Have you ever thought that the best path for you is to cancel your timeshare yourself? If so, there are a few things you should consider and prepare for before you try.
First, you will need to consider how you can best accomplish this without hampering your ability to take other paths should you not be successful. Your first option is to contact the timeshare company yourself and see if they will let you out of your obligation. You will need to see if the timeshare company you bought from has an exit program by checking your original contract for a “deed back” or “buy back” clause. A deed back program is designed for you to give your deed back to the timeshare company for a fee. If your contract has a deed back clause, you have the option to give up all ownership rights to the timeshare if you meet their conditions. Most timeshare companies will require your mortgage to be paid in full and for you to be current on all maintenance and club fees to be eligible for their program. Additionally, these programs require you to pay a hefty fee for the right to give back your timeshare. Often these fees equal 3 to 5 years of maintenance fees, which averages between $4,000 to $7,000!
But you must ask yourself, after your past experiences, do you trust the timeshare company? These timeshare companies are massive and very powerful companies selling billions in timeshares annually. They are experts at convincing people to purchase their timeshares, their goal is not letting them out. Many times, people who try to enter these take back programs end up being sold MORE timeshare! Sound familiar? These programs are often just another sales opportunity for your timeshare company. Just like when they hound you to “upgrade” your membership as a resolution to some problem you have with your timeshare. But as you know, this will just be getting you deeper into the problem you are trying to get out of in the first place! This can make it dangerous to contact them for assistance in exiting your timeshare. Timeshare companies have no financial incentive to let you out of your contract and they do nothing that does not serve their financial goals!
Your timeshare company has a financial interest in keeping you as a fee-paying owner. They employ a highly trained staff of salespeople to sell you more timeshare and are very skilled at manipulating your emotions. You may think you are talking to a customer service agent or someone who is there to help, but they are also trained sales people; often earning commissions by keeping you in your ownership or even upgrading you to a better timeshare to “solve” your problems. It is safe to say that speaking or meeting with these representatives can be dangerous, as they will talk you out of exiting and use the situation to even sell you more timeshare.
It is not a fair fight! These are highly trained salespeople who are masters at preying on your emotions. Remember how they used emotional triggers to convince you to buy in the first place? The risk with taking on the timeshare company yourself is that you may inadvertently end up buying more timeshare or just downgrading to a lower package that will still leave you feeling dissatisfied and at a financial disadvantage.
Some owners have found sporadic success using this route. Our advice is to be polite and ask if you may qualify. Then, when the sales tactics start, excuse yourself and give us a call.
If you do not qualify for the resort’s deed-back program, we recommend that you take advantage of our free consultation. Our specialists will help you navigate your sales experience and tell you if there are sufficient misrepresentations and omissions in the experience to afford you “leverage” you can use against your timeshare company to get out. If you have the leverage, you can write letters to your timeshare company demanding cancellation and a refund for violations of consumer statutes or breach of contract.
While this process may work if you know what you are doing, there is a downside, similar to representing yourself in a court of law. Approaching your timeshare company in this manner often requires insider knowledge of both the company and the industry to make progress. Long term, a failed attempt will decrease the likelihood that any professional you hire to accomplish this goal, be it an exit firm or an attorney, will be significantly less likely to be successful. It is unlikely that you will get a second chance, so you will want to do your research and be prepared for when the intimidation tactics are used against you. Being educated and resolute is the only chance at success in this method.
Timeshare companies are experts at blocking their clients from ever getting out of their perpetuity contracts. Their tactics include offering you “financial hardship” paperwork, only to later use that information against you to shoehorn you into an extended mortgage term or by adjusting your payments to meet your self-reported affordability.
To put it a different way, your timeshare company will protect their financial interests at all cost. In some instances, one simple mistake by an individual owner will be used to shut down the exit process and virtually close the door on an amicable release in the future.
Your timeshare company sees you not as a person, but as a legally binding contract that is enforceable in perpetuity and may even be enforceable on your heirs as well. They feel they have no obligation to work with you at all.
If you are determined to take the DIY timeshare cancellation route, make sure you educate yourself, prepare for the intimidation and make sure they do not squeeze you into a new or more timeshare. It is a very difficult route, so we advise that you should first take advantage of our free consultation. We at Centerstone Group are here to support you. You will gain important information that will be helpful on your DIY endeavor. If you want to hear about our proprietary 3-pronged exit strategy, give us a call. We pride ourselves in being a great timeshare exit value through providing customers with the options, pricing, and education to best navigate their exit path. We are here to help. Give us a call at (949) 401-4111.
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