if your loved one passed away in California, the rules you must follow will likely be contained in the California Probate Code. If they were in New York, the law you should look at will be Chapter 17-B of the Consolidated Laws of New York. In Florida, Chapter 732 of the Florida Statutes will control the process.
The laws will also provide a timeframe for you to act to refuse the inheritance. Most states will allow you nine months from the time of your loved one’s passing. Though again, there are exceptions.
Upon looking at these laws, you might notice that they can be a bit tough to follow. Getting an attorney who is familiar with those laws can give you legal advice about the right rules to use to refuse timeshare inheritance.
If you’re planning your estate, passing along the burden of these laws — not to mention the expense of the timeshare — to your loved ones is likely not what you intended. The better option is to exit your timeshare ahead of time as a way of making it easier on your family and loved ones when they inherit your estate.
In most states, you or your lawyer will have to write a document called a “disclaimer of inheritance” and deliver that to the administrator or executor of the estate. The administrator is the person responsible for making sure that your loved one’s estate — their property — gets where it needs to be.
When making the disclaimer, you need to be as specific as possible about what inheritance you are disclaiming. In the case of a timeshare, that means describing the exact legal interest you are being given; if there is a recorded deed, include that information too. Make sure to say that the disclaimer is irrevocable — that is, you can’t take it back. You may also need to make sure that the disclaimer is notarized.
The law of the state might also require that you file your disclaimer with a probate court or other government office, like a county recorder. It’s important to know if this is required. If it is, your disclaimer will not work until it is properly filed. Also keep in mind that this process can be quite expensive, with recording, court, and perhaps even legal fees.
Once you have properly refused your timeshare inheritance, don’t make the mistake of getting too involved with the timeshare company. If they try to contact you about the timeshare, you can politely tell them you disclaimed the inheritance. If there is a public record or filed document showing your disclaimer, send it to them.
In most cases, the timeshare company will not want to take “no” for an answer. They often try to bully heirs into assuming the timeshare ownership of a deceased loved one, misrepresenting the law and acting as though the heirs do not have a choice. In this case, you have to resist the high-pressure tactics and refuse to sign any paperwork obligating you to further payments.
Under no circumstances should you keep speaking with the company or sign anything related to any timeshare contracts. Once you have disclaimed a would-be inherited timeshare, you have no legal relationship with the timeshare company, and any encouragement you give them will likely only lead to harassment as they try to pressure you to sign a contract with them.
Of course, there are consequences to refusing to inherit anything. The most obvious legal consequence of refusing a timeshare inheritance is that you will not own the property that you have disclaimed and that property will go to someone else. That disclaimer is irrevocable, so you can’t change your mind once you have done it.
The most obvious financial consequence of refusing a timeshare, though, is that you won’t have to pay the large variety of fees and assessments that come with timeshare ownership.
As we stated above, disclaiming or renouncing one part of your inheritance does not mean that you can’t have the rest of your inheritance. You only need to make sure that your disclaimer isn’t so broad that it ends up costing you more than the timeshare you don’t want.
One big part of disclaiming an inheritance is what will happen to it once you reject it. In many cases, the will might provide the answer. For example, your uncle might state that if you cannot inherit the timeshare, he wants your sister to have it.
If the will doesn’t say what happens when you refuse to inherit a timeshare, then state law almost always applies something called the rules of intestacy. These can be complex, but the basic idea is that the closest relatives to the person will inherit something first. If those people do not exist (or if they disclaim their inheritance), the law moves to the next person.
So, assuming your uncle left you a timeshare and you disclaim it, the law would likely see if your uncle was married. If he was, then his spouse would get the timeshare. If he was not, then his children would get it. If he had no children, then his siblings.
The intestacy process would then continue throughout your uncle’s extended family. Then, each person down the line would have to disclaim the timeshare separately. The hardship and considerable expense of that disclaimer would only grow with each heir. (In the face of this hard reality, timeshare owners should consider exiting their timeshare before passing so they do not burden their loved ones with costly timeshare problems.)
If no one is available to inherit the timeshare, it would then most likely escheat to the state. (This means that, as unclaimed property, it would then go to the state government.) Once there, the government would likely auction the property to the highest bidder, much like a foreclosure auction.
The process to refuse a timeshare inheritance, though it requires strict compliance, is not that complicated. But once you have inherited a timeshare, things become harder and much more expensive. Timeshare developers depend on getting a steady stream of fees from timeshare owners, and once your name is on the timeshare, they won’t want to let you go.
The only viable option at that point is to partner with a timeshare exit company like Centerstone Group for a timeshare transfer. As the top exit company, we have decades of experience in both exit procedures and the timeshare industry in general.
Centerstone Group is an A+-rated, accredited company with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). We also have a 4.77-out-of-5-star customer satisfaction rating from our clients. If you have inherited a timeshare and don’t know the next step, contact us today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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